BARD CONSERVATORY CONCERTS AND LECTURES PRESENTS A TALK BY NEW YORK TIMES CRITIC AT LARGE EDWARD ROTHSTEIN ON APRIL 20, AND A RECITAL BY THE BARD FESTIVAL STRING QUARTET ON APRIL 24 Both events are free and open to the pu

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard College Conservatory of Music Concerts and Lectures series presents two free events in April. On Wednesday, April 20, at 8:00 p.m., Edward Rothstein, critic at large for the New York Times, will discuss “What Bach Knew.” An all-Beethoven program will be featured during a recital on Sunday, April 24, at 3:00 p.m. by the Bard Festival String Quartet. Both events are free and open to the public and will be held in Bard College’s Olin Hall. Edward Rothstein says of his April 20 lecture, “My talk on Bach will be an attempt to discover something about the man behind the music, to examine why Bach seems to be, as Adorno once put it, ‘Janus-faced’—looking at once backward to an archaic past and forward to the Enlightenment, and to suggest what we continue to learn from him.” Rothstein writes criticism on cultural politics, literature, music, intellectual life, the arts, and technology for the New York Times. He writes the “Connections” column on culture and ideas and regularly covers museum exhibitions. He is coauthor of Visions of Utopia and the author of Emblems of Mind: The Inner Life of Music and Mathematics, which was named one of the 25 best books of 1995 by both Publisher’s Weekly and the New York Public Library. He was chief music critic of the New York Times (1991–1995), a technology columnist for the New York Times, and the music critic for The New Republic (1984–1991). His essays on science, politics, music, and the arts have appeared in the New York Review of Books, Commentary, The American Scholar, The New Republic, London Independent, and other magazines and journals. He has won two ASCAP–Deems Taylor Awards for his music criticism, an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award for his work on math and music, and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1991. A graduate of Yale University, Rothstein holds a doctorate from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He has done graduate work in mathematics at Brandeis University and earned a master's degree in English literature from Columbia University. The Bard Festival String Quartet—violinists Laurie Smukler and Patricia Sunwoo, violist Ira Weller, and cellist Robert Martin—will perform an all-Beethoven program on April 24, featuring the Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No 4; Quartet in B Major, Op. 18, No. 6; and Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127. -more- Formed at the Bard Music Festival in 1995, the Bard Festival String Quartet has won praise for the lyricism and intensity of its performances. The New York Times wrote that the quartet’s performance of Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ “. . . may stand as the most memorable performance of the festival.” Smukler and Weller were founding members of the Mendelssohn String Quartet; Patricia Sunwoo was member of the Whitman String Quartet from 1997 to 2002; and Robert Martin was cellist of the Sequioia String Quartet from 1975 to 1985. Together their years of string quartet experience find new focus and expression in the Bard Festival String Quartet. For further information about the Conservatory Concerts and Lectures series, call 845-758-7425. # Building on its distinguished history of innovation in arts and education, Bard College has launched the Bard College Conservatory of Music, which is currently accepting applications for admission for the fall 2005. This innovative, five-year, double-degree program is guided by the principle that musicians should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences to achieve their greatest potential. While training and studying for the bachelor of music degree with world class musicians and teachers and performing in state-of-the-art facilities, such as the new Frank Gehry–designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard Conservatory students will also pursue a bachelor of arts degree at Bard, one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges. The graduating musicians will be capable of pursuing professional careers with the broad, deep knowledge afforded by a liberal arts education, ready to enter their professions with interpretive skills well beyond simple musical competence. For more information about the Bard College Conservatory of Music, call 845-758-7196, e-mail [email protected], or log on to the program’s website, www.bard.edu/conservatory. “The mission of the Conservatory at Bard is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music,” says Robert Martin, director of the Conservatory and also vice president for academic affairs and dean of graduate studies at Bard College. “We believe deeply in the value of an education in the liberal arts and sciences, not as a luxury, but as the best preparation for functioning competitively and creatively.” According to Melvin Chen, who is associate director of the Conservatory and also teaches both music and science at Bard College, “Music, like all art, engages the mind and the heart. It redefines boundaries and questions limits in order to make a meaningful statement about the human condition. The education of the mind is therefore as important as the education of the fingers or voice. The greatest musicians not only have the technical mastery to communicate effectively, but also are deeply curious and equally adept at analytical and emotional modes of thought.” The Conservatory’s instrumental and composition faculty will include world-class musicians and composers, including pianists Chen, Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, and Peter Serkin; violinists Ani Kavafian, Weigang Li, Laurie Smukler, and Arnold Steinhardt; violists Michael Tree and Ira Weller; clarinetists Laura Flax and David Krakauer; cellists Sophie Chao and Peter Wiley; double bassist Marji Danilow; flutist Tara Helen O’Connor; oboist Laura Ahlbeck; bassoonist Marc Goldberg; horn players Julie Landsman and Jeffrey Lang; Dawn Upshaw, vocal arts; the Colorado String Quartet; and composer Joan Tower. Courses in music history, theory, and aural skills will be taught by the faculty of Bard’s Music Program. In addition, members and principals of the American Symphony Orchestra will be available for instruction, coaching, and leading of sectional rehearsals in the Conservatory Orchestra. # # # (4/6/05)

This event was last updated on 04-25-2005

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