Bach Founder Chester L. Alwes

Chester L. Alwes (b. 1947) holds degrees in music from Hanover College (BA, 1969, with honors), Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music (SMM, 1971 cum Laude), and theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (DMA, 1982). Prior to joining the University of Illinois Music faculty in 1982, he held teaching positions at the College of Wooster (1973 – 1977) and the University of Rochester/Eastman School of Music (1980 – 1982). At the University of Illinois, Dr. Alwes has taught Graduate courses in the history of choral literature (both MM and DMA) and seminars on the composers Johann Sebastian Bach (Fall, 2010) and Henry Purcell (Spring, 2011), as well as teaching undergraduate conducting (2009 – 2011) and graduate conducting. For twenty-seven years (1982 – 2009) he conducted the Concert Choir, taking over the Women’s Glee Club (2009 – 2011) after Joe Grant retired and Concert Choir ceased to exist. In addition, he was a frequent conductor of the University’s Oratorio Society, Summer Chorus, and the Senior Chorus of Illinois Summer Youth Music. Professor Alwes also served as chorusmaster for the Illinois Opera Theater (including occasional cameo roles in several operas).

In 1996, he co-founded with Kerry Heimann and Barbara Hedlund, the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana (BACH). He served as the organization’s Music Director and Conductor from the group’s inception until his retirement in July, 2017. Over that period, Alwes constructed 133 concert presentations, conducting the great majority of them himself. These included the popular community Messiah Sing-along late in November from 2005 – 2016, BACHtoberfest (1996 – 2009), nine YBAC (Young Baroque Artists Competitions) winner’s concerts and the extremely popular Christmas at Holy Cross concerts (2000 – 2016). The group’s wide and varied repertory included J. S. Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions, B minor mass (twice), Lutheran Masses and complete motets, five major Handel oratorios (as well as numerous smaller works), the Four Seasons of Vivaldi and Monteverdi’s imposing 1610 Vespers. The existence of this group not only offered university and community singers an outstanding choral experience, but also provided an opportunity for many University instrumentalists and singers to learn the basic rudiments of Baroque performance practice.

Dr. Alwes is the author of a criticially-acclaimed two-volume “History of Western Choral Music” (Oxford University Press, 2014/2015), a chapter in the Cambridge Companion to Choral Music (2012) and Handel’s Messiah: The Solo Variants, a comprehensive volume that presents all of the different versions of solos from Messiah along with historical commentary (Roger Dean Music, 2009). Alwes is also the composer of thirty-two original choral works and historical editions. He is currently writing a book on the Choral Music of Heinrich Schűtz.