Bard Conservatory of Music News Archive

Founded at Bard in 2010 and led by alumni/ae, Contemporaneous now makes its home in New York City. The ensemble plays Murray's in Tivoli on February 2.

The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts presents the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra in concert at the Sosnoff Theater on Sunday, December 6 at 3 p.m. Guest conductor JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Virginia Symphony Orchestra, will lead the orchestra in a performance of Ernest Bloch’s Suite for Viola and Orchestra, with 2015 Conservatory Concerto Competition winner Ye Zi ’16, viola soloist; Vítězslav Novák’s V Tratách (In the Tatras); and the Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D Major.  

"Earnest and all-American, she radiates fireside-chat warmth," writes Zachary Woolfe of Professor Upshaw's set at the Resonant Bodies Festival.

The Bard College Conservatory of Music is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, featuring three special anniversary concerts in September. On September 3 the Conservatory will celebrate the gift of seven historic pianos with a concert featuring pianists Peter Serkin and Julia Hsu, with commentary by President Leon Botstein. Then, on September 22, Conservatory faculty and students will perform the works of Joseph Haydn in the opening concert of the three-part Haydn Project. Finally, singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant will perform with her band and the Conservatory Orchestra on September 26 in a concert to benefit the Conservatory.

Soprano Clarissa Lyons ’11, alumna of the Bard College Conservatory of Music Graduate Vocal Arts Program (VAP), has been invited to join the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, capping an exciting year in which she was named the Grand Prize Winner at Florida Grand Opera’s Young Patronesses of the Opera Competition and the Glenn & Ginger Flournay Award Winner at Shreveport Opera’s Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition. In January, Lyons participated in The Song Continues series at Carnegie Hall, where she performed in a master class led by Warren Jones. She will return to Carnegie Hall in January 2016 to present a Spotlight Recital in Weill Hall as part of The Song Continues series alongside tenor Miles Mykkanen and pianist Ken Noda.

On May 1, the Bard Conservatory Orchestra directed by Leon Botstein showcased music that for the larger general audience may stray from expected fare, yet was exciting and thrilling. 

"Considered one of the most successful female composers of all time," Tower is recognized as one of “the classy ladies of classical music throughout history."

Bard College's Fisher Center and the Longy School's Zabriskie House made the list of the most beautiful music education buildings by College Degree Search.

Fourth-year Bard Conservatory student Tamzin Elliott talks about composing from a young age, the importance of "screwing up" for creativity, and what she's up to on campus.

Joan Tower composed "For Daniel" in memory of her nephew, Daniel MacArthur. Now Bard Conservatory faculty member Raman Ramakrishnan is performing it with the Horszowski Trio.

Bard students founded Contemporaneous on campus in 2010. On March 8, the group returned to Bard for a well-received anniversary concert.

Grammy Award–winning soprano and Bard professor Dawn Upshaw performs an eclectic repertoire in Vancouver this week.

Gettysburg College alumna and Bard Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program student Sarah Tuttle talks about working with Bard faculty Edith Bers and Dawn Upshaw.

Contemporaneous, a new music ensemble featuring Bard students and alumni/ae, is performing the opera Kansas City Choir Boy with Courtney Love under the musical direction of David Bloom '13.

"Bullock seems poised on the threshold of an important career—but she’s also determined to make the most of her time as a student," writes Adam Wasserman.

Yulia Van Doren M.M. '08, a graduate of the Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, talks about being mentored by the great Dawn Upshaw.

On Sunday, December 7, acclaimed soprano Dawn Upshaw and members of the Bard Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program, Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellows, Hudson Valley Brass, and the chorus from the Red Hook Mill Road Elementary School, present a program of festive songs and ensembles to benefit the Scholarship Fund of The Bard College Conservatory of Music. A Winter Songfest will be performed as a family-friendly matinee concert at 3 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College.

The winners of the 2014–2015 Concerto Competition were announced on Sunday, November 16, at the László Z. Bitó '60 Conservatory Building, after two rounds of competitive performances over the course of the weekend. This year's winners are: Tianpei Ai '18 (Sibelius, Violin Concerto), Sophia Burgos M.M. '16 (Dutilleux, Correspondances), Rylan Gajek-Leonard '16 (Shostakovich, Cello Concerto No. 2), Xi Yang '15 (Tchaikovsky, Rococo Variations), and Ye Zi '15 (Bloch, Suite). The winners will perform with either the Bard Conservatory Orchestra or the American Symphony Orchestra during the 2015–2016 season.

“Remembering the Genocide of European Roma During World War II” Followed By a Performance of Mozart’s Requiem

The Bard College Conservatory of Music presents a special event on Friday, October 17: a panel discussion titled “Remembering the Genocide of European Roma during World War II” followed by a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. Exploring issues of history and responsibility, the themed event was conceived of by acclaimed Hungarian conductor Ádám Fischer, who will conduct the Requiem Mass and participate on the panel. The panel discussion will be held at 4 p.m. in the László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory Building, followed by a performance of the Requiem with James Bagwell, chorus master at 6:30 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts.

Bard percussion faculty members Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting make up the group Sō Percussion. The musicians performed last week with the L.A. Philharmonic.

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts presents “Music Alive! Dynamic Women Making Music from Around the Globe” on Sunday, October 5 at 3 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater. This exciting program is curated by artistic directors Joan Tower, Grammy Award–winning composer, and Blair McMillen, pianist, and showcases works by female composers performed by more than 30 students from The Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Music Program. There will be a special appearance by Grammy Award–winning soprano Dawn Upshaw.

Distinguished Composer in Residence George Tsontakis has been the recipient of the two richest prizes awarded in all of classical music: the 2005 international Grawemeyer Award for his Second Violin Concerto and the 2007 Charles Ives Living Award, awarded every three years by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He has also received two Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, for String Quartet No. 4 (1989) and Perpetual Angelus (1992), and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Lifetime Achievement Award (1995). He studied with Roger Sessions at Juilliard and with Franco Donatoni in Rome. Born in Astoria, New York, into a strongly Cretan heritage, he has in recent years become an important figure in the music of Greece; his music is increasingly performed abroad, with dozens of performances in Europe every season. Tsontakis's works have been commissioned and performed by the American, Blair, Colorado, and Emerson string quartets; New York Virtuoso Singers; Aspen Wind Quintet; Orpheus; flutist Ransom Wilson; violinist Glenn Dicterow; and many other orchestras, ensembles, and musicians.

Most of his music—including 11 major orchestral works and four concertos—has been recorded by Hyperion and Koch, leading to two Grammy Nominations for Best Classical Composition (1999, 2009). He is distinguished composer in residence at the Bard Conservatory and has been a composer in residence with the Aspen Music Festival for decades, where he was founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (1991-99). He served for three years as composer in residence with the Oxford (England) Philomusica, continues a six-year Music Alive residency with the Albany Symphony, and was the featured composer in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2008-09 season). He lives in New York State’s Catskill Mountains, in Shokan, and has been on the Bard faculty since 2003.

Distinguished soprano and Bard professor Dawn Upshaw has been chosen to head the vocal arts program at the Tanglewood Music Center—the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer academy.

Five students in the Bard College Conservatory of Music departed for Cali, Colombia, on Friday, August 15, for a Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) project called Sounds of Social Change. Rylan Gajek-Leonard '16, Caitlin Majewski '15, Alexzandra Morris '18, Avery Morris '18, and Daniel Zlatkin '16 are teaching music to children in the Orquesta Sinfónica Infantil y Juvenil de Siloé, an organization that serves at-risk youth in the region. Daniel's sister Rebecca Zlatkin is there making a video documentary of the project. The group has brought donated music books, instrument accessories, and other supplies for students in the program. They will perform a benefit concert with the Orquesta de Siloé on August 21.

The new László Z. Bitó Conservatory building combines state-of-the-art teaching facilities with a first-rate performance venue.

Professor Upshaw "possesses the virtue of being not just a top-ranked performer, but also a first-rate teacher and mentor," writes Stephan Bonfield.

Bard Conservatory faculty comprising the group So Percussion "lavished their talents" while Bardian ensemble Contemporaneous "attacked, with passion" at the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City.

The Bard College Conservatory Orchestra has kicked off its 2014 European Tour. After two well-received concerts played in Warsaw (to a sold-out crowd) and St. Petersburg, they continue to Moscow, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. Click here for the full schedule. Thanks to a donation from Google, our student musicians are creating a travel blog using Google Glass. Follow them on Tumblr.

The Bard College Conservatory of Music presented a marathon day of chamber music performances on May 3, which TMI Arts's Kevin T. McEneaney found mesmerizing.

"I've always loved to teach," says Professor Tower. "I do it because I love working with young composers."

Bard professor George Tsontakis's String Quartet No. 7 will have its world premiere this weekend in the final concert of the 2013–2014 season of Chamber Music Monterey Bay in Carmel, California.

Josh Hodge '14 has successfully navigated the rigorous five-year, dual-degree program required by the Bard College Conservatory of Music while also competing as a varsity athlete for the college. Hodge is the principal bassoonist in the Conservatory Orchestra. He's also been the captain of the men's swimming team for two years and is running track this spring. Now, as he looks forward to graduate school in the fall, he reflects on his time at Bard.

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents the American Symphony Orchestra on Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, at 8 p.m. The program includes Johann Strauss Jr.’s Emperor Waltz, Accelerations, and On the Beautiful Blue Danube; Julius Conus’s Violin Concerto, featuring Zhi Ma ’15, violin; and Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2. The concert will be conducted by Leon Botstein, music director. There will be a special preconcert talk by Alexander Bonus, assistant professor of music at Bard College, beginning at 7 p.m.

The Bard College Conservatory of Music presents Conservatory Sundays: Sō Percussion and Bard Percussion with guest artist Blair McMillen. The ensembles perform works by Kyle Gann, Steve Reich, John Cage, Daníel Bjarnason, and Martin Bresnick on Sunday, April 6 at 3 p.m. in the Fisher Center. All ticket sales benefit the Conservatory’s Scholarship Fund.

Seven Bard Conservatory students offered a "lively, intimate and playful performance that sometimes left listeners visibly moved" on Sunday at Beattie-Powers Place in Catskill.

Jeremy Denk has been honored with the Avery Fisher Prize, established 40 years ago to recognize musicianship and contributions to the musical world.

Soprano Julia Bullock has won the first prize of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s international vocal competition. Ms. Bullock’s prize includes a $15,000 cash award, two New York concerts, and an unspecified number of concerts elsewhere in the United States.

San Francisco's Cypress String Quartet premiered a new composition by George Tsontakis last week. His String Quartet No. 6 "is warmly shadowed, lyric yet somber. ... It's hypnotic, a work of imagination, a fascination."

Joan Tower sounds off on gender bias in classical music and why it's important that high-profile performers take risks on new compositions.

The Graduate Vocal Arts Program of The Bard College Conservatory of Music presents two professionally staged one-act operas, including the world premiere of Payne Hollow by Shawn Jaeger, conducted by Carl Christian Bettendorf; and The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten, conducted by James Bagwell. The production is directed by Nicholas Muni and features the talented singers of the Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program and the musicians of the Conservatory Orchestra. All ticket sales benefit the Conservatory’s scholarship fund. Evening and matinée opera performances will take place in the Sosnoff Theater of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on March 14 and March 16.

An original composition by Dylan Mattingly '14 has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for its 2014 season. Mattingly's work will be performed on May 26 at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Jeremy Denk discusses his upcoming recital at Bowling Green State University, and talks about his own personal music history.

At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony Sunday in Los Angeles, Dawn Upshaw, celebrated soprano and artistic director of The Bard College Conservatory of Music’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, won the Grammy Award for best classical vocal solo, one of three Grammy Awards awarded to Winter Morning Walks, the monumental collaboration between Upshaw and jazz composer Maria Schneider. The album also won for best contemporary classical composition and best engineered album, classical, and also was cited as one of the projects by David Frost, who won the Grammy for producer of the year, classical.

"Superlative singer" Dawn Upshaw discusses her new album, Winter Morning Walks, which, since the publication of this article, has won three Grammy Awards.

In October of this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a day of TEDx talks and performances on the theme "Icons." Among the performers were So Percussion, Bard's own Percussion Program faculty.

Winter Morning Walks, a new album by Dawn Upshaw, celebrated soprano and artistic director of the Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, has been nominated for three Grammy awards including Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Vocal Solo.

A Greek tragedy, a retuned piano, and many musical Bardians: Dylan Mattingly '14 discusses his composition of The Bakkhai, to be performed at Bard on December 10.