bach collegium san diego

a chorus and period instrument ensemble

Ruben Valenzuela, Music Director

ruben valenzuela (music director) holds music degrees from Loma Linda University and San Diego State University emphasizing early music performance and musicology. He is currently a Doctoral student of Musicology at Claremont Graduate University. In 1998, he had the rare opportunity to give a recital on the seventeenth century organ of the Mexico City Cathedral, as well as lecturing and publishing a series of articles on the topic of Mexican Baroque music in the musicological journal Heterofonia. His continued interest in the music of the eighteenth century led him in 2003 to establish the Bach Collegium San Diego. Since then, he has led this group in diverse programs encompassing the music of the high Renaissance, early and high baroque, through German motets of the nineteenth century. Currently, he is the Associate for Music at St Paul’s Cathedral, San Diego, in addition to his work with the San Diego Children’s Choir, as well as remaining active as a conductor, organist, singer, and musicologist.

The chorus of the bach collegium san diego was founded in early

2003 by conductor and musicologist Ruben Valenzuela with the purpose of

enriching the music offerings of San Diego by presenting historically informed

performances of the music of the Renaissance, Baroque, and in particular

the music of J.S. Bach. The chorus consists of the finest singers in San

Diego, many of whom have longstanding experience with such ensembles

and performers as The Waverly Consort, The Philharmonia Chorale, James

Bowman, Julianne Baird, Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, and Musica

Angelica Baroque Orchestra. The chorus marked its debut in 2003 with a

performance of the Bach Johannes-Passion with the Musica Angelica Baroque

Orchestra marking the first San Diego performance of a major Bach work

featuring local artists with period instruments.