J.S. Bach was born on March 21, 1685. Every year, on a Saturday near his birthday, BATC presents a  community festival in Madison, Wisconsin, in which amateur and professional musicians of all ages perform their own selections of Bach’s music for a live audience. Originally a one-day, 12-hour, one-day marathon of live performances, the festival evolved during the pandemic to a virtual format, and now to a multi-day festival of in-person and virtual performances. The festival is free and open to all who would like to participate as performers or audience members.

Mission: The mission of Bach Around The Clock is to present a free annual festival celebrating the music of Johann Sebastian Bach through performances by musicians of all ages and skill levels.

Vision: The festival will include non-auditioned live and virtual performance opportunities for soloists and groups, amateurs through professionals. Our focus will be on collaboration, education, inclusivity, and accessibility. A diversity of musical styles, instruments, and performers are welcome in this celebration of the music of J.S. Bach

Marika Fischer Hoyt (1962-2023) was BATC’s founder and first artistic director. She envisioned this festival as a “musical crossroads, where performers from many different organizations and different backgrounds can meet on common ground. Bach’s music is infinitely relevant and infinitely adaptable, and that allows us to reach our hands out in many different directions…to increase our ability to engage with and serve our community.”

Incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in 2017, BATC  presented three successful festivals (in March of 2017, 2018, and 2019) to in-house audiences of 500-700 adults and children at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Madison, as well as live-stream broadcasts accessed by 400-600 listeners/viewers in Wisconsin and beyond.

In 2020,  the COVID-19 pandemic caused cancellation of the in-house festival; instead, a virtual festival welcomed musicians who recorded their performances and submitted them electronically. In 2021, a 10-day, 14-hour virtual festival  was presented, attracting 83 performers who self-recorded or pre-recorded in a BATC studio. More than 2000 viewers enjoyed a wide variety of performances, including presentations by guest artists, a master class, and sing-along chorales.

The 2022 festival, with the end of the pandemic allowing a return to in-person performances, was a hybrid of in-person and virtual events, with 171 performers in 55 different performances, over a 5-day period. A total of 12 hours of performance time included virtual submissions and in-person events.

Since 2023, the festival has continued as an annual multi-day event, comprised of a variety of in-person events, including the popular Saturday marathon, and a virtual festival of recordings made by performers in their homes and studios. In 2026, the festival celebrated its 10th anniversary. True to its mission, BATC continues to extend the legacy of Bach’s music to the Madison community and beyond.