Bard Conservatory of Music Events

Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents

Friday, February 2, 2024

Guest Artists: Laurie Smukler, violin, and Robert McDonald, piano

Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
7:30 pm – 9:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Three Violin Sonatas by Mozart, Strauss, and Weinberg
Laurie Smukler began her studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her first public performance with a major symphony orchestra was as a violin soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra at 14. She earned her BM from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Ivan Galamian. Other teachers who have had a powerful influence on Ms. Smukler's development are Donald Weilerstein, Robert Mann, Rudolf Serkin, and Menahem Pressler. She is a professor at The Juilliard School. She has been on the faculties of Purchase College Conservatory of Music, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and School, the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College, and the Bard College Conservatory.
Ms. Smukler is a founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet and has been co-director of the Collection in Concert series at the Pierpont Morgan Library. She has performed and toured with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and Music From Marlboro along with other celebrated groups.  Laurie Smukler plays a Petrus Guarnerius violin made in Venice in 1738.

Pianist Robert McDonald has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Far East both as solo recitalist and, for many years, as recital partner to Isaac Stern and other distinguished instrumentalists. He has appeared with major orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. As a chamber musician, he has performed with the Juilliard, American, Takacs, Muir, Brentano, St. Lawrence, Vermeer, Borromeo, and Shanghai string quartets, as well as with Musicians from Marlboro. He is a member of the piano faculty at the Juilliard School. In addition to being the artistic director of the Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico, he has participated in the Bergen, Besancon, Lucerne, Montreux, Salzburg, Aldeburgh, and Schleswig-Holstein festivals in Europe, the Marlboro, Brevard, and Caramoor festivals in the United States, as well as the Banff Center in Canada. Robert McDonald studied at the Curtis Institute, the Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music. His teachers include Theodore Rehl, Rudolf Serkin, Seymour Lipkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Beveridge Webster, and Gary Graffman.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Download: Laurie Smukler and Robert McDonald Program.pdf

For more information, call 845-758-6822, e-mail [email protected],
or visit https://bard.edu/conservatory.

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm EST/GMT-5

Location: Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space

Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents

Guest Artists: Laurie Smukler, violin, and Robert McDonald, piano

Three Violin Sonatas by Mozart, Strauss, and Weinberg

Laurie Smukler began her studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her first public performance with a major symphony orchestra was as a violin soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra at 14. She earned her BM from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Ivan Galamian. Other teachers who have had a powerful influence on Ms. Smukler's development are Donald Weilerstein, Robert Mann, Rudolf Serkin, and Menahem Pressler. She is a professor at The Juilliard School. She has been on the faculties of Purchase College Conservatory of Music, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and School, the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College, and the Bard College Conservatory.
Ms. Smukler is a founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet and has been co-director of the Collection in Concert series at the Pierpont Morgan Library. She has performed and toured with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and Music From Marlboro along with other celebrated groups.  Laurie Smukler plays a Petrus Guarnerius violin made in Venice in 1738.

Pianist Robert McDonald has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Far East both as solo recitalist and, for many years, as recital partner to Isaac Stern and other distinguished instrumentalists. He has appeared with major orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. As a chamber musician, he has performed with the Juilliard, American, Takacs, Muir, Brentano, St. Lawrence, Vermeer, Borromeo, and Shanghai string quartets, as well as with Musicians from Marlboro. He is a member of the piano faculty at the Juilliard School. In addition to being the artistic director of the Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico, he has participated in the Bergen, Besancon, Lucerne, Montreux, Salzburg, Aldeburgh, and Schleswig-Holstein festivals in Europe, the Marlboro, Brevard, and Caramoor festivals in the United States, as well as the Banff Center in Canada. Robert McDonald studied at the Curtis Institute, the Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music. His teachers include Theodore Rehl, Rudolf Serkin, Seymour Lipkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Beveridge Webster, and Gary Graffman.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Download: Laurie Smukler and Robert McDonald Program.pdf