Berkshire Bach Society Announces New Artistic Director

A founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, Eugene Drucker will assume the role

After 47 years as a violinist of the Emerson String Quartet, which disbanded in October 2023, Eugene Drucker will now continue his work with The Berkshire Bach Society as its new artistic director. 

Prior to this role, Drucker served as music director of the Society’s “Bach at New Year’s” concerts. The Berkshire Bach Society focuses on Baroque music and is the Berkshires’ oldest continuously operating membership-based music organization.

A graduate of Columbia University and The Juilliard School, Drucker served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra, and made his New York debut as a Concert Artists Guild winner in 1976. 

He has performed solo with the Jerusalem, Omaha, Richmond, Montreal, Hartford, Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, and the Rhineland-Palatinate Orchestras, and with the Aspen Chamber Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, and American Symphony Orchestra. 

A nine-time GRAMMY and three-time Gramophone Magazine Award winner, Drucker has an extensive discography, including the complete works of Bach for unaccompanied violin, Bartók’s sonatas and duos, plus a number of recordings on Deutsche Grammophon with the Emerson Quartet.

As an educator, he has taught at Stony Brook University for 21 years and recently joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.

While Drucker will continue to feature as a soloist with various orchestras, his Baroque music performances will be exclusively with the Berkshire Bach Society.

“[We are] thrilled that Eugene Drucker is stepping into this new position at The Berkshire Bach Society,” said board member and musicologist Terrill A. McDade in The Berkshire Edge. 

“This is a unique opportunity for us to grow the footprint of The Berkshire Bach Society with an artist of exceptional distinction,” she added. “It allows [Drucker] to explore the repertoire and develop new, more varied programs as we continue to present the music of Bach and his contemporaries, educating our audiences about all things Baroque.”