with Reverend Pamela Werntz | rector, Emmanuel Church

Is Bach's sacred music only for believers? 

Reverend Pamela Werntz, Rector of Boston's Emmanuel Church, thinks otherwise. In this episode of BACH 52, she shares how Bach's cantatas create space for an extraordinarily diverse community — from musicians and scholars to people sleeping in the church garden — and why that radical welcome is at the heart of what this music can do. 

Emmanuel Music has performed Bach cantatas in their liturgical context for over 50 years. Their Bach Institute brings emerging professional artists to study this music not just as performance, but as living spiritual practice.

The aria for this episode is Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe from Cantata BWV 156, recorded with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Baroque Ensemble, directed by Elisabeth Reed and Corey Jamason, with special guest SFCM soprano Chea Kang.

Watch the episode and see full episode credits at https://www.bach52.nicholas-phan.com/episodes/ep8

with Jeremy Denk | pianist & author

Pianist and author Jeremy Denk joins Grammy-winning tenor Nicholas Phan for a wide-ranging conversation about Johann Sebastian Bach — why his music feels both ancient and startlingly modern, why younger generations are drawn to him more than ever, and what it means that Bach was, in Jeremy's words, a true "get off my lawn" kind of composer: working stubbornly against the fashions of his time while somehow pointing toward the future. 

Along the way, Jeremy and Nick explore the interpretive freedom hidden inside Bach's spare notation, the "hidden drum track" that animates even his most contrapuntal writing, and why the Goldberg Variations changed Jeremy's technique, his musical thinking, and his life. They also touch on Jeremy's memoir Every Good Boy Does Fine, which includes an unexpectedly illuminating chapter connecting Bach's harmonic tension to… well, you'll have to listen. 

The aria for this episode is from Cantata 171, Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm (God, just as your name, so shall your praise be), likely premiered on New Year's Day, 1729 — performed with Ruckus Early Music recorded live at Noe Music in San Francisco, CA in May 2022.

Full episode credits, transcript, and video can be found at: https://www.bach52.nicholas-phan.com/ 

Nick shares his own journey with Bach — from childhood violin lessons to a 20-year career singing this music on stages from Leipzig to Lincoln Center — and the personal reckoning that sparked this project. As a gay biracial singer navigating the classical music world, he explores the tension between an art form that has the power to transform lives and institutions that have historically excluded the very people that art could serve.

This episode features the tenor recitative and aria from Cantata BWV 7, performed with Ruckus Early Music recorded live at Noe Music in San Francisco, CA in May 2022.

Full episode credits, transcript, and video can be found at: https://www.bach52.nicholas-phan.com/