THE BARD COLLEGE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC PRESENTS FOUR FREE PROGRAMS IN SEPTEMBER

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard College Conservatory of Music will present four free programs in September during the Conservatory Concerts and Lectures series. Each program will be held in Olin Hall (except November 20); no reservations are necessary. The series will begin on Sunday, September 4, at 3:00 p.m., with a piano recital by Xin Tong, who will perform works of Chopin. A student of Melvin Chen, Tong has just completed undergraduate studies at Yale College with a major in computer science. He will compete this fall in the International Chopin Competition in Poland. On Sunday, September 11, at 3:00 p.m., Melvin Chen, the assistant director of the conservatory, will conduct the premier performances of the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. The program will include Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite, Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, with two guest artists: the internationally renowned violinist Ida Kavafian and violist Steven Tenenbom, who are both members of the Conservatory faculty. On Wednesday, September 14, at 8:00 p.m., pianist Jeremy Denk will perform Bach partitas: No. 1 in B-flat Major, No. 2 in C Minor, No. 4 in D Major, No. 3 in A Minor, No. 5 in G Major, and No. 6 in E Minor. Denk, who has established a reputation as one of today’s most compelling young artists, is a 1998 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and won the 1997 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He serves on the faculty of the Conservatory. The next evening, Thursday, September 15, at 7:00 p.m., there will be a piano master class with Conservatory faculty member Richard Goode. The free series continues with a performance by the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, with guest conductor Fabio Mechetti, on Sunday, November 20, at 3:00 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts; and with a chamber music recital by Conservatory students and faculty on Sunday, December 11, at 3:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. For further information about the Concerts and Lectures series, call 845-758-7425. For information about the Bard College Conservatory of Music, call 845-758-7196, e-mail [email protected], or log onto the program’s website, www.bard.edu/conservatory. -continued- About the Artists: Melvin Chen received a B.S. in physics and chemistry from Yale University, M. Music degrees (piano and violin) from the Juilliard School, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University. He has performed at major venues in the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Frick Collection, Kennedy Center, and Boston’s Jordan Hall, in addition to other appearances throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia. Chen has collaborated with such artists as Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom, David Shifrin, Robert White, Pamela Frank, Peter Wiley, and members of the St. Lawrence, Mendelssohn, Miami, Orion, Borromeo, and Arditti quartets. He is a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two and has performed at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Chautauqua, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Bard Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire, among others. He appears on Wynton Marsalis’s series on music education, Marsalis on Music, and can be heard on Discover, Nices, and KBS label compact discs with violinist Juliette Kang. He is Christian A. Johnson Fellow and visiting assistant professor of music and chemistry at Bard and associate director of The Bard College Conservatory of Music. Pianist Jeremy Denk received both a B.A. in chemistry from Oberlin College and a B.Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Joseph Schwartz. He earned a master’s degree in music from Indiana University as a pupil of Gyorgy Sebok, and a doctorate in piano performance from the Juilliard School, where he worked with Herbert Stessin. A 1998 recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Denk also won the 1997 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which helped launch his national career as a recitalist and concerto soloist. He made a highly acclaimed New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in April 1997 as the recipient of the Juilliard School’s William Petschek Piano Debut Award. Since then he has given recitals in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., and has made numerous orchestral and festival appearances. He has been a featured artist in residence on NPR’s Performance Today. Denk has participated in many premieres: Leon Kirchner’s Duo No. 2 (with violinist Ida Levin) at Marlboro in the summer of 2002; Ned Rorem’s “The Unquestioned Answer” in the summer of 2003; Jake Heggie’s “Cut Time” in May 2001, with the Eos Orchestra; “Alternating Current,” a piece written for him by Kevin Puts, on his Kennedy Center recital; Mark O’Connor’s “Fiddle Sonata” (with the composer on fiddle) at the Library of Congress; and Libby Larsen’s “Collage: Boogie” at the Kennedy Center with the American-Soviet Youth Orchestra and Zubin Mehta. Solidly committed to chamber music, Denk has collaborated with several leading string quartets, among them the Borromeo, Brentano, Colorado, and Shanghai, and has appeared at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto Festival in Italy, and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, among others. He has spent several summers at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and been part of “Musicians from Marlboro” national tours. Pianist Richard Goode studied with Elvira Szigeti and Claude Frank, Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes College of Music, and Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute. He has won many prizes, including the Young Concert Artists Award, First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition, the Avery Fisher Prize, and a Grammy Award with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. His remarkable interpretations of Beethoven came to national attention when he played all five concerti with the Baltimore Symphony under David Zinman, and when he performed the complete cycle of sonatas at New York’s 92nd Street Y and Kansas City’s Folly Theater. Goode has made more than two dozen recordings, including Mozart concerti with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and chamber and solo works of Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, and George Perle. Goode is the first American-born pianist to have recorded the complete Beethoven Sonatas, which were nominated for a 1994 Grammy Award. As a recitalist, he has become a favorite throughout Europe as well as the United States, making regular appearances in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Vienna, and the leading cities of Germany and Italy. In Berlin, Die Welt proclaimed, “The musical world has a new pianist, who is able to play Beethoven like nobody else.” Goode serves, with Mitsuko Uchida, as coartistic director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Vermont. Internationally acclaimed as a violist as well as violinist, Ida Kavafian is an artist-member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and former violinist of the Beaux Arts Trio. She performs as a soloist; in recital with her sister, Ani; as a guest with such ensembles as the Guarneri String Quartet; and as artistic director of Music for Angel Fire in New Mexico. She is cofounder of the chamber group Tashi and the piano quartet Opus One, whose members include pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, cellist Peter Wiley, her husband, violist Steven Tenenbom, with whom she resides in Philadelphia and Connecticut, where they breed and train prize-winning Hungarian vizsla show dogs. Kavafian is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. Violist Steven Tenenbom, a member of the Orion String Quartet, has established a distinguished career as a chamber musician, soloist, recitalist, and teacher. He has worked with composer Lukas Foss and jazz artist Chick Corea, and appeared as guest artist with such eminent ensembles as the Guarneri and Emerson String Quartets, the Beaux Arts and Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trios, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has performed as soloist with the Utah Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and toured with the Brandenburg Ensemble throughout the United States and Japan. A recipient of the prestigious Coleman Chamber Music Award and a former member of the Galimir Quartet, he is currently a member of the renowned group Tashi and the piano quartet Opus One. Tenenbom is on the faculties of New York’s Mannes College of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music. Born in Xiangtan, Hunan province, China, Xin Tong began playing piano when he was 6. At age 11, he began to study in Shanghai with the renowned composer and pianist, Xiaosheng Zhao. Four years later, Tong was admitted into the precollege division of the Juilliard School, studiing with Victoria Mushkatkol, receiving prizes in school and nationwide competitions, and graduating with the distinguished prize for the best pianist of the year. After Juilliard, Tong went to Yale College, where he majored in computer science and electrical engineering. He continued to study music, with Melvin Chen, at Yale, and is now in the graduate certificate program of The Bard College Conservatory of Music. Tong was heard on a young artist program of a New York classical music station performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and has competed and won prizes in Cincinnati World Piano Competition and Chicago Grace Welsh International Piano Competition. In September, he will compete in the prestigious Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland. # # # (8/25/05)

This event was last updated on 09-16-2005

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