Lewis Kaplan, 90, has lived on the Upper West Side since the early-1960s, and he is in his 60th year as a member of the Violin Faculty at The Juilliard School (where he graduated), dating back to 1964. He founded the Aeolian Chamber Players, a quartet in the 1960s, and co-founded the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine in 1964, determinedly growing it for 50 years, at which point he stepped down in 2014, waited a year and started Bach Virtuosi Festival.

Most people would be well into their sunset phase at this stage of their life, but not Lewis Kaplan. He approaches each and every day with optimism and vitality for teaching his violin students and building not one, but two festivals that celebrate the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. At the prime age of 90, Mr. Kaplan has been internationally recognized as a talented artist and was even knighted for his work in 2009 by the President of Germany.

In May, Lewis Kaplan will realize a long-time dream to bring Bach Virtuosi Festival to the Upper West Side and New York City with performances scheduled between May 13 and May 21. Having launched this festival eight years ago (2016) in Portland, Maine, BVF is recognized and appreciated for the world renowned musicians that Mr. Kaplan brings to the festival each year. One example is Richard Goode, the internationally-celebrated pianist. While having dinner in the winter of 2023, Lewis Kaplan asked his friend and colleague of 30 years to perform in Portland that summer. Without hesitation, Mr. Goode happily accepted, and the concert was one of the most well-attended and cherished concerts in the festival’s eight years.

Bach Virtuosi Festival includes many of the finest musicians playing today, such as John Ferrillo, First Oboe of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and John Thiessen, one of the greatest baroque trumpet players alive. Additionally, violinists Renée Jolles and Ariadne Daskalakis, cellists Beiliang Zhu and Nathan Whittaker, flutist Emi Ferguson, harpsichordist Arthur Haas, soprano Sherezade Panthaki and countertenor Jay Carter are leaders of the festival and at the top of their respective careers. Each fall, Lewis Kaplan seeks the input from these venerable musicians and others to program BVF during the upcoming summer. Concerts are held in a beautiful cathedral and synagogue in Portland, as well as a free concert that features the young associates of BVF at Portland Museum of Art.

Labeled a “can’t miss classical event of the summer” by The Boston Globe Classical Music Staff, Bach Virtuosi Festival will bask in the New York spotlight at Church of Saint Ignatius of Antioch (552 West End Avenue at 87th street) and The French Church du St-Esprit (109 E. 60^th Street).

Inspired by the NASA spacecraft, Voyager 1, which launched in 1977 and is still in space today, the theme for this year’s BVF is “The Eternal Bach,” named after a phonograph record known as “The Golden Record,” which is carried on Voyager 1. Contained on this record are sounds and imagery (in the event that the spacecraft comes into contact with extraterrestrial beings), including 20 works of music, of which three are by J.S. Bach — each will be performed at the opening of the festival (in New York and Portland).

Included in the New York program will be Brandenburg Concerti Nos. 2 & 5, Organ Trio Sonata, The Well Tempered Clavier Book 2, Jesu meine Freude, Sonata in B minor for flute and continuo, Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, Handel oratorios, and Vivaldi’s Harpsichord Concerto in F Major, which was arranged by J.S. Bach, as well as other works.

These world renowned musicians perform with the New York Philharmonic, Trinity Church Wall Street, and teach at the greatest conservatories, including The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, and Mannes School of Music | The New School. BVF musicians have been awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Lifetime Achievement Grant from Early Music America.

While Bach Virtuosi Festival found its footing in its first three years, it received critical praise during the 2020 pandemic when many arts organizations created online content. BVF created a 25-minute video, Brotherhood/Sisterhood, that focused on humanity, equity, empathy and love, and was also a tribute to the recently deceased Congressman John Lewis and Black Lives Matter. The music of Bach was interwoven during and after the narrations. Several dignitaries, actors, and politicians agreed to participate. Well-received when it first aired in August 2020, it received a bounce with the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September, who read an excerpt on discrimination. However, the video went viral in late-January 2021 when a relatively unknown Poet Laureate named Amanda Gorman read her work at the Presidential Inauguration. Virtually overnight, the video and outtakes were watched by over 130,000 people.

The festival will begin on Monday, May 13 with a lecture from Christoph Wolff, author and the world’s foremost expert on Bach. The venue, TenFourteen, is a historic townhouse across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is the beginning of a truly magical week of music.

A limited number of tickets are available at bachvirtuosifestival.org/tickets. For more information and to enjoy the glorious sonatas, cantatas, partitas, concerti and arias of J.S. Bach make it a point to attend the New York concerts and events.