Handel Week Festival

From the Director

WELCOME to the Handel Week website and our thrilling 2019, 20th anniversary season! We have packed a LOT of Handel in our 20 years, and will be doing the same for our GALA 2019 season! You, our faithful supporters have been instrumental in our growth and stability over the now decades of presentations. We sincerely hope that that will continue as we celebrate this milestone!

This year, you will hear perhaps the only work in the repertoire that has been a staged composition, in production, without a break, for nearly 300 years, Handel's Acis and Galatea. Our beloved Sarah Gartshore and Gerald Frantzen lead a stellar cast in this delightful gem. For our chamber concert, we welcome a new light to the Handel Week family, Mikaela Schneider! Her warm voice, accompanied by our own Deborah Stevenson, Steven Houser and Erik Liefrinck will make an evening of warm memories, that is not-to-be-missed! We conclude our Gala anniversary season with Handel's incredible oratorio, Solomon. This is Handel at his absolute grandest! You will not want to miss our dear Kimberly McCord and Noah Gartner along with favorites Nicci Krebasch and new artist Celia Williams, along with our incomparable Handel Week Orchestra under the Concertmastership of Thomas Yang and our wonderful Handel Week festival chorus in our presentation of this staggering masterpiece! As always, and perhaps more than ever we need your support to offer this stunning season!

On behalf of the Board of Directors and our entire Handel Week family, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! I fervently look forward to greeting you and our concerts!

To Handel and his Music!

Dr. Dennis E. Northway, Artistic Director, Handel Week, Inc.
Regional Representative,John-Paul Buzard Pipe Organ Builders
Parish Musician, Grace Episcopal Church Oak Park

Concerts this Season

Concert 1 - Acis and Galatea

See Concert Details

Concert 2 - Cabaret Concert

See Concert Details

Concert 3 - Solomon

See Concert Details

Our festival concerts feature:

• Music in one of the most acoustically perfect venues in the area
• For Concerts I and III: Pre-concert lectures beginning @ 2:15 pm and post-concert receptions with the artists
• Concert II is cabaret-style concert: Intimate tables with refreshments. Artists provide commentary on performance
• Free lighted parking in adjacent lot. Parking is also available in the indoor garage to the west of Grace Church; the entrance is on Forest Avenue.
• Free admission for children & teens between the ages of 8-18

Who We Are

The Handel Week Festival is an annual week-long festival to celebrate the music of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). The Festival is held in the spring of each year at Grace Episcopal Church, in Oak Park, Illinois. It was begun in 2000, patterned after the highly successful Bach Week Festival in Evanston. Founders Dr. Dennis E. Northway and Charles Chauncey Wells believed that the works of this great master would be as enthusiastically received as Bach Week's 4 decades of success.

Handel Week Festival is a production of Handel Week Incorporated, an Illinois non-profit corporation devoted to popularizing and promoting the music of Handel. It encourages musicians and various media venues to play his works and supports activities pertaining to Handel both in Chicagoland and throughout the world. Handel Week Incorporated is a not-for-profit corporation under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Learn More