London Bach Society celebrates 80 years of scholarship and performance

The London Bach Society will celebrate its 80th anniversary at its annual festival, Bachfest 2026, running from 30 October to 10 November, with the programme including Bach cantatas from 1726, chamber music from the Rautio Piano Trio in a City Livery Hall and the prestigious LBS Bach Singers Prize.

Founded by organist and conductor Dr Paul Steinitz (1909–1988) in November 1946 to perform Bach 'in its original form', in 1952 the Society gave the first complete performance in England of the St Matthew Passion in German. Dr Steinitz went on to lead a pioneering cycle of all of Bach's surviving cantatas, which he completed in 1987, and he was appointed OBE in 1985.

Today the Society is led by Artistic Director Margaret Steinitz, Dr Steinitz's widow, who founded the festival now known as Bachfest in 1990. She said: 'It hardly seems possible that the London Bach Society is marking its 80th anniversary this year. So much has been achieved since Paul founded the Society back in November 1946. It was then, and still is today, a unique society: most definitely devoted to performance, but also with a strong educational strand and support for young artists, as can be seen at Bachfest.

'Giving England’s first complete performance of the St Matthew Passion in its original German in 1952, so soon after the Second World War, was a risk, and the cantata cycle (1958–1987) was unique at the time. Paul was a risk-taker. In the years since his death in 1988, we have endeavoured to build on his legacy, watched by many organisations who have been inspired by our commitment to scholarship and historically informed performance of Bach's work.'

The festival opens at St Bartholomew the Great, the same church where the Society gave its landmark 1952 St Matthew Passion, with cantatas BWV 72 and BWV 17 (30 Oct). On 4 November, Rautio Piano Trio traces patronage and influence from JC Bach through Marianna Martines to Beethoven as part of its latest Continuo Foundation-supported project. Bachfest 2026 closes with an anniversary concert: cantatas BWV 130 and BWV 207 and the Violin Concerto in A minor (10 Nov), featuring Rodolfo Richter, director of the Steinitz Bach Players, as soloist.

The anniversary year also includes the LBS Bach Singers Prize, run biennially since 2006, with a public Semi-Final on Monday 26 October and a Final on Friday 6 November, both at St George's, Hanover Square.

Full information, including ticket booking, is available on the London Bach Society's festival profile on Continuo Connect. Learn more about the history of the Society by visiting its website.