Bach Festival 2017 Union Station
Art in Los Angeles / Downtown / Downtown Los Angeles

Celebrating Bach’s Birthday at Union Station with recorders and a digital organ

by carollightwood
olancha trio at bachs birthday
The Olancha Trio performed in the north courtyard outside Union Station.

Saturday was Bach’s 332nd birthday and to celebrate it musicians performed Bach’s greatest hits in subway stations around the world from Budapest to Singapore to Los Angeles’s Union Station.

Here in L.A, the celebration was a 10 hour marathon and I spent three hours taking in Bach performed using recorders and a digital organ.

Originally posted in 2017.

audience at olancha trio
It wasn’t until I looked at these photos at home that I realized the woman in the hat was smiling for my camera…instead of listening to the Olancha Trio.
Bach birthday audience at Union Station
The large audience for the Los Angeles Recorder Orchestra concert included this man seated and asleep in the pale blue recliner! He did not seem to have anyone with him. And on the right is a man wearing the cone-shaped Bach birthday party hat.
bass recorder players at Union Station
Two bass recorder players in the Los Angeles Recorder Orchestra. They played the Brandenburg Concerto among other Bach favorites.
los angeles recorder orchestra
The Los Angeles Recorder Orchestra. Why are these wooden flutes called “recorders”? Because they were first developed to allow the player to imitate–and call–wild birds!
union station ticket hall
Birthday balloons for Bach! Love it! This is the enormous and now unused ticketing hall in Union Station. The ticket windows are on the right. Back in the 1940s and ’50s, this huge room would have been crowded with rail passengers. Now it serves as a concert hall which I think is an excellent use of this space!
ceiling in Union Station ticketing hall
I love the architecture of Union Station and had never before noticed the painted ceilings, a common feature of Spanish Revival architecture. I noticed this as I was listening to the organ concert in the massive ticketing hall.
Allen digital organ bach birthday
This digital organ “sampled’ from one of Germany’s historic Arp Schnitger pipe organs once played by Bach. I’ve played a pipe organ before and the sound of this digital one was outstanding! Takes up less space, too.

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