ANN ARBOR—From “Switched on Bach” to “Bach Around the Clock” and “Back to Bach,” University of Michigan music faculty and students will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the death of J.S. Bach with a non-stop 24-hour concert in Hill Auditorium. Beginning at 8 p.m. March 11, with the presentation of The English Concert by the University Musical Society, until the final presentation ending at 8 p.m. March 12, Bach will be performed.

[Central Campus map, Hill Auditorium, Burton Tower (see below) and Rackham Building (see below) near left center]

All presentations are free and open to the public except the opening performance of the complete Brandenburg Concertos by The English Concert. Tickets for that performance are available from the UMS at (734) 764-2538. No tickets are needed for the other presentations.

Continuing on March 11, at 10:30 p.m., Margo Halsted will ring out the Brandenburgs and ring in “Bach Around the Clock” from the bells of the Burton Memorial Tower. At 11 p.m. the Marimba Ensemble will offer the sounds of mellow mallets in teams and solos. The midnight hour will open with the first of three segments of “Violin Sonatas and Partitas” from the complete violin books. Beginning at 1 a.m. on March 12 jazz, ensembles will take the stage at Hill Auditorium to celebrate Bach as “The Great Improviser” with “Bach-based Jazz.” The Digital Music Ensemble, with Christian Matjias directing, will “synthesize” Bach beginning at 2 a.m.

Hill Auditorium will vibrate when organists John Burkwall, Christopher Lees, and Jeremy Tarrant fire up “the king of instruments” with the “Great Organ Music of Bach.”

By 4 a.m. pianist Jee-Hye Baek’s presentation of the “Goldberg Variations” is guaranteed not to put you to sleep as the work was first intended to do for Count Keyserlingk. More of Bach’s great organ music will fill Hill at 5 a.m. when Jon Jackinchuk, Mark Rich, Julie Berra, and Michael Elsbend apply their hands to the keys. And at 6 a.m. pianist Logan Skelton will present piano pieces popular in Bach’s day and in ours.

Students of Andrew Jennings, Stephen Shipps, and Paul Kantor will be featured at 7 a.m. for the second installment of “Violin Sonatas and Partitas.” Flutes, and other instruments will gather at 8 a.m. for chamber music; and at 9 a.m. pianist Louis Nagel will present an array of Bach’s greatest works.

A wind ensemble under the direction of James Tapia will perform at 10 a.m., followed at 11 a.m. by mezzo-soprano Freda Herseth with some favorite Bach arias, and at 11:45 a.m. by “More Bach for Burton’s Bells” by Margo Halsted and Lan Chang. The final installment of “Violin Sonatas and Partitas” will follow at noon.

Amy Porter, former flutist with the Atlanta Symphony, and Michigan pianist Arthur Greene will “Illuminate Bach” at 1 p.m. followed at 2 p.m. by Yizhak Schotten, Louis Nagel, Amy Kessler, and Justin Bruns with “A Concerto Hour with Orchestra: Oboe and Violin, Keyboard and the ‘New’ Viola Concerto.”

Get ready for the graceful and elegant performance of the singing instruments of the brass when tubas and euphoniums gather at 3 p.m. to play the solo cello suites. Getting “Back to Bach” at 4 p.m., cellist Erling Blondahl Bengtsson will present the original suites on the cello.

Voices and orchestra will join together in excerpts from the “St. John Passion” at 5 p.m. followed at 5:45 p.m. with Judy Ogden playing the bells of Burton Tower. A final flourish on the Hill organ will begin at 6:15 p.m., and at 6:45 p.m. the University Chamber Orchestra and University Symphony Orchestra, with Kenneth Kiesler conducting, will play original orchestral music of Bach and new versions by Mahler and Broxton Blake, and Stokowski’s “Toccata and Fugue” of “Fantasia” movie fame, bringing this 24-hour festival to a close at 8 p.m.

U-M’s celebration of Bach will continue with the Michigan Chamber Players performing selected arias, Suite No. 2 in B-minor, and the Coffee Cantata BWV211 March 22 at Rackham Auditorium beginning at 8 p.m. This concert is also free and open to the public.

musicCentral Campus mapMargo HalstedLogan SkeltonAndrew JenningsJames TapiaAmy Porter