About Us

The 40-voice Bach Ensemble — southwest Florida's only Baroque ensemble — is dedicated to championing and performing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries, and later composers inspired by his legacy.

Established over a decade ago, the Bach Ensemble has become a major player in the classical music culture of southwest Florida. Under the baton of Dr. Ronald Doiron, Artistic Director and Conductor, the Bach Ensemble and Chamber Orchestra offered authentic performances of the highest quality music from the Baroque period and beyond. Many of our live performances have been southwest Florida premieres — masterworks such as Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Passion According to St. John, Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Vivaldi’s Beatus Vir.

Community outreach and education are an equally important aspect of the Ensemble's mission. We focus on working with young people to help ensure that southwest Florida’s next generation has the interest and skills to carry on the Baroque legacy. To promote an understanding and appreciation of Baroque music among people of all ages, the Ensemble also offers free educational lectures and workshops at libraries and other public venues in Southwest Florida.

Complementing the Baroque repertoire, the Troubadours — a small group of singers auditioned from the larger Ensemble — are available for hire and offer unique programs tailored to the needs of specific private functions. Custom programs include music for the holidays, Broadway favorites, and popular music standards as well as smaller works from the operatic and classical repertoire. All income generated by the Troubadours supports the work of The Bach Ensemble. 

Hallmarks of the Bach Ensemble

  • Authenticity: performing works of the era in authentic Baroque and Classical style.
  •  Expanding repertoire of challenging Baroque and Classical masterworks, many of them performed live for the first time in southwest Florida.
  • Wide coverage, with as many as six plus concerts a year in venues ranging from Cape Coral and Ft. Myers to Marco Island and beyond.
  • Community outreach to over one hundred young area musicians a year, transmitting Baroque mastery to the next generation through the Bach Festival and the Internship Program
  • Affordability: keeping our concert ticket prices accessible to the population of southwest Florida.
  • Choral Singing: Providing the opportunity for education in singing and musicianship in a strongly supportive community of choral musicians.
  • Scholarship Program for continuing education in colleges and universities for gifted and committed high school students.
  • Donor programs for individuals, businesses and corporations to support this strong community of singers bringing the highest levels of choral singing to the general public.
  • Collaboration between the Bach Ensemble Choral Singers and the areas finest instrumentalists.
     

Board of Directors

Ginny Goodman, Founding Board Member - President
Julia Bugera, Founding Member - Vice-President
Fred Poulter - Treasurer
Dr. Vito Silvestri, Founder - Secretary
Jennie Tracey
Paul Martin, Founding Member
David Ready

 

Founder, Dr. Vito Silvestri

Dr. Vic Silvestri (Vito N. Silvestri) founded The Bach Ensemble over a decade ago as a tribute to his music-loving friends Loretta Walker and Paul Moylan. Since its inception, Vic has sung tenor in The Bach Ensemble and The Troubadours.

Currently he is Adjunct Professor in Communications at Florida Gulf Coast University. For thirty-three years he taught Speech and Communication at Emerson College, and prior to that he taught at State College, Potsdam, New York.  He also taught as Visiting Professor at North Dakota University and at Stonehill College. Dr. Silvestri recently co-authored a book with Alfred Lairo on Abraham Lincoln’s Intellectual Development (Wasteland Press, 2013).  His book on JFK: A Profile in Communication (Praeger) was published in 2000, and his textbook Interpersonal Communication,Principles and Applications was published by American Press in l993, 3rd. ed..  Additionally he is the author of articles and essays on Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Emma Goldman, and The Washington Square Players. 

He attended Wayne University, and graduated with a BS. in Ed from State Teachers College, Indiana, PA, an MA in Speech from Emerson College, and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Public Address from Indiana University.