An all-Bach tribute concert celebrates professor emerita Eleanore Vail’s longstanding musical contributions at Earlham College.

At 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 25, the Stout Meetinghouse Concert will be a tribute to Vail and her legacy at Earlham. Among her many contributions to the college, Vail taught at Earlham from 1975 until 1994, served as clerk of the faculty, and established the Meetinghouse Concert series.

Vail says she first decided to organize a concert after she overheard a statement by professor emeritus Tony Bing, who wondered why the Meetinghouse was never used for anything except meetings I don’t know if I initially intended for it to be more than one or two concerts, but they went over so well that I began arranging two concerts per academic year,” she says Stout Meetinghouse became popular with area musicians partly because of its acoustics. “All that wood — the floor and the benches — makes the sound really nice, and the reverberation is wonderful,” Vail says. “The Meetinghouse is attractive and has an intimate feel about it. The audience is close, and it’s a homey, Sunday afternoon concert.

For the tribute, special guests join baritone and Assistant Professor of Music William Culverhouse in an all-Bach program. “I’ll be performing a sampler of Bach’s vocal music, with pieces in Latin and German, drawn from the Magnificat, the Mass in B Minor, the cantatas, the Christmas Oratorio and the St. Matthew Passion,” says William Culverhouse, assistant professor of music. “Bach is often regarded as the most universally revered Western composer, and his music speaks to an enormously varied audience, from classical music fans to jazz pianists to heavy metal guitarists.”

In addition, the concert features instrumental solos and musicians from Miami University and the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Associate Professor of Music Forrest Tobey will perform on Earlham’s Dowd harpsichord.