WOODSTOCK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA WILL PERFORM AN ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM AT BARD COLLEGE ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra (WCO) will offer an all-Beethoven program on Wednesday, October 30, at Bard College. All concerts on the Bard Campus are presented by The Bard Center and will begin at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. Admission: $12 adults; $6 non-Bard students; free for children 12 and under and Bard students, staff, and faculty.
Works to be performed include Beethoven's Overture to Coriolan; Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, "Eroica"; and Romance for Violin in F Major, with guest violinist Julie Berman. [This concert will also be offered at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 26, at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Kingston; and on Sunday, October 27, at 3:00 p.m. at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.]
Violinist Julie Berman began violin lessons at the age of seven with Patricia Rudoff and continued her studies at Oberlin College with Richard Young and Marilyn McDonald. She was a member of the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, the Oberlin Orchestra, and the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble. After graduation from Oberlin, Berman was a member of the McLean Symphony and the Prince William County Symphony, both in Virginia. Berman joined the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra in 1988, after moving to the Hudson Valley, and is also a member of the Greater Newburgh Symphony and the Amante String Quartet. She is a member of the faculty of the music performance program at Dutchess County Community College and resides in Red Hook with her family.
WCO artistic director Luis Garcia-Renart's "supreme gift as conductor is his ability to inspire and elicit depth of expression from all his musicians, whatever level of technical ability," wrote music critic Kitty Montgomery in the Daily Freeman. This is Garcia-Renart's 12th year as artistic director of the WCO. He is a professor of music at Bard College and also serves on the faculties of Vassar College, the Piatigorsky seminars at the University of Southern California, and Yale University's summer programs in chamber music. He was born in Barcelona, Spain, and studied at the Music School of the National University and the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico. From 1951 until 1956, his cello studies were supervised by Pablo Casals. Until 1960 he studied directly with Casals in France and in Puerto Rico. That same year he won a scholarship to study at the Conservatory of Moscow with Mstislav Rostropovich and Aram Khachaturian. Garcia-Renart attended the conservatories of Bern and Basel, Switzerland; and Trossingen, Germany, where he was a pupil of Sándor Veress and Sándor Vegh. Garcia-Renart has won awards at the Casals International Contests in Paris in 1956, Xalapa in 1959, and Israel in 1961. He also received the Harriet Cohen Cello Prize in London in 1959. In addition to conducting, Garcia-Renart has been an active soloist in Europe, the Soviet Union, Israel, and North and South America.
The WCO, formed in 1980 by musicians from the Woodstock area, has expanded over the years and is now composed of 38 professional musicians from the entire Hudson Valley area. The WCO regularly commissions and performs music by local and regional composers. Each season it gives approximately 14 performances at locations in Bearsville, Kingston, Saugerties, and at Bard College.
On Wednesday, March 12, 2003, the WCO will offer a concert titled "Mostly Mendelssohn." Works to be performed include Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, "Fingal's Cave"; Nocturne from A Midsummer Night's Dream; and Symphony No. 1 in C Minor. A new work by Bard alumnus Casey Hale, class of 2002, will also receive its premiere by the WCO. [This program will also be offered at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Kingston; and on Sunday, March 9, at 3:00 p.m. at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.]
The final concert of the 2002–03 WCO season at Bard College will take place on Wednesday, April 16, when the orchestra will offer an all-Mozart program. Works to be performed include Symphony No. 31 in D, "Paris"; Concerto for Flute and Harp, with flutist Melissa Sweet and harpist Kathleen Wychulis; and Symphony No. 35 in D, "Haffner." [This program will also be offered at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Kingston; and at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 13, at the Reformed Church of Saugerties.]
On Saturday, April 5, there will be a benefit concert of choral selections, performed by the Kingston High School Choir, directed by Paul Scatenato, and the Rhinebeck High School Choir, directed by Grace Lalicki. Both choruses will appear with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra. This program will begin at 3:00 p.m. in Olin Hall and will benefit the choruses and the WCO.
These concerts are made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and through the generosity of the Homeland Foundation and of the Leon Levy Foundation at Bard College. For further information or to order tickets, call the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra at 845-246-7045.
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(10.21.02)