November Bach at Noon

About this event

Our Bethlehem Bach at Noon season continues on November 10th at Central Moravian Church. Gather with us for this free , inspiring concert series, a musical gift to our community. The November Bach at Noon concert was named in honor of Greg Funfgeld in celebration of his 25th season as the sixth conductor of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, his extraordinary vision, including the initiation of Bach at Noon, and the phenomenal growth and development of the Choir’s program and artistry under his leadership. The concert is named and supported in part by a generous endowment gift from Donald and Christine Wertman.

November’s Bach at Noon pairs Corelli’s “Christmas Concerto,” an early taste of the holiday season, with Bach’s Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot , BWV 39 (“Share your bread with the hungry”). With Thanksgiving approaching, the cantata’s call to feed the hungry and care for our neighbors feels especially timely. Members of the Bach Festival Orchestra join soprano Sophia Santiago, alto Lauren Kelly, tenor Christopher Hodson, and bass Jonathan Woody for the program.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE DIGITAL PROGRAM

SOLOISTS

SOPHIA SANTIAGO, soprano , has performed as a soloist across the New York metropolitan area. She studied with Faith Esham at Westminster Choir College; performing Mozart opera roles Pamina from die Zauberflöte and Susanna from Le nozze di Figaro . Her Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance was completed at Manhattan School of Music with Shirley Close where she specialized in early and contemporary music. Santiago won first place at the Spazio e Musica competition in 2022 and performed a concert series across Italy with early music ensemble I Musicalli Affetti. She was a New York District winner in the Laffont competition of 2022 and studied at the 2023 American Bach Soloist Academy. In 2024, she sang in the Hugo Wolf Akademie Liedduo Competition in Stuttgart, Germany. Santiago was the soprano soloist in Caldara’s Missa dolorosa with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia with which she also performed as Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in 2025. Recent engagements in 2026 include her solo debut with Opera Philadelphia as a Godmother in the world premiere of Sleeper’s Awake by Gregory Spears. Other endeavors this year include a solo appearance with VAE in Cincinnati, Ohio, in Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri and performing Bach’s Jauchzet in allen landen with the West Jersey Chamber Ensemble.

LAUREN KELLY is an American mezzo-soprano celebrated for her expressive, stylistically grounded singing in Baroque and contemporary repertoire. A passionate interpreter of Bach, she has recently been a finalist in the National American Oratorio Competition and served as mezzo soloist in major works including the Christmas Oratorio , Easter Oratorio , and St. Matthew Passion . She is equally at home in new music, recently taking on the title role in Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Penelope with the Portland Bach Experience, a landmark 60-minute mezzo song cycle reimagining Homer’s Odyssey through the eyes of its women, and making her Carnegie Hall solo debut in Gabriela Ortiz’s Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness . This season, she appears as mezzo soloist in an upcoming performance of BWV 78 with the Philadelphia Bach Collective and in Handel’s Messiah with Ensemble Altera. A dedicated ensemble singer, Kelly is a member of Lorelei Ensemble, Variant 6, and the GRAMMY award–winning choir The Crossing. She also performs regularly with Montana’s Roots in the Sky, fulfilling her dream of singing Baroque and contemporary music in the mountains. She holds a BM in Voice Performance from Westminster Choir College and an MM in Voice and Opera from Northwestern University. When she’s not singing, she’s likely hiking a mountain trail with her husband and rescue dog, or chasing down her next rollercoaster credit.

CHRISTOPHER HODSON, tenor , is an established artist currently based in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. Most recently he originated the role of Doyle in the world premiere of A Capacity for Evil in Detroit, Michigan. Previous operatic roles include Peter Quint ( The Turn of the Screw ), Don Ottavio ( Don Giovanni ), Belmonte ( Die Entführung aus dem Serail ), Nemorino ( l’Elisir d’Amore ), and Pelléas ( Pelléas et Mélisande ). In 2018, Hodson debuted his first album with the New Jersey Chamber Singers and Orchestra in their performance of Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Cantata 80 (Naxos). While actively performing, Hodson maintains a regular teaching schedule at Fairleigh Dickinson University and has recently started working with the wonderful singers of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem. He holds a MM in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College where he studied voice with Dr. Christopher Arneson. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Music from Western Michigan University.

JONATHAN WOODY, bass-baritone , is a sought-after performer of early and new music in New York and across North America. He has been featured with historically informed orchestras such as Apollo’s Fire, Boston Early Music Festival, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Bach Collegium San Diego, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and New York Baroque Incorporated, earning praise as “charismatic,” “riveting,” and “wonderfully dramatic.” Woody is also committed to ensemble singing at the highest level and has performed with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, TENET, the Clarion Music Society, and New York Polyphony, among others. An avid performer of new music, Jonathan has premiered works including Ellen Reid’s p r i s m (2019 Pulitzer Prize winner), Ted Hearne’s The Source , Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves (New York City premiere), and Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone (2017 Pulitzer Prize winner). He has appeared with Staunton Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Portland Bach Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Opera Lafayette, Gotham Chamber Opera, and Beth Morrison Projects. Woody has recorded with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street (Musica Omnia), Boston Early Music Festival (RadioBremen), and New York Polyphony (BIS Records). His musical pursuits extend beyond his voice, and he has been commissioned as a composer for groups including Lorelei Ensemble, the Handel & Haydn Society, and the Uncommon Music Festival. Currently based in Brooklyn, New York, Woody holds degrees from McGill University and the University of Maryland, College Park, and is represented by Miguel Rodriguez of Athlone Artists.

ELIZABETH FIELD, violin , distinguished for her passionate and stylistic playing on both period and modern instruments, is the founder of The Vivaldi Project whose highly acclaimed recordings of unknown 18th-century string trios titled Discovering the Classical String Trio are currently available on MSR Classics records. Field has been concertmaster of Bach Festival Orchestra for over 20 years and has performed as guest concertmaster with a wide variety of ensembles throughout the U.S., from Washington, D.C.’s acclaimed Washington Bach Consort to Opera Lafayette. She also performed and recorded extensively with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Field holds a Doctorate in Historical Performance Practice from Cornell University and has held professorships at Sacramento State University and the University of California at Davis. She is currently on faculty at George Washington University. Her DVD with fortepianist Malcolm Bilson, Performing the Score , has been hailed by Emanuel Ax as both “truly inspiring” and “authoritative.” Seen and Heard International proclaimed that Field “played so thrillingly that if Mendelssohn had heard Field play he would have written her a concerto too.” For more information, please visit thevivaldiproject.org

LINDA KISTLER, violin , maintains a busy concert schedule playing both modern and Baroque violin. She has appeared as soloist and concertmaster with the Bach Festival Orchestra and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra. In addition, she is a member of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra and the Vox Amadeus Ensemble of Philadelphia. Kistler has performed solo recitals at Moravian University and at the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Musikfest. Her chamber music engagements have included the Moravian String Quartet and guest appearances with the Gabriel Ensemble of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania; Mélomanie of Wilmington, Delaware; and La Fiocco of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. As a teacher, she has served on the faculties of Lehigh University, Cedar Crest College, Kutztown University, and the Lehigh Valley Charter School for the Performing Arts. She currently maintains a private studio, is an artist-lecturer at Moravian University, and teaches violin and viola at Lafayette College and Allentown’s Community Music School. Kistler was trained at the Oberlin College Conservatory (BM) and at the Juilliard School (MM).

LORETTA O’SULLIVAN, cello, praised by the New York Times as “an agile, eloquent player,” has played with many of this country’s leading ensembles and orchestras. On period instruments, these include the Four Nations Ensemble, Opera Lafayette, Aston Magna, Artek, the Haydn Baryton Trio, the Classical Quartet, the Genzinger Quartet, and the American Classical Orchestra. She is principal cellist of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem and has performed extensively with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. In concerts and recordings, she has given memorable performances of Bach, Biber, and Britten for solo cello; concertos of Vivaldi, Porpora, and Fiorenza; obbligato cello arias of J.S. Bach, Caldara, and Handel; and a wide range of chamber music. She recorded the complete Op. 5 sonatas of Francesco Geminiani, with the Four Nations Ensemble, for Orchid Classics. As principal cellist of Opera Lafayette, she has performed at Versailles, the Kennedy Center, and the Rose Theater and has recorded for Naxos. In 2025, the opera company performed and recorded the world premiere of Morgiane, ou Le Sultan d’Ispahan by Edmond Dédé. As principal cellist with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and featured artist in 2023, O’Sullivan played the C.P.E. Bach cello concerto in a minor, the Vivaldi concerto for two cellos, and Sarah Quartel’s Snow Angel for solo cello and children’s choir. On tour with the Bach Choir, she performed at the Leipzig Bach Festival. In 2024, she performed a set of movements of Bach and Britten solo cello suites, showing Bach’s influence on the great British composer. As part of A Musical Heart program, O’Sullivan plays for hospice patients at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She has set music to the poetry of Francine Ringold and Marilyn Miller and to videos of artist Kathleen MacKenzie.

NOBUO KITAGAWA, oboe Nobuo Kitagawa is an oboist and educator. A graduate of the Tokyo University of the Arts, he holds a Master of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Yale University. He is a recipient of the Woolsey Hall Competition, the NHK Young Artists’ Audition, and the Katz Young Musicians’ Competition, which sponsored his New York debut recital. As a performer, Kitagawa has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Denver Symphony, Yale Philharmonia, and Orchestra New England. He serves as Principal Oboe of

the Pennsylvania Sinfonia. His Broadway credits include The Phantom of the Opera , Beauty and the Beas t, and Miss Saigon , and he served for two years as Principal Oboe on the national tour of The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber . His recordings are released on Koch International, Delos, and New World Records. In addition to his performing career, Kitagawa is an editor of Baroque music, preparing modern performing editions. His projects include oboe concertos and an orchestral suite by Telemann, as well as a premiere of Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D Minor with the Valley Vivaldi series. He is the founder of NK Music Lab, a YouTube channel featuring over 900 instructional videos for woodwind, brass, and string players, offered in both English and Japanese. Accompanying the channel is the NK Music Lab online store (nkmusiclab.com), which offers sheet music and audio accompaniment tracks. Kitagawa holds faculty positions at Lafayette College and Muhlenberg College, where he teaches studio oboe, chamber music, and music theory. He also serves on the faculty of the Kinhaven Adult Chamber Music Workshop in Vermont.

TRICIA van OERS, recorder , graduated with high honors in 1998 from the Conservatory of her native city Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with a Teacher’s and Performer’s Degree. She did graduate work at Indiana University’s Early Music Institute, where she received a Performer Diploma with high achievement in Early Music Performance. She then worked making and testing recorders at the world-renowned Von Huene Workshop in Boston. Her activities have included performances with Trinity Wall Street, New York Early Music (Fred Renz, dir.), Four Nations Ensemble, Ars Antiqua, Emmanuel Music (Boston), Cantata Singers (Boston), Concert Royal (NYC), Yale Schola Cantorum, and the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia. She has performed as a guest soloist with Tempesta di Mare, Musica Sacra, the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, Amor Artis, and the Bethlehem Bach Festival Orchestra, where she was Artist-in-Residence during the 2017 annual Bethlehem Bach Festival. As a founding member of the Rotterdam-based recorder ensemble Scarabee, she recorded at the Great Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, France. Van Oers is a professional gardener, privately teaches recorder, and occasionally coaches at workshops and recorder societies in the Northeast.

Click the above logo to livestream this month’s Bach at Noon on YouTube.

Bach at Noon concerts are also broadcast live on WWFM , a long-time media sponsor. This year’s broadcasts are made possible by the generous support of John L. and the late Carol H. Daniel and Arthur Mead Martin. Listen in live at WWFM.org or tune in to a station in your area.

Bach at Noon concerts are also broadcast twice per month on WDIY , the Bach Choir’s community partner in the Lehigh Valley. Concerts air on an episode of WDIY Classics, weekdays at 10 AM, and Hearing Voices, Sundays at 7 PM. Check WDIY’s website and social media pages for air dates. Listen on 88.1 FM, wdiy.org , or the WDIY app.

Support the Bach at Noon Concert Series!

Support the Bach at Noon concert series with a freewill donation at the concert using the provided envelopes, donate online , or text BNOON to 44-321. Contributions can also be mailed to The Bach Choir of Bethlehem at 440 Heckewelder Place, Bethlehem, PA 18018.