Bach

A week after receiving one of this year's Kennedy Center Honors, Leon Fleisher performed two-hand piano music with inspiring confidence and expressive power at the Peabody Institute. Denied the use of his right hand for decades due to a neurological movement disorder, the pianist has made a gradual return to ambidexterity in recent years, thanks to Botox injections. As Fleisher is the first to point out, his condition has hardly been healed, just modified. So every occasion to hear him in double-barrel music-making is to be treasured.

The North Carroll Recreation Council implored the county commissioners yesterday to consider developing four ball fields on a county-owned parcel between Manchester and Hampstead.Council President Joe Bach asked the commissioners to develop a 60-acre site at Route 30 and Cape Horn Road that has been dormant for several years. The county purchased the land, known as the Stoffle property, several years ago with the intention of building a school there."We are in desperate need of facilities," Bach said.

Five and a half feet tall and never weighing more than 110 pounds, Frederic Chopin looked delicate, almost transparent, and not quite of this world.Novelist George Sand, whose 10-year love affair with him has become the stuff of legend, called him her "little one." His friend, composer Felix Mendelssohn, not exactly a heavyweight himself, dubbed him "Chopinetto."He was always suffering from something. "Chopin has been dying his whole life long," said one malicious Parisian lady, and another: "He has the most charming cough."

Stephen FearingFor an evening of music drawn from numerous influences, including contemporary acoustic, traditional folk, Celtic, country, gospel and jazz, attend a performance by singer, songwriter and guitarist Stephen Fearing at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Baldwin's Station & Pub, 7618 Main St. in Sykesville. Expect to hear tunes from the Canadian singer's newest album, "Industrial Lullaby." Tickets are $12. Call 410-795-1041.'In Bad Taste'Though tickets are sold out for the Maryland premiere of the Steve Yeager film "In Bad Taste," a documentary on Baltimore filmmaker John Waters, you'll still be able to witness the unveiling of a commemorative sidewalk block in honor of Yeager(pictured)

Occasionally fun and culture coincide. This weekend is one of those times.The Baltimore School for the Arts presents its annual "fund-raising and friend-raising" gala, which showcases the students in this high school for the performing arts, Saturday and Sunday. The music department (chorus and orchestra) will perform a Bach cantata; the theater department, famous monologues.The dance department premieres two works: "Five Beatles Songs," choreographed by John Clifford; and "Thank You" by Broadway tapper Hinton Battle ("Chicago")

GIRLS PLAY LACROSSE in North Carroll, thanks to Joe Bach, whose enthusiasm for the sport has attracted players from age 4 through adult to pick up a stick and run with it."Some kids are petrified. It may take 10 minutes to get them on the field and then they'll never come in, it's that contagious," says Bach."Come out and see what we do. Most parents think it's a full body contact sport, but the girls [game] is nothing like that."In addition to organizing intramural teams for the second year, Bach started a lacrosse clinic two weeks ago. It meets Sundays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the East Gym of North Carroll Middle School.

When he was a student at the Eastman School of Music in the 1950s, Leonard Moses would sit for hours at the piano, improvising in the style of Bach.In a composition class, where the students were to write a chaconne (a baroque slow dance), Howard Hanson happened by just as Moses' effort was being played.The great American composer, who was also dean of the Eastman School, asked Moses to step across the street to a White Tower for a cup of coffee. And there he told the young man: "Be a first Moses, not a second Bach."

Peabody Conservatory of Music welcomed its gorgeous new Holtkamp pipe organ to the beautifully redone North Hall with a series of free recitals this weekend by the longtime head of its organ department, Donald Sutherland.The hall has been renamed Leith Symington Griswold Hall, after a $2 million gift from her son, Benjamin H. Griswold IV (of BT Alex. Brown Inc.) and his wife, Wendy.The organ itself, which cost $668,000 (of which $600,000 by Lyman and Nancy Woodson Spire), is a beauty with its brushed gold and silver pipes in an immense wooden case painted cream.

LEGEND HAS IT that when young Johann Sebastian Bach applied for the position of church organist at Leipzig, the examining committee gave him a theme to improvise on in order to demonstrate his mastery.Bach took the theme, spontaneously harmonized it, then turned it upside down and played it backward, ending with a gigantic fugue that so impressed his listeners that he easily won the job."I had thought that this art was dead," the church's retiring old organist told Bach afterward, "but in you I see that it still lives."

Some of classical music's most edifying works were composed not for the Technicolor splendor of the modern symphony orchestra, but for the smaller, more intimate sounds of a chamber ensemble.Exploration of that repertoire can yield immense musical riches, which is why the Annapolis Symphony has designated two concerts in its 1997-1998 season a Chamber Orchestra Series.The first of those concerts was presented Saturday evening, with a pared-down complement of 15 ASO strings taking the Maryland Hall stage to perform music by J. S. Bach, Elgar, Barber and Respighi under the leadership of conductor Sara Watkins.

ELIZABETH G. BACH (nee Vacca) on October 23, 2008, age 74, of Burke, VA. Beloved wife of the late Edward E. Bach. Loving mother of Edward Jr., of Columbia, MD, James of Burke, VA, Jeffrey of Annapolis, MD, and Virginia Hayes of Elkton, MD. Dear brother of Vriginia Cole of Philadelphia, PA and the late James Vacca Jr. Also survived by ten grandchildren. Relatives and friends are invited to share in Elizabeth's Life Celebration on Monday, October 27, 2008, from 10:30 A.M to 12 noon in the Spencer T. Videon of Drexel Hill Garrett Road at Shadeland Avenue.

For 25 years, Teri Noel Towe has deeply treasured a slim volume bound in red morocco that he acquired at an auction house, a volume containing six handwritten pages of a musical manuscript. "Just pick it up," says Towe, a trust and estate lawyer in New York, "and a funny electricity goes through your body. You are holding in your hands something Johann Sebastian Bach held in his." Only Bach would have held a little bit more. The manuscript is missing pages three and four of what should be eight pages of the original organ part for the cantata Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam (Christ Our Lord Came to the Jordan)

BEIJING - From Laos to Maryland. From his birth name, Khankham, to his legally changed name, Bob. From training in California to competing in the Beijing Olympics. And now back home. The journey for Bob Malaythong has had many unexpected turns, not the least of which involves his spot on the U.S. doubles badminton team. What probably wasn't surprising, though, was how good today's foe, host country China, proved to be. "They just didn't make any mistakes," Malaythong said. "Everybody makes mistakes, and it just took them awhile to make mistakes.

In the annals of ungratefulness, the Margrave of Brandenburg retains a place of distinction. Upon receipt of six painstakingly hand-written music scores sent to him in 1721, accompanied by a gift tag bursting with obsequious prose, this brother of the Prussian king put them in a drawer and ignored them. Didn't even send a simple "Thank You, Peasant" note. At least the margrave didn't go in for re-gifting. Otherwise, the world might never have discovered the Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach.

4 Home runs by the North County softball team in the Knights' 10-5 win at Dulaney on Friday. Theresa Papsan and Danielle Evans each hit two. 8 Goals by North County senior attack Nick Bach on Saturday in the Karl Wolf Lacrosse Tournament. He scored five in a 16-12 loss to Huntingtown and three in an 8-6 loss to Howard.

On December 27, 2007, JOHN PHILIP "Barney" BACH; beloved husband of Anne G. (nee Garvis) Bach; devoted father of J. Philip (Barbara L.) Bach, III, Allen W. (Patricia E.) Bach, Sr., and Douglas P. (Stacey A.)Bach; loving grandfather of Steve, Sarah, Alison, Jennifer, Laura, Allen, Jack, Emily and Rebecca; loving great-grandfather of Grace and Bennett; dear brother of Evelyn Carr, Helen Bromwell and the late Clarence M. "Pete" Bach. Family will receive friends Tuesday 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 P.M., at HARRY H. WITZKE'S FAMILY FUNERAL HOME INC., 4112 Old Columbia Pike, Ellicott City.

A week after receiving one of this year's Kennedy Center Honors, Leon Fleisher performed two-hand piano music with inspiring confidence and expressive power at the Peabody Institute. Denied the use of his right hand for decades due to a neurological movement disorder, the pianist has made a gradual return to ambidexterity in recent years, thanks to Botox injections. As Fleisher is the first to point out, his condition has hardly been healed, just modified. So every occasion to hear him in double-barrel music-making is to be treasured.

"My greatest love is Bach," says Baltimore filmmaker Michael Lawrence. "He has driven my life. But there hasn't been a decent film made on Bach." Lawrence plans to change that. Filming is set to start next month on a project that will focus not on the biographical side of Johann Sebastian Bach but rather on the power and genius of his music and the artists who are drawn to it. "Bach films are either stuffy, period-looking things, or they just involve going around Germany to places where he lived," Lawrence says.

The first time Matt Haimovitz took the stage at the late and lamented New York club CBGB, where the Talking Heads and the Ramones got their first big boosts, he didn't feel entirely welcome. "I was sandwiched between four or five punk bands, and I could feel a little resistance," the Israeli-born, Montreal-based Haimovitz says of that night in 2002. "I think the audience came to see if I would survive." The unease wasn't surprising -- CBGB hadn't ever presented a classical cellist. "I played one Bach suite," Haimovitz says, "and I could tell the bands were like, `OK, kid, get lost,' But I wanted to stay as long as I could.

The North Carroll girls basketball team is 5-4 behind the superb all-around play of junior guard Megan Bach. The five wins surpass last year's total of four. Bach, 5 feet 7, is averaging 11.5 points, six rebounds and two assists per game. Megan's younger sister Caitlina, a 5-11 freshman, also has become a force as a post player averaging a team-leading 13.5 points and 8.5 rebounds. How do you deal with a 5-11 freshman sister who is already a star? It's great. It provides me with some support inside, which I'm not used to having.