Oregon Bach Festival

The activities of the festival are concentrated at Eugene's Hult Center for the Performing Arts and at the University of Oregon's School of Music & Dance, primarily at Beall Hall.

The festival was founded in 1970 by German conductor Helmuth Rilling and the former president of the American Choral Directors Association, Royce Saltzman, as an informal series of classes and concerts at the University of Oregon.

[2] Bach, however, remains a centerpiece of the festival via Helmuth Rilling's conducting master class, which leads students through Cantatas, Masses, Passions, and other such choral works.

The festival also hosts "cross-over" or popular acts like Garrison Keillor, Savion Glover and Pink Martini.. Royce Saltzman retired in 2006 and was replaced as Executive Director by John Evans, a former BBC producer and published Benjamin Britten scholar.

The 2010 festival, billed as a 40th-anniversary gala year (the 41st),[7][8] included appearances by Thomas Quasthoff, Pink Martini, Bobby McFerrin, Robert Levin and Ya-Fei Chuang, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra.