All Bard News by Date
September 2014
09-29-2014
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts presents “Music Alive! Dynamic Women Making Music from Around the Globe” on Sunday, October 5 at 3 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater. This exciting program is curated by artistic directors Joan Tower, Grammy Award–winning composer, and Blair McMillen, pianist, and showcases works by female composers performed by more than 30 students from The Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Music Program. There will be a special appearance by Grammy Award–winning soprano Dawn Upshaw.
09-04-2014
Distinguished Composer in Residence George Tsontakis has been the recipient of the two richest prizes awarded in all of classical music: the 2005 international Grawemeyer Award for his Second Violin Concerto and the 2007 Charles Ives Living Award, awarded every three years by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He has also received two Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, for String Quartet No. 4 (1989) and Perpetual Angelus (1992), and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Lifetime Achievement Award (1995). He studied with Roger Sessions at Juilliard and with Franco Donatoni in Rome. Born in Astoria, New York, into a strongly Cretan heritage, he has in recent years become an important figure in the music of Greece; his music is increasingly performed abroad, with dozens of performances in Europe every season. Tsontakis's works have been commissioned and performed by the American, Blair, Colorado, and Emerson string quartets; New York Virtuoso Singers; Aspen Wind Quintet; Orpheus; flutist Ransom Wilson; violinist Glenn Dicterow; and many other orchestras, ensembles, and musicians.Most of his music—including 11 major orchestral works and four concertos—has been recorded by Hyperion and Koch, leading to two Grammy Nominations for Best Classical Composition (1999, 2009). He is distinguished composer in residence at the Bard Conservatory and has been a composer in residence with the Aspen Music Festival for decades, where he was founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (1991-99). He served for three years as composer in residence with the Oxford (England) Philomusica, continues a six-year Music Alive residency with the Albany Symphony, and was the featured composer in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2008-09 season). He lives in New York State’s Catskill Mountains, in Shokan, and has been on the Bard faculty since 2003.
August 2014
08-30-2014
Distinguished soprano and Bard professor Dawn Upshaw has been chosen to head the vocal arts program at the Tanglewood Music Center—the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer academy.
08-19-2014
Five students in the Bard College Conservatory of Music departed for Cali, Colombia, on Friday, August 15, for a Trustee Leader Scholar (TLS) project called Sounds of Social Change. Rylan Gajek-Leonard '16, Caitlin Majewski '15, Alexzandra Morris '18, Avery Morris '18, and Daniel Zlatkin '16 are teaching music to children in the Orquesta Sinfónica Infantil y Juvenil de Siloé, an organization that serves at-risk youth in the region. Daniel's sister Rebecca Zlatkin is there making a video documentary of the project. The group has brought donated music books, instrument accessories, and other supplies for students in the program. They will perform a benefit concert with the Orquesta de Siloé on August 21.
July 2014
07-10-2014
The new László Z. Bitó Conservatory building combines state-of-the-art teaching facilities with a first-rate performance venue.
June 2014
06-27-2014
Professor Upshaw "possesses the virtue of being not just a top-ranked performer, but also a first-rate teacher and mentor," writes Stephan Bonfield.
06-25-2014
Bard Conservatory faculty comprising the group So Percussion "lavished their talents" while Bardian ensemble Contemporaneous "attacked, with passion" at the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City.
06-13-2014
The Bard College Conservatory Orchestra has kicked off its 2014 European Tour. After two well-received concerts played in Warsaw (to a sold-out crowd) and St. Petersburg, they continue to Moscow, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. Click here for the full schedule. Thanks to a donation from Google, our student musicians are creating a travel blog using Google Glass. Follow them on Tumblr.
May 2014
05-20-2014
The Bard College Conservatory of Music presented a marathon day of chamber music performances on May 3, which TMI Arts's Kevin T. McEneaney found mesmerizing.
05-16-2014
"I've always loved to teach," says Professor Tower. "I do it because I love working with young composers."
April 2014
04-17-2014
Bard professor George Tsontakis's String Quartet No. 7 will have its world premiere this weekend in the final concert of the 2013–2014 season of Chamber Music Monterey Bay in Carmel, California.
04-14-2014
Josh Hodge '14 has successfully navigated the rigorous five-year, dual-degree program required by the Bard College Conservatory of Music while also competing as a varsity athlete for the college. Hodge is the principal bassoonist in the Conservatory Orchestra. He's also been the captain of the men's swimming team for two years and is running track this spring. Now, as he looks forward to graduate school in the fall, he reflects on his time at Bard.
04-04-2014
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents the American Symphony Orchestra on Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, at 8 p.m. The program includes Johann Strauss Jr.’s Emperor Waltz, Accelerations, and On the Beautiful Blue Danube; Julius Conus’s Violin Concerto, featuring Zhi Ma ’15, violin; and Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2. The concert will be conducted by Leon Botstein, music director. There will be a special preconcert talk by Alexander Bonus, assistant professor of music at Bard College, beginning at 7 p.m.
March 2014
03-27-2014
The Bard College Conservatory of Music presents Conservatory Sundays: Sō Percussion and Bard Percussion with guest artist Blair McMillen. The ensembles perform works by Kyle Gann, Steve Reich, John Cage, Daníel Bjarnason, and Martin Bresnick on Sunday, April 6 at 3 p.m. in the Fisher Center. All ticket sales benefit the Conservatory’s Scholarship Fund.
03-24-2014
Seven Bard Conservatory students offered a "lively, intimate and playful performance that sometimes left listeners visibly moved" on Sunday at Beattie-Powers Place in Catskill.
03-19-2014
Jeremy Denk has been honored with the Avery Fisher Prize, established 40 years ago to recognize musicianship and contributions to the musical world.
03-17-2014
Soprano Julia Bullock has won the first prize of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s international vocal competition. Ms. Bullock’s prize includes a $15,000 cash award, two New York concerts, and an unspecified number of concerts elsewhere in the United States.
03-17-2014
San Francisco's Cypress String Quartet premiered a new composition by George Tsontakis last week. His String Quartet No. 6 "is warmly shadowed, lyric yet somber. ... It's hypnotic, a work of imagination, a fascination."
03-12-2014
February 2014
02-27-2014
Joan Tower sounds off on gender bias in classical music and why it's important that high-profile performers take risks on new compositions.
02-27-2014
02-24-2014
The Graduate Vocal Arts Program of The Bard College Conservatory of Music presents two professionally staged one-act operas, including the world premiere of Payne Hollow by Shawn Jaeger, conducted by Carl Christian Bettendorf; and The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten, conducted by James Bagwell. The production is directed by Nicholas Muni and features the talented singers of the Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program and the musicians of the Conservatory Orchestra. All ticket sales benefit the Conservatory’s scholarship fund. Evening and matinée opera performances will take place in the Sosnoff Theater of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on March 14 and March 16.
02-13-2014
An original composition by Dylan Mattingly '14 has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for its 2014 season. Mattingly's work will be performed on May 26 at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
02-10-2014
Jeremy Denk discusses his upcoming recital at Bowling Green State University, and talks about his own personal music history.
January 2014
01-27-2014
At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony Sunday in Los Angeles, Dawn Upshaw, celebrated soprano and artistic director of The Bard College Conservatory of Music’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, won the Grammy Award for best classical vocal solo, one of three Grammy Awards awarded to Winter Morning Walks, the monumental collaboration between Upshaw and jazz composer Maria Schneider. The album also won for best contemporary classical composition and best engineered album, classical, and also was cited as one of the projects by David Frost, who won the Grammy for producer of the year, classical.
01-24-2014
"Superlative singer" Dawn Upshaw discusses her new album, Winter Morning Walks, which, since the publication of this article, has won three Grammy Awards.
December 2013
12-19-2013
In October of this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a day of TEDx talks and performances on the theme "Icons." Among the performers were So Percussion, Bard's own Percussion Program faculty.
12-11-2013
Winter Morning Walks, a new album by Dawn Upshaw, celebrated soprano and artistic director of the Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, has been nominated for three Grammy awards including Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Vocal Solo.
12-05-2013
A Greek tragedy, a retuned piano, and many musical Bardians: Dylan Mattingly '14 discusses his composition of The Bakkhai, to be performed at Bard on December 10.
12-04-2013
October 2013
10-10-2013
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts presents The Bard College Conservatory Orchestra in concert at the Sosnoff Theater on Sunday, November 10 at 3 p.m. Conducted by Leon Botstein, music director, the Conservatory Orchestra will perform a program that includes Rossini’s Overture to William Tell; Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel; and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 in A Major, Op. 141. The concert is part of the Conservatory Sundays series, and all proceeds will benefit the Scholarship Fund of The Bard College Conservatory of Music.
September 2013
09-25-2013
Jeremy Denk, esteemed pianist and faculty of The Bard College Conservatory of Music, has been named a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. MacArthur Fellowships are awarded to talented individuals in a variety of fields who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self direction. MacArthur Fellows each receive a $625,000 grant that is bestowed with no conditions—recipients may use the money as they see fit. Nominated anonymously by leaders in their respective fields and never notified of their candidacy, the recipients learn of their selection only when they receive a call from the MacArthur Foundation days before the public announcement. Denk is the 12th Bard faculty member to be honored with a MacArthur Fellowship.
09-19-2013
09-18-2013
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts presents “Conservatory Sundays: Music Alive!” on Sunday, September 29 at 3 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater. Curated by artistic directors Joan Tower, Grammy Award–winning composer, and Blair McMillen, pianist, this exciting program of 20th- and 21st-century music showcases works performed by students from The Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Music Program.
09-18-2013
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents the opening concert of the 2013–14 season of the popular American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) series on Friday, October 25 and Saturday, October 26, at 8 p.m. Featured soloists for the ASO’s fall-spring season include Bard College Conservatory of Music students and Concert Competition winners Fanya Wyrick-Flax ’13, Dongfang Ouyang ’14, and Zhi Ma ’15.
09-10-2013
Vocal Arts Program alumnae Lucy Dhegrae M.M. '12 and Ariadne Greif M.M. '10 performed at the Resonant Bodies Festival in Brooklyn, and will sing at Bard on Sunday in "Dawn Upshaw and Friends."
August 2013
08-15-2013
On September 7, The Bard College Conservatory of Music celebrates Bard faculty member and renowned composer Joan Tower with a gala, “Joan Tower and Friends Celebrate Her 75th Birthday,” to benefit the Joan Tower Composition Scholarship. The program features Tower’s compositions performed by Tower, Blair McMillen, and Kayo Iwama on piano; soprano Dawn Upshaw; cellist Peter Wiley; violist Steven Tenenbom; the Daedalus Quartet; and the Horszowski Trio.
08-11-2013
Bard Conservatory graduate Ming Aldrich-Gan '10 is the music director for Bradley Cole at the New York International Fringe Festival.
08-09-2013
On the eve of her first solo concert in Ireland, opera singer Dawn Upshaw talks about her early career and bringing classical music down to earth.
July 2013
07-17-2013
Graduate Vocal Arts Program artistic director Dawn Upshaw talks about teaching music as a profession at the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
07-09-2013
Bard's new partnership with Soochow University is a first for both institutions, and quite unusual in Chinese education.
07-09-2013
Bard Conservatory Percussion Program faculty members Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting—constituting the group So Percussion—team up with composer Dan Trueman on their new album.
07-01-2013
Bard Conservatory Vocal Arts Program graduate Julia Bullock receives a rave review for her "full-voiced, stunningly paced account of 'Somewhere,'" in the San Francisco Symphony's concert performance of West Side Story.
June 2013
06-18-2013
So Percussion members and Bard Conservatory faculty Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting will perform at the Make Music New York festival this Friday with artist and percussionist Eli Keszler, using the Manhattan Bridge as a musical instrument.
06-05-2013
Emily Reese at Minnesota Public Radio bids a fond farewell to Dawn Upshaw as her six-year artistic partnership with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra draws to a close.
May 2013
05-01-2013
The Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, conducted by music director Leon Botstein, is back on stage at the Fisher Center for its final concert of the semester on Saturday, May 11. Called a “genuine talent and profoundly gifted” by Vienna Express, violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi will perform Violin Concerto No. 1 by Prokofiev. The program celebrates the theme for this summer’s Bard Music Festival, “Stravinsky and His World,” and proceeds from the concert benefit the Scholarship Fund of The Bard College Conservatory of Music.
05-01-2013
The New York Times praised Julia Bullock's "rosy, agile voice" as Vixen in a production of "The Cunning Little Vixen" at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York City.
05-01-2013
Bard faculty member Dawn Upshaw will receive an honorary doctoral degree from the Juilliard School at their commencement this year.
April 2013
04-17-2013
Bard Conservatory's Erica Kiesewetter was the concertmaster of a recent performance of Verdi’s “Lombardi Alla Prima Crociata" at Lincoln Center. The concert received a positive review from the New York Times and Kiesewetter's violin performance was applauded.
04-16-2013
Chorus Master James Bagwell discusses Mahler's Symphony No. 2, which will be performed at the Fisher Center on April 26 and 27 by members of the American Symphony Orchestra, Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, and Longy Conservatory Orchestra.