J. Reilly Lewis

John Reilly Lewis (September 15, 1944 – June 9, 2016) was an American choral conductor who founded the Washington Bach Consort and the music director of the Cathedral Choral Society. As a keyboard artist he specialised in baroque music, particularly the music of J. S. Bach.

Born in 1944 in Vallejo, California, he received his bachelor's degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and his master's and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School. A Fulbright Fellowship enabled him to spend a year in Germany doing specialized study in conducting, organ and harpsichord at the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt am Main. Several years later, he spent a summer in France studying with the composition teacher, Nadia Boulanger.

Lewis was organist and choirmaster at Clarendon United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia since 1971, where he led the adult choir, as well as choral and instrumental youth music programs. He led semi-annual singalong presentations of Handel's Messiah (Handel) during Advent and Easter, featuring guest soloists accompanied by full orchestra. This was the first and the longest-running series of performances of Messiah presenting the complete oratorio in the Washington, D.C. area.

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