The Bach at the Sem concert series presents pianist Mieko Hironaka and the American Kantorei on Sunday, April 14, in a festive celebration for the Easter season. The 7:30 p.m. performance will be given in The Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus on the Concordia Seminary campus at 801 DeMun Avenue in Clayton. The public is cordially invited to share in this exuberant musical fare. A voluntary collection will be taken at the door to help underwrite the concert series.
Pianist Hironaka will perform the “Concerto in C Minor” by C. P. E. Bach, accompanied by the American Kantorei Chamber Orchestra. Also presented in the concert will be Heilig (Holy Is God) by C. P. E. Bach for choir and orchestra, and Cantata BWV 88, Ich will viel Fischer Aussenden (“I Will Send Out Many Fisher Persons) by J. S. Bach. The season finale will be the chorus Fallt mit Danke, fallt mit Loben (Fall Down on your knees…) from J. S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, for choir and orchestra.
Mieko Hironaka is a 1986 graduate of the Toho Academy of Music (Tokyo, Japan). Hironaka continued her studies in Paris at the Conservatoire National de Rueil-Malmaison and the Conservatoire Superieur de Paris where she was awarded the prize of virtuosity and the premierprix. Ms. Hironaka has received numerous prizes, including the first prize at the Claude Kahn Piano Competition, 1988; the M. Ravel Medal at the Academie Internationale in voice accompaniment, 1990; and the prize from the France Lions Club, 1993.
Mieko Hironaka’s numerous performances include a March1998 guest appearance in the Bach at the Sem concert series, performing J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto V. Ms. Hironaka won first place in the Artist Presentation Society of St. Louis and performed her St. Louis Solo Debut Recital, April 11, 1999. In March 2001, Ms. Hironaka performed the Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Opus 44 by Robert Schumann, with the Arianna String Quartet in St. Louis and Bloomington, Illinois concerts. In the same year she performed the Concerto in A Major by W.A. Mozart with the Kirkwood Symphony Orchestra.
The American Kantorei is a choral and orchestral ensemble dedicated to the performance of church music from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Neoclassical Periods. The works of J. S. Bach form the core of its repertoire. Conductor and Music Director Robert Bergt is known as an international Bach scholar, especially in understanding the centrality of the German chorale to the all of Bach’s musical compositions.
Bach at the Sem is funded through the generosity of individual supporters. Visit the Bach at the Sem web site at or call 314-505-7374 to learn more about the concert series.