Dennis E. Northway decided over a quarter century ago that if Evanston could have an annual Bach Week Festival at an Episcopal church, Oak Park could have a Handel Week Festival at an Episcopal church.
Turns out it was a great idea.
The popular annual event is celebrating its 26th season and is currently presented at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake St.
“Handel is a composer who wrote enough music that you can do many, many concerts,” said Northway, the artistic director of the festival. This year’s three-concert festival begins with the 75th concert in the series.
“There’s nothing being repeated this year. It’s all new stuff,” Northway noted.
The first concert, at 3 p.m. Feb. 16, is called, “Oh, Had They Met! Sacred music for soprano and orchestra.” Twenty musicians will perform.
“We are having two truly virtuoso people,” Northway declared. “One is soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg, who’s going to sing four virtuosic cantatas — really fiery, fast stuff — three of them by Handel and one by Bach. Then David White, who’s a keyboard virtuoso, will be playing two Handel concertos on pipe organ.”
Concertmaster Thomas Yang echoed those sentiments about Stoppelenburg. “Josefien has incredible speed. You would be so impressed with any of her fast passages and the incredible accuracy, and the musicianship on top of that.” Yang said. “It’s a pretty rare combination.”
Yang also praised Northway, noting, “He knows all the different soloists in town and he brings them together to do unusual works like this.”
Concert II, at 3 p.m. Feb. 23, is “Sing and Play in Dulcet Tone: The Intimate Handel.” It will feature mezzo soprano Michelle Wrighte, concertmaster Yang on violin, Steven Houser on cello, and Northway on harpsichord. There will only be four performers.
Northway said Wrighte has “one of the most beautiful voices that I’ve heard in my life.”
“Handel wrote about 104 secular cantatas on romantic themes early in his life — love gained and love lost,” Northway said. Wrighte will perform three of those cantatas.
Concert III, at 3 p.m. March 2, is “Your new Favorite Handel Oratorio, a seldom performed but gorgeous oratorio!”
“I’ve done a lot of Handel in 26 years and this is some of his finest music,” Northway declared of “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato HWV 55.” The piece is set in English.
“It’s on a wonderful set of poems about a moderate person, a pensive person, and a happy person,” Northway said. “It’s evocative music on a secular theme.”
There will be 20-plus singers in the chorus and around 20 musicians, plus four soloists — sopranos Kimberly McCord and Emily Mwilla; tenor Cameo Humes; and bass Noah Gartner.
Thomas Yang has been the concertmaster of the Handel Week Festival, alongside his long-time friend, since season one.
He vividly remembers when Northway proposed the concept of creating a Handel Week Festival.
“He said, ‘I’ve been thinking of doing oratorios by Handel for a little while,’” Yang recalled. “He said, ‘I would really like to take up this adventure because I would love to be able to do all of them — if not all of them, as many as possible.’”
The two worked out the details and the Handel Festival Week became a reality.
“It’s one of Chicago’s hidden gems,” Yang said. “It’s one of the best entertainments and the most unusual repertoire. Sometimes you’ll only hear those pieces at the Handel Week Festival.”
Yang praised Handel’s music, declaring, “It’s happy, it’s joyous, and it has a lot of different emotions,” he said. “Performing it is just a joy.”
“I’m truly excited that not only have we moved forward but we have prospered for 26 years,” Northway concluded. “That is due to our faithful audience. And I have a board of directors that are all roll-up-their-sleeves kind of people who each will do the job they promised to do and are generous to the organization. And we have wonderful donors and contributors.”
“The love and the passion for this festival is quite amazing,” Yang added.
Tickets to Concerts I and II are $41; $46 for Concert III; $105 for a season subscription. Reservations and information are at handelweek.com.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.