Bach, the Universe and Everything: Got to Have Faith

Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe (Jesus gathered the twelve to him), BWV 22, may have been Bach’s audition piece in Leipzig. Aptly, for the situation – and our series – it speaks of the need for faith in the face of a journey into the unknown. 

Our guest speaker is Dr Meganne Christian, a researcher and member of the European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Group. She will talk about her experience of extreme exploration working for a year at the Concordia research station on Antarctica (nicknamed ‘White Mars’), her successful application to train as an astronaut with the ESA and her hopes that she will one day travel to space.

“My all in all, my eternal good,
improve my heart, change my outlook”

(from the text to Bach’s cantata BWV 22)

Bach, the Universe and Everything is our concert series with a difference. Guided by the work of JS Bach, composer and intergalactic genius, our mission is to explore the human desire to better understand our place in the cosmos through his 200 cantatas. Each concert is built around a Bach cantata and a talk from a guest scientific speaker, alongside choral and instrumental music by other baroque and renaissance composers.

Series music director: Steven Devine