The Oregon Bach Festival dares you to go for Baroque this year.
The festival’s director of communications, George Evano, said that it’s the staff’s musical way of saying, “Just do it.”
“That particular line fit really well with running,” he said.
The festival may be in its 39th season, but this year is going to be different.
Evano said the long tradition of choral and orchestral masterpieces will stay the same but this year’s festival is offering much more.
“We’re going head-to-head with the biggest track meet in the history of civilization, or at least the history of Eugene civilization,” he said. “There are some things that we are doing that complement the trials because the organizers of Eugene ’08 have been great to us.”
The festival was actually included as an incentive in the USA Track and Field pitch.
The Oregon Bach Festival will present four of the Eugene ’08 festival performances, including members of the Pacific International Children’s Choir Festival, the Bach Remix, Trio Voronezh and the Shanghai Quartet.
Evano said it was important that the festival show up not only in the concert hall but also on the fan festival stage.
“For me, the highlight is the Bach Remix because it’s a unique program we’ve done for years,” he said.
The Bach Remix, which will be held at Hayward Field on July 3, is a classic disc jockey scratching battle featuring Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.”
Last year’s champion, DJ Smuve, will battle Eugene’s own DJ Billy and DJ Celsius for a $750 prize.
“It’s kind of like ‘American Idol’ meet Bach,” Evano said.
Another unique event at this year’s festival is a special tribute concert to Bill Bowerman.
“Bowerman: Man of Oregon” will premiere on July 1 at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts.
As a former University coach and the co-founder of Nike, Bill Bowerman is a pillar in the Eugene track community.
“Everybody knows Bill was involved with track, as a coach and as an inventor, but he also loved music and was an important donor to the Bach Festival,” Evano said.
The concert will feature several musical pieces, spoken tributes, a screening of an Oregon Public Broadcasting documentary about Bowerman and a special biographical piece commissioned by his family.

This year’s events have benefited from the association with Eugene ’08. Nike’s creative think tank, the Innovation Kitchen, came up with a new branding campaign for the festival.
Evano said it took about a year of exchanging ideas to come up with the new look.
“They went way beyond a poster and created a whole identity with colors, textures and the new OBF logo you see on billboards,” he said. “It was my job to come up with the cornball headline but the visuals were developed by the Nike team.”
Regardless of the city’s ties to one of the biggest athletic companies in the world and the prominence of the trials, Evano said the Oregon Bach Festival couldn’t happen anywhere else.
He said that the atmosphere of a university town is all about being curious, broadening horizons and looking to the past for knowledge and inspiration.
“To examine – whether it’s in music or in art or in any of the sciences – who the great thinkers were and how they expressed themselves and ask what were the great statements that were made? That’s the atmosphere that the University of Oregon tries to create,” Evano said.
He believes people in Eugene are naturally more inquisitive and more open to ideas.
Evano said the magic of the Oregon Bach Festival is the combination of being at the University and a beautiful summer atmosphere.
“People just start coming alive this time of year,” he said, ” The music really thrives.”
The Oregon Bach Festival officially kicks off in Portland tonight with a performance of the epic “B Minor Mass.” If you cannot make it to PDX, don’t fret: The performance will be repeated Saturday night at the Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center.
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