I may have mentioned once or twice (!) that I come from a musical family. My mother won a piano in a music competition when she was in high school and had to make the hard decision to choose between music or going to medical school (she became a pediatrician but went back to playing music after she retired.) My father (2nd of six brothers), may have had a few lessons with his eldest brother, but was mostly self-taught.

Over the years, I learned that every single one of my uncles and every single auntie— on both sides of the family—played the piano, as well as all my first cousins (over 35 on just my father’s side alone).

In my own family, all five of us kids took music lessons, and the three girls (I and my two sisters) have continued to make music professionally as adults. I have a cousin, Mary, who is a professional pianist in the Los Angeles area, and several cousins whose children have also become professional musicians.

My sister recently unearthed this photo of my mother at the organ (!) and my father conducting the church’s junior choir. I never knew before now that my mother ever played the organ!

All of this begs the question of whether musical talent is something that is inherited, a genetic trait that is in your DNA.

My family, though, pales in comparison with the Bach family, of which there were 57 professional musicians over a period of nearly two hundred years, the most famous being Johann Sebastian, of course.

Johannes Bach (c. 1580 – 1626) was the first professional musician in the family. His great-grandson, Johann Ambrosius, was a violinist and the father to Johann Sebastian. His uncles who were prominent musicians included Johann Michael Bach and Johann Christoph Bach. Of Johann Sebastian’s children, several of his sons were composers in their own right:

All in all, there were 57 members of the Bach family who were musicians, a true family “business.”

All of this is leading up to the next concert in which I’m performing: Think Outside the Bach, featuring music of Carl Philipp Emmanuel, Johann Michael, Johann Christian, Johann Ernst and even PDQ Bach! (an opportunity for another post!)

I’ll be playing two pieces on harpsichord: Sonata in D minor for keyboard and violin (with Darel Stark) by Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (1714-1788), and the Quintet in A for flute, oboe, violin, viola and continuo by Johann Christoph Bach.

I’ll also be playing continuo organ on “Das du den Hirten Freuden sangst” by Johann Ernst Bach (1722-1777), with soprano Georgine Stark.

In addition to practicing for this concert, I’m of course diligently working on my two-organ Bach concerto concert with Jieun Kim Newland —seems like I can’t get away from practicing Bach!