One of the highlights of my career this year so far was staging the fourth annual Bach Remix at The District, a nightclub and venue in Eugene, Oregon. My partner in this endeavor was a friend from graduate school, PhD candidate DJ Food Stamp, a.k.a. Andre Sirois.

I love putting together events like this, and I love it even more when I have a partner as awesome as Andre.

My partner, DJ Food Stamp

We’d both worked with the Oregon Bach Festival on previous years’ Remixes. (The event originated as a youth-focused offshoot of the OBF, wherein local DJs scratch Bach in a public battle.) And this year I approached the Bach Festival to see if they’d be open to staging it in The District. (I do their marketing and knew it would do the club good to work with an organization as well-respected and well-established in Eugene as the OBF.) When I learned that they’d decided not to stage the Remix this year for a number of reasons, I asked if we could go ahead and do it with their blessing, and (much to my delight), they said yes.

The DJs from the left (not in order): DJ Celsius, Connah Jay, and the Phonographanatikz crew

I needed to talk about this event here because of how gratifying it was to be a part of something that brought a lot of a community together in the name of genre-straddling music. Andre partnered with one of the participating DJs, DJ Celsius, to create the poster (above). Local businesses contributed gift certificates for coffee, food, clothing, DJ equipment, etc. The Bach Festival got one of its sopranos (who also fronts a metal band) to serve as one of our judges. The Remix had such great energy this year– not just the evening of, but throughout the entire planning process– and it validated my belief that shows can be wholly positive and bless everyone who participates.

The Remix went down a week ago, and involved two of Eugene’s best DJs and one of its best DJ duos. We also had some great judges and an amazing host. Zane Ritt caught some awesome images (all of the pics featured here are his), which I think really captured the atmosphere of the evening. I hope you enjoy them, and I hope we all get to be a part of more events like this one.

Our host, Shrapnel

The DJs from the right

The judges, DJ Free & Edan and soprano Lori Lewis of Aesma Daeva

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