TWO FREE PROGRAMS IN FEBRUARY OFFERED BY BARD’S CONSERVATORY CONCERTS AND LECTURES SERIES Bard Conservatory Chamber Orchestra performs in the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on February 26
Musicologist Joseph Horowitz discusses “The Classical Music ‘Crisis’ and What Comes Next” on February 22; Bard Conservatory Chamber Orchestra performs in the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on February 26 ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Conservatory Concerts and Lectures, presented by The Bard College Conservatory of Music, offers a lecture by renowned musicologist Joseph Horowitz on Wednesday, February 22 in Olin Hall at 8:00 p.m., and a concert by the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra in Bard’s Fisher Center on Sunday, February 26 at 3:00 p.m. Both programs are free and open to the public. Joseph Horowitz, whose lecture is titled “The Classical Music ‘Crisis’ and What Comes Next,” was a music critic for the New York Times from 1977 to 1980. His most recent book is Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall. He is also the author of Conversations with Arrau (winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award); Understanding Toscanini: How He Became an American Culture-God and Helped Create a New Audience for Old Music; The Ivory Trade, Wagner Nights: An American History (winner of the Irving Lowens Award of the Society of American Music); The Post-Classical Predicament; and (for young readers) Dvorak in America: In Search of the New World. From 1992 to 1997 he served as artistic adviser and then executive director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, resident orchestra of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Horowitz has subsequently served as an artistic adviser to various American orchestras, most regularly the New Jersey Symphony and the Pacific Symphony. He has taught at the Eastman School, Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Mannes College, and is a regular contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times Book Review, and Times Literary Supplement. He is the author of “Classical Music” for both the Oxford Encyclopedia of American History and the Encyclopedia of New York State; other publications for which he has written include American Music, American Scholar, New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Musical Quarterly, New York Review of Books, and Nineteenth Century Music. The Bard Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Harold Farberman, performs works by Mahler and Ives in the Sosnoff Theater of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Soprano Kendra Colton is the featured soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, in the arrangement for chamber ensemble by Erwin Stein. Conductor and composer Harold Farberman has written diverse works for orchestra, three operas, numerous chamber works, a score for an Academy Award–winning documentary film, and music for dance companies. Many of his works, which have been performed all over the world, are represented on three Albany Records CDs devoted to his music. An advocate of modern music, he received the Ives Award for his definitive interpretations of the work of Charles Ives. Farberman founded the Conductors Guild and is the Conductors author of a pioneering work, The Art of Conducting Technique: A New Perspective, an innovative approach to the physical placement and movement of the baton. He is also the founder and artistic director of the Institute and director of Bard’s master of music degree program in conducting. A member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s percussion section from 1951 to 1963, Farberman was its youngest performer when he joined the orchestra immediately after graduating from The Juilliard School of Music. Acclaimed soprano Kendra Colton began her musical training as a pianist at age 5, and remained faithful to the piano through her years of study at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik, Oberlin College, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music—receiving master of music degrees in both piano and voice. With the award of first place in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in Cincinnati, Colton began to take singing seriously. She is a versatile and highly praised artist—working with conductors Helmuth Rilling, Seiji Ozawa, Nicholas McGegan, John Nelson, and Bruno Weil, and directors Jonathan Miller, Stephen Wadsworth, Francesca Zambello, and Colin Graham. Colton has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; the Albany, Houston, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, and National Symphony Orchestras; and the Washington Bach Consort, among others. Following her world premiere performance and recording of Tomiko Kohjiba’s Transmigration of the Soul at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Colton has reprised the work with the Women’s Philharmonic, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. She has also appeared in operas produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Boston Lyric Opera, and Skylight Opera Theater. She has performed in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and England. In addition to her many concert appearances, Colton also sang two seasons at the Opernhaus Zürich. The spring Conservatory Concerts and Lectures series continues with a recital by pianist Melvin Chen, associate director of the Conservatory, on Sunday, March 19, at 3:00 p.m., in Olin Hall. The series concludes on Thursday, May 11, at 8:00 p.m., with a performance by the Bard Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, at the Sosnoff Theater of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. The program features the Spohr Violin Concerto No. 8 (known as the “Gesangszene”), with violinist Luo-sha Fang, a winner of the Conservatory Concerto Competition. For further information about the Conservatory Concerts and Lectures, call 845-758-7425. For reservations for the two Bard Conservatory Chamber Orchestra concerts at the Fisher Center, call the box office at 845-758-7900. # Building on its distinguished history of innovation in the arts and education, Bard College has launched The Bard College Conservatory of Music. 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 Frank Gehry–designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard Conservatory students also pursue a bachelor of arts degree at Bard, one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges. The Bard College Conservatory of Music’s instrumental and composition faculty includes world-class musicians and composers, including violinists Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Weigang Li, Laurie Smukler, and Arnold Steinhardt; violists Steven Tenenbom, Michael Tree, and Ira Weller; cellists Sophie Shao and Peter Wiley; double bassist Marji Danilow; pianists Melvin Chen, Jeremy Denk, Peter Serkin, and piano master classes with Richard Goode; oboists Laura Ahlbeck and Richard Dallessio; flutist Tara Helen O’Connor; clarinetists Laura Flax and David Krakauer; bassoonist Marc Goldberg; hornists Julie Landsman and Jeffrey Lang; trombonist John Rojak; and trumpeter Mark Gould.The Colorado Quartet and Da Capo Chamber Players are in residence. Members and principals of the American Symphony Orchestra are also available for instruction, coaching, and leading of sectional rehearsals in the Conservatory Orchestra. In 2006–07, the Conservatory will introduce three additional programs: the Vocal Arts Graduate Program, directed by Dawn Upshaw; The Conductors Institute and its graduate program in conducting, directed by Harold Farberman; and the Composition Program, directed by Joan Tower and George Tsontakis. For more 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. # # # (2/7/06)Recent Press Releases:
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