The next three weeks are packed with world class concerts, lectures and all manner of musical celebration as the internationally renowned Carmel Bach Festival returns for its 68th season.

This year the Festival, featuring the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries and his musical heirs, presents more than 50 performances by leading Baroque interpreters from Europe and the Americas. The 22-day Festival launches this week with several highlights.

Bach Cantata Number 27–Festival Premiere; Bach Orchestral Suite Number 2; Bach Cantata Number 41–Festival Premiere. Bruno Weil–conductor

The opening night concert includes two Festival premieres, as well as Bach’s Orchestral Suite Number 2. The Festival Orchestra, chorale, chorus, and soloists—Kendra Colton, Elspeth Franks, Sally Anne Russell, Michael Dean, and Benjamin Butterfield—are conducted by Bruno Weil, music director and conductor of the Festival since 1992.

Bach Mass in B Minor. Bruno Weil—conductor

The Mass in B Minor is Bach’s most critical church piece, with all of his life’s work summed up in this composition.

9pm | All Saints Church

Bach Partita in B Minor, BWV 1002, Sonata in C Major, BWV 1005 Tartini Sonata in D Minor. Emlyn Ngai, solo violin

Ngai, one of the Festival’s featured instrumental soloists, plays two Bach pieces and one Tartini piece. This versatile violinist plays with finesse and zeal, and creates an enchanted environment for the audience during his candlelit solo performance.

Adams Vocal Master Classes. David Gordon—festival education director

A popular Festival series, the six master class sessions for the four selected vocalists of the Adams Fellowship—a training program for top young professional vocalists in Baroque and artistry—are free to the public. Founded to honor Virginia Best Adams, the classes offer a glimpse into the developing of the art of singing onstage as the vocalists work on style, interpretation, self-expression and self-awareness.

8pm | Sunset Center

Vivaldi, The Four Seasons and Handel Arias. Elizabeth Wallfisch and Kendra Colton

Most everyone is familiar with The Four Seasons, but this time there is a twist. The Festival’s concertmaster, Elizabeth Wallfisch, who has an unparalleled ability to direct orchestras from her violin, interprets Vivaldi’s masterwork in her own style. This event demonstrates her skill as an instrumentalist, her musicianship and her personality.

A selection of arias from some of Handel’s most dazzling operas—Julius Caesar, Triumph of Time and Truth, and Admeto—will be sung by American soprano, Kendra Colton. The highly-praised Colton brings broad experience to the Festival, singing with orchestras and at innumerable engagements throughout the world.

Beethoven, Music for a Knight’s Ballet; Mozart Symphony Number 38 “Prague;” Haydn Symphony Number 103 “Drum Roll.” Bruno Weil—conductor

What Festival insiders refer to as “Symphony Night” compiles works by Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn. Symphonies will be conducted by Bruno Weil, winner of the prestigious Cannes Classical Award for Best Orchestral Recording, 17th and 18th Century for his CD of Haydn’s Paris Symphonies. The evening presents one of Beethoven’s earliest pieces for orchestra, and later, well-known works of Mozart and Haydn.

Monteverdi Vespers in the Mission. William Jon Gray—associate conductor

Our apologies to those who didn’t get tickets to this event before it sold out, but we want to let you know about one of the Festival’s better moments. A performance of Monteverdi’s 17th Century Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, performed as it was in St. Marks Basilica, Venice, with singers located all around the church, is sure to impress the audience with the grand drama of a choral masterpiece. The Festival Chorale and members of the Festival orchestra are conducted by William Jon Gray, respected for his lifelong commitment to high standards of musicianship and dedication to choral singing.

Tickets: $15-$90. Call 624-2046 or visit www.bachfestival.org.