As part of a new collaboration with The Historic New Orleans Collection, WWNO brings you NOLA Life Stories: an oral history project documenting the people, places and things that shape New Orleans. This week historian Mark Cave interviews Albinas and Manon Prizgintas, a married couple that produces Bach Around the Clock — an annual musical event held at Trinity Episcopal Church.
Seventeen years ago Albinas, the church’s organist and music director, “needed something new.” Convinced that “all musicians must pass through Bach,” he ambitiously started a round-the-clock celebration to honor the baroque composer.
Although the schedule was largely improvised at first, the event now includes more than 300 performers and lasts 29 consecutive hours. But even after all these years, Albinas and his wife Manon still remember the first night.