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August 2020
08-24-2020
Next month, the Bard Music Festival joins forces with The Orchestra Now (TŌN) and the Bard College Conservatory to present “Out of the Silence: A Celebration of Music,” a series of four free livestreamed concerts for string orchestra, piano and percussion (Sept. 5–26), coming to UPSTREAMING, the Fisher Center’s virtual stage. All programs are free, reservations requested. Pairing works by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, and Bartók—all past subjects of the Bard Music Festival—with music by 10 prominent Black composers, ranging from classical pioneer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, to contemporary Americans Alvin Singleton, Adolphus Hailstork, and Jessie Montgomery, the series celebrates Bard’s commitment to neglected rarities and the unquenchable joy of music making. All four programs will be performed without an audience and with appropriate safety measures on Bard College’s idyllic Hudson Valley campus by its unique graduate training orchestra, TŌN, under the leadership of Music Director Leon Botstein and other members of the TŌN artistic team. Hailed as “a highlight of the musical year” (Wall Street Journal), the Bard Music Festival is the inspiration for Bard’s annual seven-week SummerScape festival, whose devoted fans will no doubt enjoy the chance to experience virtually some of the adventurous Bard music-making they have been missing. Click here to hear Botstein and TŌN perform William Grant Still's Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American.”
Since its founding in 1990, the Bard Music Festival has succeeded in enriching the standard concert repertory with a wealth of important rediscoveries; as the New York Times points out, “wherever there is an overlooked potential masterpiece, Leon Botstein is not too far behind.” True to this mission, “Out of the Silence” shines a light on some of the important Black composers so rarely admitted to the canon. Examples of their work will be heard in September alongside music by four composers featured in early seasons of the festival. By celebrating more than three decades of musical exploration at Bard while amplifying some of society’s most unjustly neglected artistic voices, the series looks ahead to a more equitable future.
The Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Bard Music Festival, the President of Bard College, and “one of the most remarkable figures in the worlds of arts and culture” (THIRTEEN/WNET), Botstein explains:
“These concerts are an affirmation of Bard’s commitment to the centrality of music in our public culture. The series takes its title from the opening work on this series, by William Grant Still. Out of the Silence therefore carries two meanings: the return of music to the public stage after months of silence, and the foregrounding of music too long kept in the shadows, music by Black composers who have never gotten their proper due on the concert stages of the world. As the performance of music begins anew, Bard will pioneer, as it has in the past, on behalf of those composers and works of music left, unjustly, in obscurity.”
It was Botstein who founded TŌN five years ago, to help make orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences. He leads the orchestra in all four programs of “Out of the Silence,” which also features appearances by TŌN’s Academic Director and Associate Conductor James Bagwell, Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman and Assistant Conductor Andrés Rivas. Keyboard faculty from the Bard Conservatory of Music will join TŌN for several performances.
“Out of the Silence”
“Out of the Silence” opens with two works by the great William Grant Still. The first African-American to have a symphony performed by a major U.S. orchestra, and the subject of a 2009 retrospective curated and conducted by Botstein at Lincoln Center, Still is represented by his meditative miniature Out of the Silence from Seven Traceries, and the evocative tone poem Serenade. Had Bard not been forced to postpone its regular summer season, this year’s attendees would have enjoyed a festival devoted to “Nadia Boulanger and Her World” (now scheduled for summer 2021). It is fitting, then, that Program One (September 5) features a piece by one of the French composer’s many distinguished students: the elegiac Lyric for Strings by George Walker, the first African-American winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music and “one of the greatest composers of our time” (Fanfare magazine). The concert concludes with TŌN’s account of the exuberant String Symphony No. 8 by Felix Mendelssohn, subject of the Bard Music Festival’s second season in 1991.
Program Two (September 12) offers a snapshot of contemporary music with works by three of today’s most compelling Black composers. A former composer-in-residence of both the Atlanta and Detroit Symphonies, Alvin Singleton is blessed with a “unique musical vision” (ArtsATL), while Adolphus Hailstork, another Boulanger student, has accrued a string of honors including Cultural Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia and Distinguished Alumni Award from Manhattan School of Music. Both men were born in the early 1940s, four decades before Jessie Montgomery. “Turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (Washington Post), Montgomery’s music has been recognized with the ASCAP Foundation’s Leonard Bernstein Award, and her current commissions include works for the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall. Their compositions share the program with the Serenade for Strings by Antonín Dvořák, subject of the 1993 Bard Music Festival, who championed African-American and Native American music as the foundation for a homegrown U.S. musical style.
After opening with the Adagio trágico by Roque Cordero, who infused twelve-tone writing with the folk rhythms of his native Panama, Program Three (September 19) presents a pair of longer works. In his Four Novelettes, Anglo-African late-Romantic composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor demonstrates graceful lyricism with a light, balletic touch that is almost reminiscent of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, subject of the festival’s 1998 season, whose soulful Serenade for Strings concludes the concert.
The centerpiece of Program Four (September 26) is the Violin Concerto in G by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Violin soloist Ashley Horne, a member of both the American Symphony Orchestra and the Harlem Chamber Players, can also be seen in Le Mozart noir, a PBS documentary about the composer’s life. The son of a slave and a planter in French Guadeloupe, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was not only the first known classical composer of African ancestry, but also an accomplished violinist, champion fencer and colonel of the first all-Black military regiment in Europe. Bookending his concerto are orchestral arrangements of Solitude and Sophisticated Lady, two mid-century masterpieces by the inimitable Duke Ellington, and the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta by Béla Bartók, subject of the 1995 festival.
The Orchestra Now (TŌN)
The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a unique graduate training ensemble designed to help make orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences. Hand-picked from the world’s leading conservatories, including the Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, Royal Conservatory of Brussels and Shanghai Conservatory of Music, its young members share their insights through on-stage introductions and demonstrations, program notes written from a musician’s perspective, and one-on-one intermission chats with patrons. In regular seasons, as well as giving a concert series at Bard’s Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center, TŌN performs at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other key venues in New York City and beyond.
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Bard Music Festival presents “Out of the Silence: A Celebration of Music”
Streaming live from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY,
at UPSTREAMING, the Fisher Center’s virtual stage
PROGRAM ONE
Sat, Sep 5 at 5:30pm
The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein and James Bagwell
William Grant Still (1895–1978): Out of the Silence, from Seven Traceries (1939)
William Grant Still (1895–1978): Serenade (1957)
George Walker (1922–2018): Lyric for Strings (1946)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47): String Symphony No. 8 in D (1822)
PROGRAM TWO
Sat, Sep 12 at 5:30pm
The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein, James Bagwell, Andrés Rivas & Zachary Schwartzman
Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981): Strum (2018)
Alvin Singleton (b. 1940): After Choice (2009)
Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941): Sonata da Chiesa (1990)
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904): Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (1875)
PROGRAM THREE
Sat, Sep 19 at 5:30pm
The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein, Andrés Rivas and Zachary Schwartzman
Roque Cordero (1917–2008): Adagio trágico (1972)
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912): Four Novelettes, Op. 52 (1903)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93): Serenade for Strings, Op. 48 (1880)
PROGRAM FOUR
Sat, Sep 26 at 5:30pm
The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein
Duke Ellington (1899–1974): Solitude (1941; arr. Gould)
Duke Ellington (1899–1974): Sophisticated Lady (1932; arr. Gould)
Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–99): Violin Concerto in G, Op. 2, No. 1 (1773)
(with Ashley Horne, violin)
Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936)
All programs are subject to change.
Since its founding in 1990, the Bard Music Festival has succeeded in enriching the standard concert repertory with a wealth of important rediscoveries; as the New York Times points out, “wherever there is an overlooked potential masterpiece, Leon Botstein is not too far behind.” True to this mission, “Out of the Silence” shines a light on some of the important Black composers so rarely admitted to the canon. Examples of their work will be heard in September alongside music by four composers featured in early seasons of the festival. By celebrating more than three decades of musical exploration at Bard while amplifying some of society’s most unjustly neglected artistic voices, the series looks ahead to a more equitable future.
The Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Bard Music Festival, the President of Bard College, and “one of the most remarkable figures in the worlds of arts and culture” (THIRTEEN/WNET), Botstein explains:
“These concerts are an affirmation of Bard’s commitment to the centrality of music in our public culture. The series takes its title from the opening work on this series, by William Grant Still. Out of the Silence therefore carries two meanings: the return of music to the public stage after months of silence, and the foregrounding of music too long kept in the shadows, music by Black composers who have never gotten their proper due on the concert stages of the world. As the performance of music begins anew, Bard will pioneer, as it has in the past, on behalf of those composers and works of music left, unjustly, in obscurity.”
It was Botstein who founded TŌN five years ago, to help make orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences. He leads the orchestra in all four programs of “Out of the Silence,” which also features appearances by TŌN’s Academic Director and Associate Conductor James Bagwell, Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman and Assistant Conductor Andrés Rivas. Keyboard faculty from the Bard Conservatory of Music will join TŌN for several performances.
“Out of the Silence”
“Out of the Silence” opens with two works by the great William Grant Still. The first African-American to have a symphony performed by a major U.S. orchestra, and the subject of a 2009 retrospective curated and conducted by Botstein at Lincoln Center, Still is represented by his meditative miniature Out of the Silence from Seven Traceries, and the evocative tone poem Serenade. Had Bard not been forced to postpone its regular summer season, this year’s attendees would have enjoyed a festival devoted to “Nadia Boulanger and Her World” (now scheduled for summer 2021). It is fitting, then, that Program One (September 5) features a piece by one of the French composer’s many distinguished students: the elegiac Lyric for Strings by George Walker, the first African-American winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music and “one of the greatest composers of our time” (Fanfare magazine). The concert concludes with TŌN’s account of the exuberant String Symphony No. 8 by Felix Mendelssohn, subject of the Bard Music Festival’s second season in 1991.
Program Two (September 12) offers a snapshot of contemporary music with works by three of today’s most compelling Black composers. A former composer-in-residence of both the Atlanta and Detroit Symphonies, Alvin Singleton is blessed with a “unique musical vision” (ArtsATL), while Adolphus Hailstork, another Boulanger student, has accrued a string of honors including Cultural Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia and Distinguished Alumni Award from Manhattan School of Music. Both men were born in the early 1940s, four decades before Jessie Montgomery. “Turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (Washington Post), Montgomery’s music has been recognized with the ASCAP Foundation’s Leonard Bernstein Award, and her current commissions include works for the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall. Their compositions share the program with the Serenade for Strings by Antonín Dvořák, subject of the 1993 Bard Music Festival, who championed African-American and Native American music as the foundation for a homegrown U.S. musical style.
After opening with the Adagio trágico by Roque Cordero, who infused twelve-tone writing with the folk rhythms of his native Panama, Program Three (September 19) presents a pair of longer works. In his Four Novelettes, Anglo-African late-Romantic composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor demonstrates graceful lyricism with a light, balletic touch that is almost reminiscent of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, subject of the festival’s 1998 season, whose soulful Serenade for Strings concludes the concert.
The centerpiece of Program Four (September 26) is the Violin Concerto in G by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Violin soloist Ashley Horne, a member of both the American Symphony Orchestra and the Harlem Chamber Players, can also be seen in Le Mozart noir, a PBS documentary about the composer’s life. The son of a slave and a planter in French Guadeloupe, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was not only the first known classical composer of African ancestry, but also an accomplished violinist, champion fencer and colonel of the first all-Black military regiment in Europe. Bookending his concerto are orchestral arrangements of Solitude and Sophisticated Lady, two mid-century masterpieces by the inimitable Duke Ellington, and the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta by Béla Bartók, subject of the 1995 festival.
The Orchestra Now (TŌN)
The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a unique graduate training ensemble designed to help make orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences. Hand-picked from the world’s leading conservatories, including the Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, Royal Conservatory of Brussels and Shanghai Conservatory of Music, its young members share their insights through on-stage introductions and demonstrations, program notes written from a musician’s perspective, and one-on-one intermission chats with patrons. In regular seasons, as well as giving a concert series at Bard’s Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center, TŌN performs at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other key venues in New York City and beyond.
Facebook.com/fishercenterbard/
Instagram.com/fishercenterbard/
Twitter.com/fisherctrbard
Youtube.com/fishercenterbard
Open.spotify.com/bardfisher
Bard Music Festival presents “Out of the Silence: A Celebration of Music”
Streaming live from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY,
at UPSTREAMING, the Fisher Center’s virtual stage
PROGRAM ONE
Sat, Sep 5 at 5:30pm
The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein and James Bagwell
William Grant Still (1895–1978): Out of the Silence, from Seven Traceries (1939)
William Grant Still (1895–1978): Serenade (1957)
George Walker (1922–2018): Lyric for Strings (1946)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47): String Symphony No. 8 in D (1822)
PROGRAM TWO
Sat, Sep 12 at 5:30pm
The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein, James Bagwell, Andrés Rivas & Zachary Schwartzman
Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981): Strum (2018)
Alvin Singleton (b. 1940): After Choice (2009)
Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941): Sonata da Chiesa (1990)
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904): Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (1875)
PROGRAM THREE
Sat, Sep 19 at 5:30pm
The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein, Andrés Rivas and Zachary Schwartzman
Roque Cordero (1917–2008): Adagio trágico (1972)
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912): Four Novelettes, Op. 52 (1903)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93): Serenade for Strings, Op. 48 (1880)
PROGRAM FOUR
Sat, Sep 26 at 5:30pm
The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein
Duke Ellington (1899–1974): Solitude (1941; arr. Gould)
Duke Ellington (1899–1974): Sophisticated Lady (1932; arr. Gould)
Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–99): Violin Concerto in G, Op. 2, No. 1 (1773)
(with Ashley Horne, violin)
Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936)
All programs are subject to change.
# # #
08-18-2020
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.— Beginning in fall 2021, the Bard College Conservatory of Music’s five-year undergraduate double-degree program will offer a bachelor of music in vocal performance. Integrating world-class musical training with rigorous academic pursuit, the program develops students’ artistic skills through a diverse, inclusive range of repertoires and performance opportunities, emphasizing exploration and musical self-actualization. The students’ musical knowledge is enriched and contextualized by complementary coursework across all divisions of the College, underscoring the role of the singing artist as both communicator and innovator.
Vocal performance students will work with faculty in both the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Bard College Music Program. Opportunities for collaboration include the Chamber Singers, led by Maestro James Bagwell; the annual, fully-staged Opera Workshop at Bard’s Fisher Center; and performance classes led by Rufus Müller. Performance coursework will be matched with body and breath awareness courses in the Feldenkrais Method and/or Alexander Technique.
For information about the Conservatory’s undergraduate program, visit here. For application and audition information, visit here. To open an application, visit here.
Vocal Degree Course Requirements
The requirements (by semester) of the bachelor of music degree in the Conservatory are:
Conservatory Course Requirements
All conservatory students take a full range of music classes including:
Conservatory Performance Requirements
All conservatory students must fulfill the following performance requirements:
Additional Performance Opportunities
Information about the Bard College bachelor of arts curriculum can be found here.
Faculty List: link to bios
Recognized as one of the finest conservatories in the United States, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, founded in 2005, is guided by the principle that young musicians should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences to achieve their greatest potential. All undergraduates complete two degrees over a five-year period: a bachelor of music and a bachelor of arts in a field other than music. The Conservatory Orchestra has performed twice at Lincoln Center and has completed three international concert tours: in June 2012 to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; in June 2014 to Russia and six cities in Central and Eastern Europe; and in June 2016, to three cities in Cuba. For additional information about The Bard College Conservatory of Music, please visit bard.edu/conservatory.
Vocal performance students will work with faculty in both the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Bard College Music Program. Opportunities for collaboration include the Chamber Singers, led by Maestro James Bagwell; the annual, fully-staged Opera Workshop at Bard’s Fisher Center; and performance classes led by Rufus Müller. Performance coursework will be matched with body and breath awareness courses in the Feldenkrais Method and/or Alexander Technique.
For information about the Conservatory’s undergraduate program, visit here. For application and audition information, visit here. To open an application, visit here.
Vocal Degree Course Requirements
The requirements (by semester) of the bachelor of music degree in the Conservatory are:
- Vocal Coaching (six)
- Diction for Singers (four)
- Chamber Singers (four)
- Vocal Pedagogy (one)
- Vocal Seminar (two)
- Vocal Electives (four)
- Song Class
- Opera Workshop
- Bard Baroque Ensemble
- Feldenkrais and the Voice
- Alexander Technique
Conservatory Course Requirements
All conservatory students take a full range of music classes including:
- Studio Instruction
- Chamber Music
- Conservatory Core Sequence in Theory, Analysis, and Composition
- Aural Skills
- Music History
Conservatory Performance Requirements
All conservatory students must fulfill the following performance requirements:
- First and Second year Juries
- Mid-Point recital (3rd year)
- Off-campus Community Recital (4th year)
- Final Degree Recital (5th year)
Additional Performance Opportunities
- Recital Performances on-campus and in off-campus concert series’
- Annual concerto competition
- Performances with Bard Baroque Ensemble
- Performances with Bard Conservatory Orchestra and Bard College Orchestra
- Performances with Symphonic Chorus and Bard Chamber Singers
Information about the Bard College bachelor of arts curriculum can be found here.
Faculty List: link to bios
- Stephanie Blythe
- Teresa Buchholz
- Richard Cox
- Lucy Fitz Gibbon
- Kayo Iwama
- Ilka LoMonaco
- Rufus Müller
- Erika Switzer
Recognized as one of the finest conservatories in the United States, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, founded in 2005, is guided by the principle that young musicians should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences to achieve their greatest potential. All undergraduates complete two degrees over a five-year period: a bachelor of music and a bachelor of arts in a field other than music. The Conservatory Orchestra has performed twice at Lincoln Center and has completed three international concert tours: in June 2012 to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; in June 2014 to Russia and six cities in Central and Eastern Europe; and in June 2016, to three cities in Cuba. For additional information about The Bard College Conservatory of Music, please visit bard.edu/conservatory.
# # #
(8.18.20)08-12-2020
The Bard College Conservatory of Music announces the faculty appointments of violinists Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony. Shaham, one of the most celebrated violinists of his generation, performs regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and New York Philharmonic, among many others. With an extensive recording career of more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs, he is a Grammy Award winner and recipient of Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice award. Anthony is an acclaimed international performer, appearing regularly with the Houston, Seattle, and San Diego symphony orchestras and performing throughout North America, Europe, Australia, India, and Asia. An avid and accomplished chamber musician, she appears regularly at La Jolla’s SummerFest and the Aspen Music Festival.
“I am so excited to welcome Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony to the faculty of the Bard Conservatory,” said Bard Conservatory Dean Tan Dun. “Their musical excellence and dedication to teaching will be a gift to the entire Conservatory community.”
In addition to private teaching, Shaham and Anthony will coach chamber music and lead regular master classes. Shaham and Anthony will perform regularly at Bard with the Bard Conservatory orchestra or TON and in chamber music and recital settings.
About Gil Shaham
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time; his flawless technique combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit has solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award winner, also named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year, is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.
Highlights of recent years include the acclaimed recording and performances of J. S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In the coming seasons, in addition to championing these solo works, he will join his long time duo partner, pianist Akira Eguchi, in recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Appearances with orchestra regularly include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony, as well as multiyear residencies with the orchestras of Montreal, Stuttgart, and Singapore. With orchestra, Shaham continues his exploration of “Violin Concertos of the 1930s,” including the works of Barber, Bartok, Berg, Korngold, and Prokofiev, among others.
Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, earning multiple Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His CDs include 1930s Violin Concertos, Sarasate: Virtuoso Violin Works, Elgar: Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, The Butterfly Lovers, and many more. His most recent recording in the 1930s Violin Concertos series, Vol. 2, includes Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He will release a new recording of Beethoven and Brahms concertos with The Knights in 2020.
Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel, where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music at the age of 7, receiving annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and Israel Philharmonic, and the following year, took first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition. He then became a scholarship student at Juilliard, and also studied at Columbia University. He was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and, in 2008, he received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. In 2012, he was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America. Shaham performs on an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children.
About Adele Anthony
Since her triumph at Denmark’s 1996 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, Adele Anthony has enjoyed an acclaimed and expanding international career. As a soloist with orchestra and in recital, as well as an active chamber music player, Anthony has performed throughout North America, Europe, Australia, India, and Asia.
In addition to appearances with all six symphonies of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, recent highlights include performances with the symphony orchestras of Houston, San Diego, Seattle, Fort Worth, and Indianapolis, as well as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. An avid chamber music player, Anthony appears regularly at the La Jolla SummerFest and Aspen Music Festival. Her wide-ranging repertoire extends from the baroque of Bach and Vivaldi to contemporary works by Ross Edwards, Arvo Pärt, and Philip Glass.
Anthony’s recording work includes releases with Sejong Soloists, Eric Ewazen, Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra (Albany); a recording of Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto with Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra (Naxos); Arvo Pärt’s Tabula rasa with Gil Shaham, Neeme Järvi, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon); and her latest recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Ross Edwards’s Maninyas with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Canary Classics/ABC Classics).
Anthony performs on an Antonio Stradivarius violin, crafted in 1728.
About the Bard College Conservatory
Recognized as one of the finest conservatories in the United States, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, founded in 2005, is guided by the principle that young musicians should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences to achieve their greatest potential. All undergraduates complete two degrees over a five-year period: a bachelor of music and a bachelor of arts in a field other than music. The Conservatory Orchestra has performed twice at Lincoln Center, and has completed three international concert tours: in June 2012 to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; in June 2014 to Russia and six cities in Central and Eastern Europe; and in June 2016, to three cities in Cuba. For additional information about the Bard College Conservatory of Music, visit bard.edu/conservatory.
“I am so excited to welcome Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony to the faculty of the Bard Conservatory,” said Bard Conservatory Dean Tan Dun. “Their musical excellence and dedication to teaching will be a gift to the entire Conservatory community.”
In addition to private teaching, Shaham and Anthony will coach chamber music and lead regular master classes. Shaham and Anthony will perform regularly at Bard with the Bard Conservatory orchestra or TON and in chamber music and recital settings.
About Gil Shaham
Gil Shaham is one of the foremost violinists of our time; his flawless technique combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit has solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award winner, also named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year, is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals.
Highlights of recent years include the acclaimed recording and performances of J. S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In the coming seasons, in addition to championing these solo works, he will join his long time duo partner, pianist Akira Eguchi, in recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Appearances with orchestra regularly include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and San Francisco Symphony, as well as multiyear residencies with the orchestras of Montreal, Stuttgart, and Singapore. With orchestra, Shaham continues his exploration of “Violin Concertos of the 1930s,” including the works of Barber, Bartok, Berg, Korngold, and Prokofiev, among others.
Shaham has more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs to his name, earning multiple Grammys, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Many of these recordings appear on Canary Classics, the label he founded in 2004. His CDs include 1930s Violin Concertos, Sarasate: Virtuoso Violin Works, Elgar: Violin Concerto, Hebrew Melodies, The Butterfly Lovers, and many more. His most recent recording in the 1930s Violin Concertos series, Vol. 2, includes Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He will release a new recording of Beethoven and Brahms concertos with The Knights in 2020.
Shaham was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in 1971. He moved with his parents to Israel, where he began violin studies with Samuel Bernstein of the Rubin Academy of Music at the age of 7, receiving annual scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. In 1981, he made debuts with the Jerusalem Symphony and Israel Philharmonic, and the following year, took first prize in Israel’s Claremont Competition. He then became a scholarship student at Juilliard, and also studied at Columbia University. He was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1990 and, in 2008, he received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize. In 2012, he was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America. Shaham performs on an Antonio Stradivari violin, Cremona c1719, with the assistance of Rare Violins In Consortium Artists and Benefactors Collaborative. He lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children.
About Adele Anthony
Since her triumph at Denmark’s 1996 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, Adele Anthony has enjoyed an acclaimed and expanding international career. As a soloist with orchestra and in recital, as well as an active chamber music player, Anthony has performed throughout North America, Europe, Australia, India, and Asia.
In addition to appearances with all six symphonies of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, recent highlights include performances with the symphony orchestras of Houston, San Diego, Seattle, Fort Worth, and Indianapolis, as well as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. An avid chamber music player, Anthony appears regularly at the La Jolla SummerFest and Aspen Music Festival. Her wide-ranging repertoire extends from the baroque of Bach and Vivaldi to contemporary works by Ross Edwards, Arvo Pärt, and Philip Glass.
Anthony’s recording work includes releases with Sejong Soloists, Eric Ewazen, Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra (Albany); a recording of Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto with Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra (Naxos); Arvo Pärt’s Tabula rasa with Gil Shaham, Neeme Järvi, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon); and her latest recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Ross Edwards’s Maninyas with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Canary Classics/ABC Classics).
Anthony performs on an Antonio Stradivarius violin, crafted in 1728.
About the Bard College Conservatory
Recognized as one of the finest conservatories in the United States, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, founded in 2005, is guided by the principle that young musicians should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences to achieve their greatest potential. All undergraduates complete two degrees over a five-year period: a bachelor of music and a bachelor of arts in a field other than music. The Conservatory Orchestra has performed twice at Lincoln Center, and has completed three international concert tours: in June 2012 to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; in June 2014 to Russia and six cities in Central and Eastern Europe; and in June 2016, to three cities in Cuba. For additional information about the Bard College Conservatory of Music, visit bard.edu/conservatory.
08-05-2020
The two-discussion program, on July 21 and 28, focused on the power of cultural diplomacy, the universal appeal of great music, overcoming hardship (as exemplified by Beethoven's story and the story of modern China), and the importance of maintaining cultural bridges despite political tensions.
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