Emmanuel Music

Since 1970, the Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music have offered Bach cantatas during our Sunday services, from mid-September through mid-May. The placement of the cantata after the distribution of communion provides the congregation an extended time of meditation for integration of the elements of the service, so that we are better prepared to be of service in the wider world during the coming week.

We gather in our sanctuary once again, beginning our 50th season of the Bach Cantata Series. Each Sunday the Orchestra and Chorus of Emmanuel Music present sacred music in the liturgical setting for which it was intended, for the purpose of glorifying God and tuning our ears to better love one another. The shape of our worship service has been compared to a labyrinth, where communion, or Eucharist (which means thanksgiving), is at the center. The path into the center and the path back out is guided by scripture, prayers, and meditations, through speech, music, and silence.

In the fall of 2021, we celebrated Ryan Turner’s completion of 10 years as Music Director of Emmanuel Church and Artistic Director of Emmanuel Music. If you would like to join us in recognizing Ryan’s many contributions, please consider making a donation to the Artistic Innovation & Commissioning Fund, which we are building to support his artistic leadership. For more information contact Heath Marlow, Director of Development:  Heath@emmanuelmusic.org.

  • Please check Emmanuel Music’s schedule of this season’s musical offerings with translations by Pamela Dellal and notes by our music directors.
  • Check out Bach for You, which introduces their offerings of Musical Sanctuary and Musical Conversations.
  • Listen to Bach Christmas Cantatas directed by Emmanuel Music’s founder, Craig Smith.
  • See also

In the video below, listen to conductor Simon Halsey’s 2011 interview with renowned director Peter Sellars, who staged several Mozart operas with Emmanuel Music in the 1980s. Starting just after the one-minute mark, he describes our unique ministry of Bach cantatas offered in the same building that houses a women’s shelter, a suicide-prevention center, more than a dozen 12-step programs, and other programs for people living in the margins of society. Sellars is speaking of his own introduction to Bach at Emmanuel Church, but his description of the communities served by Emmanuel – and the ways Bach’s music reflects the challenges of life – has been true since the church’s founding in 1860.