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April 2023
04-19-2023
The Bard Conservatory Orchestra presents a concert celebrating works by Bedřich Smetana (1824-84), Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Grigoraș Dinicu (1889-1949), Tōru Takemitsu (1930-96), and Benjamin Britten (1913-76). Conducted by Tan Dun, world-renowned conductor and composer, the program will feature Smetana’s Vltava (The Moldau), No. 2, from Má Vlast (My Country); Debussy’s Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra with saxophone player Eric Zheng ’24; and Dinicu’s Ciocârlia (The Lark) with violinist Yida An ’24. Following an intermission, it continues with Takemitsu’s I Hear the Water Dreaming with flautist Jillian Reed ’21; and Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, Op. 33a from the opera Peter Grimes. The performance will be held on Saturday, May 13, at 8 pm in the Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater. To reserve tickets, visit fishercenter.bard.edu, or call 845-758-7900 (Mon-Fri 10 am-5 pm).
In his cycle of six symphonic poems, Má Vlast (My Country), Bedřich Smetana paid tribute to the natural beauty and history of his native Bohemia. The Moldau became the most popular of the set, and provided the famous unifying theme—adapted from a Swedish folksong Smetana heard while living in Sweden in the late 1850s—throughout the overall work.
Claude Debussy’s Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra, a commission left incomplete at his death, was given its final shape by his friend, the composer Jean Roger-Ducasse, and performed and published posthumously in 1919. The work is more lyrical than virtuosic, and stylistically revisits many of Debussy’s favorite Spanish rhythms.
The melody of Grigoraș Dinicu’s arrangement of Ciocârlia (The Lark) was first introduced by his grandfather Angheluș Dinicu, a virtuoso on the nai, a Romanian pan flute consisting of reed or bamboo pipes glued together—a modern version of the ancient Greek panpipe. Angheluș, who was of Roma ethnicity, first played “The Lark” during the 1889 World Exposition in Paris, the event for which the Eiffel Tower was built.
Toru Takemitsu, the great Japanese composer, was frequently inspired by the image of water. He composed a whole “Waterscape” cycle in the 1980s, and the contemplation of flowing movement led him to also consider visualizing dreams in I Hear the Water Dreaming. He drew on various conceptual backgrounds—including French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s study of the different cultural symbolic meanings of water, along with aboriginal myths of “dreamtime” gleaned from Takemitsu’s travels to Australia—resulting in a unique mixture of emotionalism and intellectual rigor in his composition.
Benjamin Britten’s great opera Peter Grimes was based on a poem by the 18th-century poet George Crabbe, who lived in the village of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast near Britten's birthplace. The character of Grimes, who is a villain in Crabbe’s poem, is reimagined in the opera as a complex outcast who is brought down by his emotional instability and his deeply prejudiced environment. The Four Sea Interludes capture much of the opera’s special ambiance, featuring the sea itself as a protagonist of the work while conveying the austere atmosphere that provides the background to the plot.
About Tan Dun
The world-renowned artist and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. A winner of today’s most prestigious honors including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and most recently Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, Tan Dun’s music has been played throughout the world by leading orchestras, opera houses, international festivals, and on radio and television. Most recently, Tan Dun was named as Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun will further demonstrate music’s extraordinary ability to transform lives and guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of understanding music’s connection to history, art, culture, and society.
As a conductor of innovative programs around the world, Tan Dun has led the China tours of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra. His current season includes leading the Orchestre National de Lyon in a six-city China tour, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in a four-city tour of Switzerland and Belgium as well as engagements with the Rai National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra where he was recently named Artistic Ambassador. Tan Dun currently serves as the Principle Guest Conductor of the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra. Dun has led the world’s most esteemed orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Münchner Philharmoniker, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others.
In his cycle of six symphonic poems, Má Vlast (My Country), Bedřich Smetana paid tribute to the natural beauty and history of his native Bohemia. The Moldau became the most popular of the set, and provided the famous unifying theme—adapted from a Swedish folksong Smetana heard while living in Sweden in the late 1850s—throughout the overall work.
Claude Debussy’s Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra, a commission left incomplete at his death, was given its final shape by his friend, the composer Jean Roger-Ducasse, and performed and published posthumously in 1919. The work is more lyrical than virtuosic, and stylistically revisits many of Debussy’s favorite Spanish rhythms.
The melody of Grigoraș Dinicu’s arrangement of Ciocârlia (The Lark) was first introduced by his grandfather Angheluș Dinicu, a virtuoso on the nai, a Romanian pan flute consisting of reed or bamboo pipes glued together—a modern version of the ancient Greek panpipe. Angheluș, who was of Roma ethnicity, first played “The Lark” during the 1889 World Exposition in Paris, the event for which the Eiffel Tower was built.
Toru Takemitsu, the great Japanese composer, was frequently inspired by the image of water. He composed a whole “Waterscape” cycle in the 1980s, and the contemplation of flowing movement led him to also consider visualizing dreams in I Hear the Water Dreaming. He drew on various conceptual backgrounds—including French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s study of the different cultural symbolic meanings of water, along with aboriginal myths of “dreamtime” gleaned from Takemitsu’s travels to Australia—resulting in a unique mixture of emotionalism and intellectual rigor in his composition.
Benjamin Britten’s great opera Peter Grimes was based on a poem by the 18th-century poet George Crabbe, who lived in the village of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast near Britten's birthplace. The character of Grimes, who is a villain in Crabbe’s poem, is reimagined in the opera as a complex outcast who is brought down by his emotional instability and his deeply prejudiced environment. The Four Sea Interludes capture much of the opera’s special ambiance, featuring the sea itself as a protagonist of the work while conveying the austere atmosphere that provides the background to the plot.
About Tan Dun
The world-renowned artist and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. A winner of today’s most prestigious honors including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and most recently Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, Tan Dun’s music has been played throughout the world by leading orchestras, opera houses, international festivals, and on radio and television. Most recently, Tan Dun was named as Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun will further demonstrate music’s extraordinary ability to transform lives and guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of understanding music’s connection to history, art, culture, and society.
As a conductor of innovative programs around the world, Tan Dun has led the China tours of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra. His current season includes leading the Orchestre National de Lyon in a six-city China tour, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in a four-city tour of Switzerland and Belgium as well as engagements with the Rai National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra where he was recently named Artistic Ambassador. Tan Dun currently serves as the Principle Guest Conductor of the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra. Dun has led the world’s most esteemed orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Münchner Philharmoniker, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others.
04-12-2023
The Bard College Conservatory of Music presents Marcus Roberts’ Modern Jazz Generation and the Bard Jazz Innovators, a concert led by award-winning pianist and composer Marcus Roberts. Roberts, who is also a professor of music at Bard, will perform with his eight-piece professional ensemble, Modern Jazz Generation, in a variety of player combinations throughout the evening with the Bard Jazz Innovators, a nine-piece student ensemble. The performance will take place at Olin Hall, Bard College, on April 20 at 8 pm. Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $15.
Pianist Marcus Roberts has been hailed as a “genius of the modern piano.” He is known throughout the world for his many contributions to jazz music, as well as his commitment to integrating the jazz and classical idioms to create something wholly new. Roberts’ rhythmic and melodic group improvisational style is the hallmark of his modern approach to the jazz trio.
“Mr. Roberts has dedicated himself to learning not only the jazz tradition but also the lilting music of the 19th century, and he brings an astonishing richness to his playing,” wrote Peter Watrous for the New York Times.
About Marcus Roberts
Roberts grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, where his mother's gospel singing and the music of the local church left a lasting impact on his music. He began teaching himself to play piano at age five after losing his sight, but did not have his first formal lesson until age 12 while attending the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. At age 18, he went on to study classical piano at Florida State University with Leonidas Lipovetsky, the world-renowned classical concert pianist.
Currently, Roberts is a Professor of Music at the Florida State University College of Music, where he received his B.A degree and a Professor of Music at Bard College. He also holds honorary doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School, Brigham Young University, and Bard College, and has won numerous awards and competitions over the years, including the Helen Keller Award for Personal Achievement. Roberts is known for his generosity, providing support and mentoring to a large network of younger musicians, and he continues to strive to find ways to serve the blind and other disabled communities. In 2021, he served as the Artistic Director for the centennial gala, The Art of Inclusion, for the American Foundation for the Blind. He was also a featured speaker/performer at the 2021 Disability:IN annual conference.
His critically-acclaimed legacy of recorded music reflects his tremendous artistic versatility, as well as his unique approach to jazz performance, and his recordings include solo piano, duets, and trio arrangements of jazz standards along with original suites of music for trio, large ensembles, and symphony orchestra. In addition to his renown as a performer, Roberts is also an accomplished composer. He has been commissioned by Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, ASCAP, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Savannah Music Festival.
Pianist Marcus Roberts has been hailed as a “genius of the modern piano.” He is known throughout the world for his many contributions to jazz music, as well as his commitment to integrating the jazz and classical idioms to create something wholly new. Roberts’ rhythmic and melodic group improvisational style is the hallmark of his modern approach to the jazz trio.
“Mr. Roberts has dedicated himself to learning not only the jazz tradition but also the lilting music of the 19th century, and he brings an astonishing richness to his playing,” wrote Peter Watrous for the New York Times.
About Marcus Roberts
Roberts grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, where his mother's gospel singing and the music of the local church left a lasting impact on his music. He began teaching himself to play piano at age five after losing his sight, but did not have his first formal lesson until age 12 while attending the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. At age 18, he went on to study classical piano at Florida State University with Leonidas Lipovetsky, the world-renowned classical concert pianist.
Currently, Roberts is a Professor of Music at the Florida State University College of Music, where he received his B.A degree and a Professor of Music at Bard College. He also holds honorary doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School, Brigham Young University, and Bard College, and has won numerous awards and competitions over the years, including the Helen Keller Award for Personal Achievement. Roberts is known for his generosity, providing support and mentoring to a large network of younger musicians, and he continues to strive to find ways to serve the blind and other disabled communities. In 2021, he served as the Artistic Director for the centennial gala, The Art of Inclusion, for the American Foundation for the Blind. He was also a featured speaker/performer at the 2021 Disability:IN annual conference.
His critically-acclaimed legacy of recorded music reflects his tremendous artistic versatility, as well as his unique approach to jazz performance, and his recordings include solo piano, duets, and trio arrangements of jazz standards along with original suites of music for trio, large ensembles, and symphony orchestra. In addition to his renown as a performer, Roberts is also an accomplished composer. He has been commissioned by Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, ASCAP, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Savannah Music Festival.
listings 1-2 of 2