The Orchestra Now Begins 2025 Winter/Spring Season at Bard College with Six Concerts and Three Programs, February 8 – April 6

Special Event Collaboration American Ballet Theatre Studio Company
 
TŌN Makes First Visit to Europe with Two Concerts in Germany on May 6 & 8
 
Soloists Include Violinist Anna Reszniak, Cellist Benedict Kloeckner, Clarinetist Miles Wazni,
and Guest Conductor Charles Barker

New York, NY, January 7, 2025 — The Orchestra Now (TŌN) begins its winter/spring, 10^th anniversary season with performances led by music director Leon Botstein at the Fisher Center at Bard College on February 8, and continues through April 6.

Highlights include a Carnegie Hall preview concert offering three orchestral transcriptions of works by master composers Beethoven, Chopin, and Smetana (February 8-9); the TŌN spring benefit, a unique collaboration with the dancers of American Ballet Theatre Studio Company (February 28 and March 1); and the season’s closing concert at Bard with works by Kaija Saariaho, Albéric Magnard, and Carl Maria von Weber with soloist and winner of the 2023 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition, clarinetist Miles Wazni (April 5-6).

Marking the Orchestra’s first visit abroad during its 10^th anniversary, TŌN performs two concerts in Germany: one at the Koblenz IMUKO Festival (Internationale Musik-Kontakte) (Koblenz, May 6); and the second commemorating the end of the Second World War in Europe 80 years ago and performed in a concert hall built on the same grounds where the Nazi regime was rallying (Nuremberg, May 8).

THE FISHER CENTER AT BARD COLLEGE, SOSNOFF THEATER

Transcription as Translation: A Carnegie Hall Preview Concert
Saturday, February 8, 2025, at 7 PM
Sunday, February 9, 2025, at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Mily Balakirev: Chopin Suite
Bedřich Smetana (orch. Szell): From My Life (String Quartet in E Minor)
Beethoven (orch. Weingartner): Hammerklavier (Piano Sonata No. 29)
In 1910, the last year of his life, Russian composer and pianist Mily Balakirev transcribed four pieces into an orchestral suite to celebrate the centenary of Chopin’s birth. To honor another centenary in 1927, that of Beethoven’s death, Austrian conductor and composer Felix Weingartner crafted a full orchestration of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29, the Hammerklavier. While teaching composition at Mannes College of Music in 1940, acclaimed Hungarian-born American conductor George Szell created an orchestral transcription of Smetana’s E-minor String Quartet, From My Life.
This program will be performed at Carnegie Hall on February 11

Spring Benefit: TŌN + ABT Studio Company
Friday, February 28, 2025, at 7:30 PM
Saturday, March 1, 2025, at 7:30 PM
Charles Barker, conductor
American Ballet Theatre Studio Company
Tarantella: George Balanchine, choreography; Music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Crimson Flame: Madison Brown, choreography; Music by Philip Glass
Birthday Variations (Pas de Deux): Gerald Arpino, choreography; Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Night Falls: Brady Farrar, choreography; Music by Frederic Chopin
Swan Lake Act III (Pas de Deux): Kevin McKenzie, choreography, after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov; Music by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Human: Yannick Lebrun, choreography; Music by Blick Bassy
U Don’t Know Me: Houston Thomas, choreography; Music by Avro Pärt
Plus additional works to be announced.
Two of New York’s finest artistic training programs join forces as the graduate musicians of The Orchestra Now welcome the dancers of American Ballet Theatre Studio Company to the Fisher Center at Bard for a performance of music and dance.

Weber & Laterna Magica
Saturday, April 5, 2025, at 7 PM
Sunday, April 6, 2025, at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Miles Wazni, clarinet
Kaija Saariaho: Laterna Magica
Carl Maria von Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 74
Albéric Magnard: Symphony No. 4
The final performance of TŌN’s 10^th season at the Fisher Center begins with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Laterna Magica (The Magic Lantern), inspired by filmmaker Ingmar Bergman’s autobiography of the same name, and commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Lucerne Festival. As she read the book, Saariaho said her composition was inspired by “the Laterna Magica, the first machine to create the illusion of a moving image: as the handle turns faster and faster, the individual images disappear and instead the eye sees continuous movement.” The work’s 2009 world premiere was given by the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle. The Orchestra is then joined by clarinetist Miles Wazni, a winner of the 2023 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition, for Carl Maria von Weber’s virtuosic three-movement Clarinet Concerto No. 2, written for the notable clarinetist Heinrich Baermann, the soloist at the 1813 premiere. The concert closes with composer Albéric Magnard’s final symphony. Often referred to as the “French Bruckner,” his work is fully rooted in late 19th-century French Romantic tradition. Magnard became a national hero in 1914 when he died defending his property from German invaders.
Tickets, priced at $15 - $35, are available online at fishercenter.bard.edu, or by calling the Fisher Center at 845.758.7900.

THE ORCHESTRA NOW IN GERMANY
TŌN performs two concerts in Germany, marking the Orchestra’s first visit abroad on the occasion of its 10^th anniversary. The May 6 concert in Koblenz is part of the Koblenz IMUKO Festival (Internationale Musik-Kontakte), which has a dedicated focus on multicultural engagement, bringing together artists from different genres and cultures to perform, collaborate, and share their musical traditions to strengthen a sense of global community. The featured soloist is acclaimed cellist Benedict Kloeckner, artistic director of the IMUK0 Festival.

The May 8 performance in Nuremberg, at the invitation of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, commemorates the date exactly 80 years ago, when the Second World War in Europe ended in 1945. The memorial concert features music by Mendelssohn, whose music was banned during the Nazi era owing to his Jewish heritage. By featuring Mendelssohn’s music, the concert seeks to recall the hope that the 1945 victory in Europe over Nazism would bring peace and tolerance in a new world without war. The program spotlights Polish violinist Anna Reszniak, concertmaster of the Nürnberger Symphoniker, and award-winner of the Poznan Wieniawski Competition and the Sion-Valais Shlomo Mintz competitions, among many others.
The May 8 concert in Nuremberg will be broadcast live on German radio by Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at 7:30 PM
Koblenz, Germany, Rhein-Mosel Halle
Leon Botstein, conductor
Benedict Kloeckner, cello
Max Bruch: Adagio on Celtic Melodies for cello and orchestra, Op. 56
Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 97, “Rhenish”
Max Bruch: Ave Maria for cello and orchestra, Op. 61
Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5, “Reformation”

Thursday, May 8, 2025, at 8:00 PM
Nuremberg, Germany, Musiksaal der Kongresshalle
Leon Botstein, conductor
Anna Reszniak, violin
Chamber Choir of the Nuremberg University of Music, directed by Peter Dijkstra
All-Felix Mendelssohn Program:
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Symphony No. 5 in D major/D minor, Op. 107, “Reformation”
Choral Cantata Verleih uns Frieden

For detailed information about the 2025 winter/spring season, visit ton.bard.edu.

The Orchestra Now
Founded in 2015 by conductor and educator Leon Botstein, The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a graduate program of Bard College that trains the next generation of music professionals to become creative ambassadors of classical music. It offers accomplished young musicians a full-tuition fellowship toward a master’s degree in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies or an advanced certificate in Orchestra Studies. TŌN’s innovative curriculum combines rehearsal, performance, recording, and touring with seminars, masterclasses, professional development workshops, teaching, and more. The members of the Orchestra are graduates of the world’s leading conservatories, and hail from countries across North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Many have gone on to careers in the Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Vancouver, and National symphony orchestras; Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia; the United States military bands; and many others. In the 2024-25 season, the Orchestra welcomes 18 new members, for a total of 64 musicians from 14 countries around the globe.

TŌN performs dozens of concerts a year at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Fisher Center at Bard. Specializing in both familiar and rarely heard repertoire, the Orchestra has given numerous New York, U.S., and world premieres, and performed the work of living composers including Joan Tower and Tania León. In 2023, TŌN appeared with Bradley Cooper in the Academy Award-nominated film Maestro, and was featured on the Deutsche Grammophon soundtrack, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The Orchestra has performed with many other distinguished guest conductors and soloists, including Leonard Slatkin, Gil Shaham, Neeme Järvi, Stephanie Blythe, Fabio Luisi, Vadim Repin, Peter Serkin, Tan Dun, and JoAnn Falletta.

TŌN has released several albums on the Hyperion, Sorel Classics, and AVIE labels. May 2024’s The Lost Generation includes world-premiere recordings of works by Hugo Kauder, Hans Erich Apostel, and Adolf Busch. Other highlights include rare recordings of Othmar Schoeck’s Lebendig begraben and Bristow’s Arcadian Symphony, and the soundtrack to the motion picture Forte. Recordings of TŌN’s live concerts from the Fisher Center can be heard regularly on Classical WMHT-FM and WWFM The Classical Network, and the Orchestra has appeared over 100 times on Performance Today, broadcast nationwide.

Visit ton.bard.edu to find out more about TŌN’s academic program, concerts, musicians, albums, and broadcasts; sign up for the email list; and support the orchestra with a donation.

Leon Botstein Leon Botstein is founder and music director of The Orchestra Now (TŌN), music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO), artistic co-director of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, and conductor laureate and principal guest conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (JSO), where he served as music director from 2003 to 2011. He has been guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre, Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Taipei Symphony, Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, and Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas in Venezuela, among others. In 2018, he assumed artistic directorship of Campus Grafenegg and Grafenegg Academy in Austria.

Recordings include acclaimed recordings of Othmar Schoeck’s Lebendig begraben with TŌN, Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner with the ASO, a Grammy-nominated recording of Popov’s First Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra, and other various recordings with TŌN, ASO, the London Philharmonic, NDR Orchestra Hamburg, and JSO, among others. He is editor of The Musical Quarterly and author of numerous articles and books, including The Compleat Brahms (Norton), Jefferson’s Children (Doubleday), Judentum und Modernität (Bölau), and Von Beethoven zu Berg (Zsolnay). His many honors include Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Award; the American Academy of Arts and Letters award; and Cross of Honor, First Class, from the government of Austria, for his contributions to music. Other distinctions include the Bruckner Society’s Julio Kilenyi Medal of Honor for his interpretations of that composer’s music, the Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, and Carnegie Foundation’s Academic Leadership Award. In 2011, he was inducted into the American Philosophical Society.

Press Contacts
Pascal Nadon
Pascal Nadon Communications
Phone: 646.234.7088
Email: [email protected]

Mark Primoff
Associate Vice President of Communications
Bard College
Phone: 845.758.7412
Email: [email protected]        

 
 

This event was last updated on 01-13-2025

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