Saskatoon residents celebrated the music of classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach at a brand new festival on Sunday.

17-year-old Emily Burak got the idea in January to showcase the music of her favorite composer. Her passion for historical garb and classical music came together to create the Bach festival.

“My mom said ‘you need a place to wear this’ and I said ‘why don’t we have a Bach festival’. So we’ll get all our friends together and make some music and we’ll celebrate Bach and we’ll have kind of like a costume party, said Burak.”

The event was held at the Christ Church Anglican Church and the pews quickly filled up as many came out to listen to the different performers playing a variety of instruments.

Burak says the time from January to now was hardly enough to prepare everything and organize the event and she is not only going to prepare for next year, but she started work on the potential 2020 Saskatoon Bach Festival before the first one even started.

She said she had plenty of support while creating the festival. Friends, family and mentors aided her, but also an array of sponsors that helped make her dream into a reality.

Burak has big plans for next year’s festival.

“We’ll also hopefully do some workshops and master classes, so the community can come out and learn something as well, said Burak.”