Nearly 400 people attended the Brantford Symphony Orchestra’s (BSO) Bachamania concert at the Sanderson Centre for Performing Arts on Sunday, March 22, 2026.
The performance was designed to celebrate the many talented members of the Bach family.
“The afternoon’s program is titled Bachamania, which some people might take to mean a whole concert of music by Johann Sebastian Bach,” said Philip Sarabura, the BSO’s artistic director and conductor. “But Johann Sebastian (J.S.) was only one member of a very musical extended family, albeit the most gifted and famous. There were a number of other Bachs who were writing wonderful music throughout the Baroque and Classical periods of music history.”
Throughout the performance, the BSO played Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach’s Symphony in D minor, Heinrich Bach’s Sonata à 5 in C Major, Johann Bernhard Bach’s Overture No. 4 in D Major, and Johann Sebastian Bach’sBrandenburg Concerto No.3 in G Major, Violin Concerto in E Major, and Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major.
After receiving a standing ovation from the crowd, Sarabura surprised the audience with The Guess Who’s Undun, written by Randy Bachman.
Given that the performance was Sarabura’s final time leading the BSO, the conductor not only gave audience members the opportunity to ask him questions during a pre-concert chat, he later addressed his retirement from the role as the show got underway.
“Here we are, 17 years later and I’m standing here saying it’s time to part our ways. If somebody were to ask, ‘Did the time fly?’ I would say, sometimes when you’re having fun, time flies,” he said. “I’ve always had fun and yet, when I think back and I look at some of the program covers from my early years, I realize, ‘Boy, that was a long time ago.’ So the time didn’t fly for me, but I was having incredible fun because of the wonderful, wonderful musicians in this orchestra.”
Sarabura then took the time to thank all the people who make the BSO possible including personnel managers, Sanderson Centre staff and crew, the organization’s board of directors and presidents, the BSO office administrator, and of course, the musicians.
“To all the musicians – instrumental and voca l– who have given me so much pleasure and joy over the 60 plus concerts I have conducted here,” he said. “I cannot recall even one performance where I felt all the members of the orchestra weren’t giving 100 per cent of their incredible talents and expertise; and they did it with ease and good cheer. They also treated me with great kindness and support, and together, we created wonderful, finely crafted music for you all. I shall miss this camaraderie.”
Noting that it was Concert Master Leslie Dawn Knowles’ last performance with the BSO as well, Sarabura also thanked her for her years of dedication.
“The one orchestra member who was most important to me over the years, without whom we couldn’t have performed so well, is our fantastic concert master. Having a very close, musical and personal bond with a concert master makes the conductor’s job so much better. To have that kind of relationship with such a wonderful violinist and musician is something every conductor hopes for, but rarely experiences,” he said. “I have worked with, watched and listened to many concert masters in my career, and without the slightest hesitation, I would say she’s been the best of them all. Being a great concert master requires not only being a superlative violinist, but many other tangible and intangible qualities. Leslie has always embodied the highest ideals of a concert master, and she doesn’t place herself on a podium.”
Knowles, who has been playing with the BSO since around 1975 and has served as concert master for over 25 years, said that the farewell performance was bittersweet, but that she’s looking forward to what comes next for her.
“My husband and I want to move to the mountains and I’ve got some stuff lined up. I’ve got projects with a band as well; I arrange and help songwriters, and play tracks on albums, so I’m doing some of that stuff. But the most important thing, I think, is when you retire, you have to resume your childhood,” she said. “I was a student at the Peabody Conservatory when I auditioned for the Baltimore Symphony and got in, and I really wasn’t expecting that. Once you get in, you’re in for the rest of your life, and you’re not you’re not going anywhere because you’re full time. So I sort of got interrupted and at this point, I need to pick up where I left off. But I also love exploring and I’ve taken up watercolour painting, which I’m loving. So, I really just want to putter around and have a good time.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
