THE CONDUCTORS INSTITUTE AT BARD COLLEGE PRESENTS TWO "PASS-THE-BATON" CONCERTS ON JULY 12 AND 26
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.?Two concerts will be presented by the Conductors Institute at Bard College on Friday, July 12, and Friday, July 26, in Olin Hall. Free and open to the public, these concerts will begin at 9:00 a.m. (with a break for lunch between noon and 1:00 p.m.) and continue until 4:00 p.m. The audience is welcome to attend any or all of each day's activities. Each concert will feature the Institute Orchestra conducted by Institute conductors.
During a "Pass the Baton" concert, the audience is given a seamless rendition of each work as each of the 35 conductors pass the baton from one to another after completing their assigned section, without missing a beat. The concert on July 12 will feature performances of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, Mozart's Symphony No. 40, Strauss's Don Juan, and Harold Farberman's Concerto for Cathy, featuring oboist Cathy Gerardi (for whom the piece was written). The July 26th concert will highlight the 2002 Bard Music Festival, with a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2. In addition, there will be performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and a world premiere of Conrad Pope's The Fireman's Wife.
Harold Farberman founded the Conductors Institute (CI) 23 years ago, seeking to fill a void in the United States with a summer training program for conductors. "I hit on a formula that remains the same to this day?vigorous technical training and promotion of American music in a cooperative atmosphere," he said. The Conductors Institute is in its fourth year at Bard College, and the second that the master of fine arts degree in conducting is offered.
The structure of the Institute provides new instructors and new repertoire each week, assuring the participants exposure to a variety of expert opinions. The visiting faculty include maestri Leon Botstein, Apo Hsu, Larry Rachleff, and Nan Washburn; composers Conrad Pope and Melinda Wagner; and maestro Eduardo Navega, who directs the Discovery Program, designed for beginning conductors.
Artistic director Harold Farberman is a noted conductor, composer, and musician. His earliest composition, Evolution, has been recorded four times, once by Leopold Stokowski. Aaron Copland invited Farberman to study composition with him at Tanglewood after hearing Evolution. He was music director of the Colorado Springs and Oakland Symphony Orchestras, and principal guest conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth (Great Britain) Sinfonietta. He has been a frequent guest conductor and recording artist with orchestras including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, and Stockholm Philharmonic. A prolific composer of music for orchestra, ballet, film, chamber ensemble, and opera, he was awarded the Ives Medal for his dedication to the music of Charles Ives. In November 2000, his cello concerto was premiered by the American Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. Farberman founded the Conductors Guild and is the author of The Art of Conducting Technique.
Please mark your calendar: on Sunday, July 28, the Conductors Institute will offer a six-hour marathon thesis concert featuring the master of fine arts in conducting candidates. The program will begin at noon in Olin Hall and is free and open to the public.
For further information, call 845-758-7425 or visit the website www.bard.edu/ci.
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