Conservatory of Music Presents the Spring 2007 Conservatory Concerts and Lectures

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard College Conservatory of Music presents the popular series, Conservatory Concerts and Lectures, for spring 2007. Performances and master classes feature faculty members and students of The Bard College Conservatory of Music and are free and open to the public. The first program of the series, on Tuesday, February 6, at 3:00 p.m. in Olin Hall, is a master class with violinist and Conservatory faculty member Ani Kavafian. In addition to performing with many of America’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra, Kavafian has appeared at the White House on three separate occasions, been featured on many network specials, and for some years been the artistic director, along with cellist Carter Brey, of the New Jersey chamber music series “Mostly Music.” She is an artist-member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is also on the faculties of Yale University and SUNY Stony Brook. On Friday, February 16, at 8:00 p.m., Leon Botstein leads the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra in a concert at the Sosnoff Theater of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. The program features violinist Erica Kiesewetter, cellist Robert Martin, and pianist Blair McMillen as soloists, and includes performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Op. 84; Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2; Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8; and Bohuslav Martinů’s Concertino for Piano Trio and String Orchestra. Pianist Melvin Chen, associate director of the Conservatory and associate professor of interdisciplinary studies at Bard, appears in recital on Sunday, March 11, at 3:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. He will perform Bach's French Suite No. 5 in G Major; Schumann's Waldszenen (Forest Scenes); Liszt's Après une lecture de Dante (Fantasie quasi Sonate); and Joan Tower's "Stepping Stones," with Joan Tower, piano. Chen has performed at major venues in the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall, the Frick Collection, and the Kennedy Center, in addition to other appearances throughout the country, Canada, and Asia. He was selected to be a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two, and has performed at Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Chautauqua, Music from Angel Fire, and the Bard Music Festival, among others. He can be heard on Discover, Nices, and KBS label compact discs with violinist Juliette Kang. On March 13, at 2:00 p.m. in Olin Hall, Lucy Shelton offers a voice master class. The only artist to receive the International Walter W. Naumburg Award twice, as a soloist and as a chamber musician, soprano Shelton has performed repertoire from Bach to Boulez in major recital, chamber and orchestral venues throughout the world. Violinist Laurie Smukler and pianist Jeremy Denk perform “The Complete Brahms Violin and Piano Sonatas,” in recital on Saturday, March 17, at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. The works include Brahms's Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 77; Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op.100; Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108. Both Smukler and Denk are faculty members of the Conservatory. Smukler is an active soloist and recitalist and has established a reputation as one of the finest chamber musicians in the country. In New York, she appears regularly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with the Festival Chamber Music Society and the Bard Music Festival, and in the “Collection in Concert” series, which she codirects, at the Pierpont Morgan Library. Dedicated to teaching as well as performing, she is professor of violin and head of the string area at the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase, where she is also artistic director of the “Faculty and Friends” concert series. Denk was a 1998 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 1997 won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, both of which helped launch his national career as a recitalist and concerto soloist. This season Denk debuts with the Saint Louis and Houston symphony orchestras, and he makes his Carnegie Hall debut on tour with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. His past engagements have included appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, and London Philharmonia; he has also appeared regularly in Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. On Wednesday, March 21, at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall, pianist Claude Frank performs Chopin's Fantasie; Mozart's Sonata, K. 330; Beethoven's Sonata, Op. 110; Schubert's Sonata in B-flat, D. 959, in recital. Frank also offers a master class for Conservatory students on Tuesday, March 20, at TK (location to be announced). Frank has appeared with most of the world’s major orchestras, including the Boston, Chicago, National, and Buenos Aires Symphonies, the New York and Berlin Philharmonics, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Frank has participated in major music festivals in the Americas and in Europe, Africa, and Asia. His enduring involvement with the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York is legendary, and in the summer of 2005 he served as a distinguished faculty member at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. An influential teacher, Frank serves on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Yale School of Music. Violinist Pamela Frank offers a master class for Conservatory students from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater of the Fisher Center. Works by Strauss, Franck and Tchaikovsky are performed by Tina Zhang, Allegra Chapman, Luosha Fang, and Di Wu. Frank has established an outstanding international reputation across an unusually varied range of performing activity. Her consistently high level of musicianship was recognized in 1999 with the Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists. On Saturday, March 24, at 2:00 p.m. in Blum Hall, Ani Kavafian offers a second master class. Students from The Bard College Conservatory of Music perform a chamber music concert on Sunday, March, 25, at 7:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. Khachaturian's Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano (Sarah Wegener, Xianbo Wen, Shun-yang Lee); Messaien's Quartet for the End of Time (Sam Israel, clarinet; Shawn Moore, violin; Emanuel Evans, cello; Allegra Chapman, piano); Joan Tower's Clarinet Quintet (Conor Brown, clarinet; Luosha Fang, violin; Di Wu, violin; Shuangshuang Liu, viola; Jia Cao, cello); and Schubert's String Quartet "Rosamunde" Op. 29 #1 in A minor, D. 804 (Luosha Fang, violin; Di Wu, violin; Shuangshuang Liu, viola; Jia Cao, cello) The Bard Festival String Quartet—violinists Laurie Smukler and Patricia Sunwoo, violist Ira Weller, and cellist Robert Martin—with guest artist clarinetist David Krakauer appear in concert on Tuesday, April 10, at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. The program includes Beethoven’s Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, and Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. A Public Reading from the Carnegie Hall Osvaldo Golijov/Dawn Upshaw Workshop occurs on Thursday, April 12, at 6:30 p.m. in Olin Hall. The program features students and guest artists of the Graduate Program in Vocal Arts of The Bard College Conservatory of Music. Faculty Recital, Thursday, April 19, 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. Pianist Jeremy Denk and violinist Soovin Kim perform all of the violin and piano sonatas of American iconoclast Charles Ives. The Sosnoff Theater of the Fisher Center is the setting for the performance of the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra Concert, conducted by Melvin Chen, on Sunday, April 22, at 3:00 p.m. The program features Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Bard College Chamber Singers, James Bagwell, director, and Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with Conservatory Concerto Competition winner Yiwen Shen. Master class with cellist Jian Wang, on Wednesday, April 25, at 4:00 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater of the Fisher Center. Wednesday, May 2, Conservatory faculty member, pianist Jeremy Denk in recital, 8:00 p.m. Olin Hall. Conservatory Chamber Concerts featuring faculty and students of the Conservatory are featured on Sundays, May 6 and 13, at 3:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. For further information, call the Conservatory at 845-758-7196, e-mail [email protected], or visit www.bard.edu/conservatory. # About the Bard College Conservatory of Music Building on its distinguished history in the arts and education, Bard College has launched The Bard College Conservatory of Music, which welcomed its first class in August 2005. This innovative, 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, Conservatory students also pursue a bachelor of arts degree at Bard, one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges. Conservatory faculty include violinists Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Soovin Kim, 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; flutists Tara Helen O’Connor and Nadine Asin; clarinetists Laura Flax and David Krakauer; bassoonist Marc Goldberg; horn players Julie Landsman and Jeffrey Lang; trombonist John Rojak; trumpeter Mark Gould; and tuba player Alan Baer. The Conservatory Composition Program is directed by Joan Tower and George Tsontakis. 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 of the Conservatory Orchestra. In addition, the resources and faculty of the Bard College Music Program are available to students of the conservatory. The Conservatory also includes the Graduate Program in Vocal Arts, directed by Dawn Upshaw, and The Conductors Institute and its graduate program in conducting, directed by Harold Farberman. 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. # # # (01.16.07)

This event was last updated on 05-07-2007

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