Why Bach Is a "Rorschach Test" | BACH 52

Violinist Owen Dalby (St. Lawrence String Quartet, Stanford artist-in-residence) on why Bach's music works like a Rorschach test — and how it became his spiritual home.Owen Dalby has spent a lifetime leading an extraordinarily multifaceted musical life — performing at the highest levels while pushing the bounds of how classical music relates to community. For much of the last decade he toured the world as a member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Before that, he co-founded Decoda, a Carnegie Hall–affiliated collective formed around a single question: how do we make this art as relevant, as meaningful, as helpful to as many people as we can?That question runs through everything else in this episode: his early training with Anne Crowden at Berkeley's Crowden School, where chamber music was treated as a foundation for social-emotional learning; his discovery of baroque instruments and historical performance practice; the St. Matthew Passion, which he calls his "spiritual home" despite not being a believer; and his current work as co-director of Noe Music, the San Francisco chamber series he runs with his wife, violist Meena Bhasin.The aria for this episode is taken from BWV 177 featuring Owen Dalby, violin and Ruckus Early Music, recorded LIVE at Noe Music in San Francisco, CA in May 2022.This project is a fiscally sponsored project of FRACTURED ATLAS.To find our more information and to make a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE donation to support the continuation of this project please visit:https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/nicholas-phan-recording-projects