Sonora, CA…The Sonora Bach Festival will present their last event of this year’s festival. The Sonora Bach Festival Trio will perform at the Bach’s Brunch October 29, at 12:30 p.m. at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, Sugar Pine. Music will include selections from Bach’s trio sonatas as well as trios by other Baroque and Classical Composers. The Brunch, prepared by Chef Dave Ingram, will be Moroccan themed. Advanced reservations are required. Tickets, at $35, are available at the festival webpage Sonorabach.org or by calling the festival office at 209 536-6330.

The final event of the 41st Sonora Bach Festival will feature a brunch of Moroccan and Mediterranean dishes accompanied by the Sonora Bach Festival Trio. Guests will help themselves to the buffet consisting of varied Moroccan and Mediterranean fare. The Sonora Bach Festival Trio will provide music. The event, held at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, was selected, according to festival board member Barbara Fish because “it offers the best of many things for our audiences: it is located in the woods of the Sierras at only 14 miles from Sonora. And at 4700 feet the temperature is ideal”

The Sonora Bach Festival Trio consists of Janet Telford, flute; Sandra Betti, flute; and Ralph Retherford, cello. All three came from out of the area at separate times, met here, realized they all had similar skills and interests and formed their trio. They play regularly in the Central Mother Lode at a variety of events and venues.
For this event the Trio will play selections from Bach’s Trio Sonatas as well as Trio Sonatas of other Baroque composers Fasch, Loeillet, Telemann, Tartini. Also on the program will be music by classical composers Haydn and Mozart. Some of the composers have ties to Bach. Johann Friedrich Fasch lived in Leipzig before Bach, studied with Bach’s predecessor Kuhnau, and even founded the Collegium Musicum orchestra from which Bach borrowed instrumentalists. Telemann, one of the major composers of the era, (and at the time much better known that Bach), was originally offered the Leipzig church job that Bach originally took.

Chef Dave Ingram of Tuolumne County will prepare the Brunch menu. A Popular caterer in the Central Mother Lode, with experience cooking at restaurants in the Bay Area and locally as Pastry Chef at the Black Oak Casino, Chef Dave will be preparing a Mediterranean/Moroccan-themed menu. Items include Zucchini-Orso Salad, Spinach-Mushroom-Provolone Frittata, Assorted Chicken Sausages, and Grilled Moroccan Chicken Breasts. Vegetables include Roasted red Potatoes with onions in Olive Oil and Grilled Tuscan-style Veggies. The Meal will begin and end with fruit: A Fresh-Fruit Salad with Honey-Yogurt Dressing starts the meal and it finishes with Peach Cobbler. While the whole meal is clearly Mediterranean/Moroccan, the final delicacy is definitely NOT. Chef Dave says, “I’m breaking the theme with the last dessert of Peach Cobbler with Whipped Cream and Raspberry Sauce. Although it’s a popular American classic, the ingredients would be available in Morocco as well.”

Janet Telford, flutist in the Trio, holds degrees in music from San Francisco State and Penn State Universities. She is the former Executive Director of the Sonora Bach Festival, founder of the San Jose Chamber Music Society, and former co-editor of Music for the Love of It, a newsletter for amateur musicians. She maintains an active, private music-teaching studio. Ms. Telford performs with numerous chamber music groups in concerts in the Mother Lode as well as in the San Francisco Bay Area, appearing as guest soloist with the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra.  She is a member of the Mother Lode Friends of Music Orchestra and the Mother Lode Woodwind Quintet.

Ralph Retherford, cellist, was raised in a musical family, his mom being a concert violinist and brother a violist.  By ten years old he was studying the cello, and eventually performing with the California Youth Symphony. He is active as a solo and ensemble performer. Quite the rounded musician, Ralph is also a singer, composer and “picker”. Locally he sings with the Columbia College Community Chorus and with the doo-wop acappella group, Sincerely.  He’s also performed with local groups singing and picking mandolin, banjo and guitar.  His talent and experiences gel in his original songs which tell of his love of the mountains, the desert and the fairer sex.   His tune, “Dozer Man” prompted him in 1983 to leave his Carmel Valley medical practice and do a national radio station/ performance circuit to promote the song onto the Billboard charts. Quite a “Dozer Man” himself he recently retired from his private, medical practice.

Sandra Betti, flutist and director of the Sonora Bach Festival, performs extensively throughout the Mother Lode.  She is a frequent artist for the Mother Lode Friends of Music Concert Series, plays with the Amador Concert Band, has performed at the National Hotel in Jackson, and for both the St. James Concert Series and the Sonora Bach Festival.  She has a music degree from San Francisco State and has studied with principal flutists of both the San Francisco and Boston Symphony Orchestras. In addition to her performing, Sandra gives flute lessons to aspiring musicians, and is the music director at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Sonora.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to hear beautiful music in a beautiful setting,” says Ms. Fish. “The venue is small and intimate so you are close to the musicians. And with the wonderful food, beautiful music and quiet forest it’s a perfect place to spend a Sunday afternoon.”