The Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents "Conservatory Sundays: Music Alive!" on Sunday, March 25

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard College Music Program and Bard College Conservatory of Music present “Conservatory Sundays: Music Alive!” on Sunday, March 25 at 3 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater.

Curated by artistic directors Grammy Award–winning composer Joan Tower and pianist Blair McMillen, this exciting program of 20th- and 21st-century music showcases works by Arvo Pärt, György Ligeti, John Adams, Meredith Monk, Michael Gandolfi, Béla Bartók, and Lukás Olejník ’13, and features more than 40 students from the Conservatory. Ticket prices for the Conservatory Sundays series are by suggested donation: $20 orchestra seats; $15 parterre and first balcony. The minimum donation for orchestra seating is $5. All ticket sales benefit the Conservatory’s scholarship fund. For ticket information contact the Fisher Center box office at fishercenter.bard.edu or call 845-758-7900. 

The program consists of a selection of works by 20th- and 21st-century composers: Fratres, Arvo Pärt; American Berserk, John Adams; L’Escalier du Diable, György Ligeti; Trifolium, Lukás Olejník ’13; history of the world in seven acts, Michael Gandolfi; from Facing North, Meredith Monk; and from Music for String Instruments, Percussion and Celesta, Béla Bartók.

Soloists for this performance include violinist On Yang Li ’12, composer/pianist Lukas Olejnik ’13, pianists Ronald Joseph ’12 and Maxwell McKee ’13, and singers Lucy Dhegrae ’12 and Matthew Morris ’12.

Also performing will be Reina Murooka ’16, and Sabrina Tabby ’14, violin; Chi-Hui Yen ’13 and Blair McMillen, piano; Hye Joong Jeong ’15 celesta/piano; Jeannette Brent ’16 and Emma Schmiedecke ’14, cello; Eleni Tsachtani ’13, flute; Amalie Wyrick-Flax ’13, clarinet; Petra Elek ’16, percussion; Anna Bikales ’15, harp; Amy Garapic, timpani; and Petra Elek ’16, xylophone.

The series continues with Conservatory Sundays: Conservatory Orchestra on Sunday, May 6, with music director Leon Botstein and soloist Weigang Li, violin. Suggested donation: $20 orchestra seating; $15 parterre/first balcony; minimum donation $5; free to Bard community with ID. The program includes Igor Stravinsky’s Divertimento, Symphonic Suite for Orchestra from the ballet The Fairy’s Kiss, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 and Manfred Symphony in B Minor, Op. 58.

 

About the Artists:

Hailed by the New York Times as “riveting,” “brilliant,” and as “new music’s torchbearer,” Blair McMillen has established himself as one of the most versatile and sought-after pianists today. He has performed in venues both traditional and avant-garde, from Carnegie Hall, the Moscow Conservatory, Metropolitan Museum, Caramoor, Miller Theatre, and the Library of Congress to (le) Poisson Rouge, Galapagos, The Knitting Factory, and The Stone. Highlights from recent seasons include the Walter Piston Concertino at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra, over a dozen performances of John Cage’s piano magnum opus Sonatas and Interludes, and numerous appearances with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber player, McMillen is pianist for the Naumburg Award–winning Da Capo Chamber Players, among others. He is cofounder and director of the Rite of Summer Music Festival on New York City’s Governor’s Island, an alt-classical outdoor series that had its critically-acclaimed inaugural season in Summer 2011. Blair McMillen holds degrees from Oberlin College, the Juilliard School, and Manhattan School of Music. He lives in New York City and serves on the music faculty at The Bard College Conservatory of Music. 

Joan Tower is widely regarded as one of the most important American composers living today. During a career spanning more than 50 years, she has made lasting contributions to musical life in the United States as a composer, performer, conductor, and educator. Her works have been commissioned by major ensembles, soloists, and orchestras, including the Emerson, Tokyo, and Muir quartets; soloists Evelyn Glennie, Carol Wincenc, David Shifrin, and John Browning; and the orchestras of Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C., among others. In 2008, Tower received three Grammy awards for a CD of her orchestral music on the Naxos label, and in 1990 she was the recipient of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Music. She is Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts at Bard College, where she has taught since 1972.

The mission of The Bard College Conservatory of Music is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music. The Conservatory features a unique double-degree program in which all undergraduate Conservatory students receive a bachelor of music and a bachelor of arts in another field. In addition, the Conservatory offers a graduate program in vocal arts, led by renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw; graduate programs in orchestral and choral Conducting, codirected by James Bagwell, Leon Botstein, and Harold Farberman; a Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship, directed by Frank Corliss; and a Preparatory Division for students ages 6–18, directed by Fu-chen Chan.

For more information go to www.bard.edu/conservatory, call 845-758-7196 or e-mail [email protected].

 

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March 5, 2012

This event was last updated on 01-09-2013

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