Joe Miller said he wanted to go out with a bang. And for the longtime choral director of Spoleto Festival USA, who is departing this year after 19 years in the role, Bach was the clear choice.

Spoleto musicians have performed the legendary works of Johann Sebastian Bach several times since Miller joined the festival in 2007, including his Passion oratorios in 2015 and 2019. But as the culmination of a decade-long project programming what he calls Bach’s “pinnacle pieces,” Miller picked what he considers “the greatest piece of music ever written”: the German composer’s “Mass in B Minor,” completed in 1749.

Miller will conduct the Spoleto Festival USA Chorus as well as its orchestra in performing the mass on June 7 at Charleston Gaillard Center. It will serve as not only the culmination of

See Full Page