BARD'S FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR SPRING SERIES FEATURES A FREE PROGRAM WITH THE AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, FEBRUARY 16, AT THE RICHARD B. FISHER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Monday afternoon series, "Revolution and the Limits of Reason," will include concert

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—On Monday afternoons from February 2 through May 10, Bard's spring 2004 First-Year Seminar program, "Revolution and the Limits of Reason," will offer a series of concert programs, poetry readings, staged performances, lectures, films, and panel discussions. All the events are free and open to the public and will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Olin Hall (with the exception of the February 16 event).

The event on February 16, a highlight of the series, is a program with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra titled "Reading Between the Notes: Beethoven, Romanticism, and Politics." Using Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in Eb Major, Op. 55 (Eroica) as the focal point, Botstein and the orchestra will discuss the composer and the work, illustrating through performance how the piece came to be written and its social, political, and musical context. The program, which will include a performance of the Eroica Symphony in its entirety, begins at 4:30 p.m., and is free and open to the public. Following the performance, Botstein and the orchestra will take questions from the audience. For information on this program only, contact the Fisher Center box office at 845-758-7900.

Other events that will feature Bard faculty include the February 23 program "Bard Poets Read the Romantics," with readings by Robert Kelly, Ann Lauterbach, Joan Retallack, Celia Bland, Benjamin LaFarge, Michael Ives, Fiona Wilson, and others; the lecture/concert "'The Difficult Resolution': Beethoven's Last String Quartet," on March 15, featuring the Colorado String Quartet, with an introductory talk by Christopher Gibbs; and a performance on April 26 of "Scenes from the Dramas of Georg Buechner," staged and performed by JoAnne Akalaitis's directing seminar and acting company. There are also lectures by distinguished outside scholars, including Vassar College professor Giovanna Borradori, who will discuss "Philosophy in a Time of Terror" on February 2, the opening lecture of the series.

The spring lecture series is a part of the First-Year Seminar at Bard College, a required two-semester program for freshman students that introduces them to worldwide, intellectual, artistic, and cultural traditions and to methods of studying those traditions.

The lecture series provides a public forum for the students, the public, and leading scholars and artists to explore both contemporary and relevant issues, as well as the latest scholarship on enduring questions.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information about the American Symphony Orchestra event on February 16, call the Fisher Center Box Office at 758-7900. For information about all other events, call 758-7512.

#

The American Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski with a mission to "perform concerts of great music within the means of everyone." Today, under music director Leon Botstein (who assumed the post in 1992), that mission has broadened into an effort to revitalize the concertgoing experience in order to maintain it as a vibrant force in contemporary culture. As part of Lincoln Center Presents Great Performers, the American Symphony Orchestra performs thematically organized concerts at Avery Fisher Hall, linking music to the visual arts literature, politics, and popular culture, often in collaboration with museums and other cultural institutions. The American Symphony Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the new Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where it participates in a winter concert series as well as the summer Bard Music Festival. The American Symphony Orchestra also offers a variety of music education programs at high schools in Manhattan and New Jersey.

Leon Botstein is music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra; founder and coartistic director of the Bard Music Festival; and president of Bard College. He was recently appointed music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. He is editor of The Musical Quarterly and has published several books, including The Compleat Brahms and Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture.

#

Schedule of Events:

February 2: "Philosophy in a Time of Terror"
Lecture by Giovanna Borradori, Vassar College

February 16: "Reading Between the Notes: Beethoven, Romanticism, and Politics"
Lecture and program by Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra
[Sosnoff Theater, The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, box office: 845-758-7900]

February 23: "Bard Poets Read the Romantics"
Poetry reading by Bard faculty members, including Robert Kelly, Ann Lauterbach, Joan Retallack, Celia Bland, Benjamin LaFarge, Michael Ives, Fiona Wilson, and others

March 15: "'The Difficult Resolution': Beethoven's Last String Quartet"
Introductory talk by Christopher Gibbs, Bard College
Demonstration and concert by the Colorado String Quartet, artists-in-residence at Bard

April 26: "Scenes from the Dramas of Georg Buechner"
Staged and performed by JoAnne Akalaitis's directing seminar and acting company

# # #

1/21/04

This event was last updated on 05-23-2005

Back to Top