I have had to keep a secret since June 17, 2018, when my good friend, Dana Marsh, revealed to me in a Messenger post that he was selected as the new Artistic Director of the Washington Bach Consort!

The official announcement was made on August 1, so now it is public knowledge and I can join the rest of the world with my congratulations to Dana, who will retain his Associate Professorship at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and Director of the Historic Performance Institute. He will surely rack up the frequent flyer miles!

Here is the official announcement, which gives a lot of information about Dana’s remarkable career.

Dana Marsh’s musical training began as a boy chorister at St. Thomas Choir School in New York and at Salisbury Cathedral in England. He earned his undergraduate degree in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music, with later masters and doctoral degrees in historical musicology from the University of Oxford. His voice teachers have included Virginia Fox and Kari Windingstad, with Bach aria study under Max Van Egmond in Amsterdam.

Acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as “an energetic and persuasive conductor,” Marsh has entered into fruitful collaborations with the London Mozart Players, the Choir of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, Studio de Musique Ancienne Montreal, Magnificat (U.K.), Cappella Romana, Ensemble Charivari Agréable, the Band of Instruments, City of Oxford Orchestra, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra and the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. While living and studying in the U.K., he founded the ensemble Musica Humana Oxford (2001-2008), which toured the U.S. to critical praise (“… pleasing to the ear and satisfying to the soul.”—LA Times).

Cited by the New York Times as “a powerful and expressive countertenor,” Marsh also worked as a vocal soloist and consort singer in the U.S. and the U.K. (1992-2008), performing with the American Bach Soloists, Concert Royal, New York Collegium (under Gustav Leonhardt), Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, A Cappella Portuguesa and the Brabant Ensemble, as well as in lute song recitals with the late James Tyler. While undertaking his doctoral research at Oxford, Marsh sang regularly with the Choir of New College, performing in numerous collaborations with the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the European Union Baroque Orchestra, recording 15 discs with New College Choir, one of which won the Gramophone Award for Early Music in 2008.

Dana has taught early music history at both Oxford and Cambridge universities and has published original research and review articles through the scholarly presses of both institutions. He served as Assistant Director of Music and Director of Chapel Music at Girton College Cambridge, and more recently was Canon Organist and Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis.

Dana is Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Historical Performance Institute at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he has directed a broad range of performances and NPR broadcasts since 2014. He served as a panelist at the Smithsonian Institution’s conference “Historically Informed Performance in Higher Education,” and in May 2016, he founded the annual international conference “Historical Performance: Theory, Practice and Interdisciplinarity” at Indiana University, which has attracted scholars and performers from a dozen countries. He recently founded the annual, peer-reviewed journal, “Historical Performance” (IU Press), with its inaugural issue due this summer.

Of Marsh’s audition concert with the Washington Bach Consort in December 2017, the Washington Post said, “he is a superb choral conductor, energetic, and precise.” Marsh has also prepared ensembles of young singers for concert and recording engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen and Antonio Pappano. He has recorded variously for Sony, Universal, Avie, Decca, Erato, Koch International Classics, Signum and Public Radio International.

I am just thrilled for Dana, as I know my late husband, Carl Crosier, would have been had he heard this news about our friend. We have been honored to call Dana our friend since he was the music director of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Monrovia—decades ago! As you may know, Carl’s passion for Bach was legendary, leading to his conducting all of Bach’s major works including the St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio, Brandenburg Concertos, and 70 different cantatas. For months, we heard the Bach Passions as dinner music! I think that even our son memorized the music!

And did you know that Dana was once an organ student of Peter Hallock, our friend and business partner in Ionian Arts?

Huge congratulations, Dana! We are so very proud of you!

Here is the website for the Washington Bach Consort, and here is their upcoming season. Dana will conduct all the major concerts.

Looks like I will have to plan a trip to Washington, D.C.!