The Thread That Never Goes Away
A Lifetime with Bach's Music : A Chat with Ruben Valenzuela
When we fall in love with something that matters to us, it’s natural to assume the connection will stay constant. That the object of our love will continue to make our hearts beat faster over the course of a lifetime. But anyone who’s lived with art or faith or a long-term relationship knows that’s not how it works. I often say that life is like a spiral. The thread of life is not a linear path, but rather a one that coils in on itself repeatedly, and each time we circle back to the same point on that spiral, we inevitably arrive at that same spot from a slightly different vantage point, with varying perspectives. As a result, while the thread persists, how we hold it and how it holds us is shifting constantly.
Ruben Valenzuela | Artistic Director and Founder, Bach Collegium San Diego
Ruben Valenzuela has been following the thread of Bach’s music since he was eight years old, when a piano teacher assigned him a piece by Bach to study. It led him from those childhood piano studies into a professional life as an organist and conductor. It drew him through a Seventh-day Adventist upbringing where church was in his DNA, to a Lutheran church job as a teenager, to founding Bach Collegium San Diego, where for over twenty years he’s been exploring the work of Johann Sebastian and his contemporaries. Over the course of that path, his relationship with Bach’s music has been through many stages, ranging from initial curiosity, to inspiration, to obsession at various points, and other moments when he felt he just had to walk away.
In this episode of BACH 52, as we chatted about Ruben’s journey with Bach, I was compelled by his willingness to sit with the discomfort that can arise around Bach’s music. He talked about how there are many texts he doesn’t agree with that perhaps are too theologically thorny. He was candid about his acute feeling that not all two hundred cantatas are masterpieces. He was incredibly open about how there are certain days when only the beautiful sounds can sustain him, because the words about a savior who fixes everything ring hollow against the reality of life.
Yet Bach persists anyway for Ruben. The rigor it demands. The way it defeats you, but you still keep coming back, only to discover again and again that the struggle, the discomfort is worth it.
This is a conversation about what it means to live with music for a lifetime—not as a monument to worship, but as a real, breathing presence that demands something from us. It’s art that is great not just because it was created by a master, but because it’s rooted in the daily practice of life, and somehow remains there around the corner no matter where you turn.
EPISODE CREDITS:
BWV 249
Bach Collegium San Diego | Ruben Valenzuela, director
Violins: Elizabeth Blumenstock, Janet Strauss
Cello: Alex Greenbaum
Violone: Malachi Bandy
Therbo: Kevin Payne
Oboes: Kathryn Montoya, Stephen Bard
Bassoon: Anna Marsh
Organ: Ruben Valenzuela
VIDEO (arias): Clubsoda Productions
SOUND (BWV 249 only): Daniel Rumley
Episode 16 is produced in partnership with Bach Collegium San Diego.
BACH 52 is made possible in part by grants from the American Bach Society, the Center for Cultural Innovation, the Bettina Baruch Foundation, and Intermusic SF.
BACH 52 is a production of Nicholas Phan Recording Projects, which is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization.
Charitable contributions in support of Nicholas Phan Recording Projects and the BACH 52 project must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.