Plan ahead to participate in the “Before Bach’s Birthday” Bash on March 21, 2015, a sequence of five hour-long all-Bach performance events at five Minneapolis churches, featuring organists, pianists, singers and other instrumentalists in celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 330th Birthday today (b. 3/21/1685).

Performances will take place as follows:

• 9:00-10:00 AM at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church (511 Groveland Avenue, Minneapolis) featuring the 78-rank 1980 Robert Sipe mechanical-action pipe organ
• 10:30-11:30 AM at First Unitarian Society (900 Mount Curve Avenue, Minneapolis) featuring the 35-rank 1961 Holktkamp neo-Baroque pipe organ
• 1:00-2:00 PM at Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church (2020 West Lake of the Isle Boulevard, Minneapolis) featuring the 28-rank 1980 Daniel Jaeckel pipe organ
• 2:30-3:30 PM at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church (1917 Logan Avenue South, Minneapolis) featuring the 45-rank 1998 Dobson pipe organ
• 4:00-5:00 PM at the Episcopal Cathedral of Saint Mark (519 Oak Grove Street, Minneapolis) featuring th 99-rank Foley-Baker pipe organ

All performances are free, and the first hour’s program will be broadcast live on Classical Minnesota Public Radio network stations (KSJN-99.5FM in the Twin Cities; also streamed live online at www.classicalminnesotapublicradio.org ) and featuring members and friends of the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, student musicians from the University of Minnesota School of Music, and members of the Bach Society of Minnesota.