Posted June 10, 2026

Bach Charlotte’s most ambitious festival yet brought together 57 artists from Charlotte, the Carolinas, the Southeast, and across North America for Charlotte Bach Festival ’26. CBF26 featured 16 events across 12 days, and attendance was up almost 20% over last year’s festival and nearly 50% over the 2024 festival. 

This year’s festival featured six free performances, including two events at the “Steinway at Free Range Brewing” residency in NODA and Bach Charlotte’s first event in Matthews, a community sing featuring America’s early hymnody and Bach’s chorale tradition.

Reviews were also positive. In his review for WDAV 89.9Classical music, Lawrence Toppman declared, “Bach Charlotte’s two biggest virtues are making us hear unfamiliar works with pleasure and familiar ones as if they were new.”

Read the full review: Bachstravaganza: Charlotte Bach Festival Grows to 15 Events >

Writing for cvnc.org (Cultural Voice of North Carolina), Perry Tannenbaum noted about the “Echoes of Bach” program, “Regardless of how well Bach was echoed, you could hardly ask for a lovelier, sprightlier ending for a concert. We can only envy those hearing this Poulenc gem for the first time.”

Read the full review: Final Weekend of Charlotte Bach Festival Hits High Notes with Echoes of Bach and Handel’s Theodora >

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