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Main Image for Bard Baroque Ensemble 

Bard Baroque Ensemble 

Photo Credit: Christopher Kayden
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The Bard Baroque Ensemble provides Bard College and Conservatory musicians the opportunity to explore early repertoire from the Medieval through the late Baroque periods. The ensemble takes a leading role in an annual series of Bach cantata presentations in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents and other venues on the Bard campus and in the local region. The Baroque Ensemble collaborates with other Bard musical ensembles, including the Chamber Singers, the Graduate Vocal Arts Program, the Preparatory Division Chorus, The Orchestra Now, the Graduate Conducting Program, and faculty from other branches of the College as part of their mission in bringing outstanding early music performances to the wider community. The program welcomes students from both the College and Conservatory and exemplifies the approach of including all eligible participants by challenging them at their own individual level while working together as a cohesive artistic team.

Repertoire
Photo Credit: Christopher Kayden

Repertoire

Although the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach are a particular focus of the ensemble’s programming, a diversity of other Baroque and pre-Baroque repertoire is explored to deepen students’ understanding, appreciation, and mastery of a broad range of styles and techniques. Guest instructors and lecturers are invited on an annual basis to give special topic presentations or to coach students in approaches to Baroque style. Baroque bows are provided for string players, and a collection of Baroque instruments are available for students’ use through the program, including a Coolsma Baroque flute, a set of recorders, and the George Taylor portativ organ on permanent loan. A one-manual Flentrop practice organ is available for keyboardists, in addition to the John Schreiner continuo organ, Hubbard one-manual harpsichord, and Goldfarb two-manual harpsichord used regularly in Baroque Ensemble rehearsals and performances.

Renée Anne Louprette, director
Photo Credit: Joshua South

Renée Anne Louprette, director

Renée Anne Louprette maintains an international career as an organ recitalist, accompanist, conductor, and teacher. As director of the Bard Baroque Ensemble, she leads an annual series of Bach cantatas presented in Bard’s Chapel of the Holy Innocents and at venues throughout the Hudson Valley region. She is director of the National Competition in Organ Improvisation and a 2022 U.S.-Romanian Fulbright Scholar. Recent recitals include such venues as Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris; Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; Royal Festival Hall, London; Rochester Celebrity Organ Recital Series, Eastman School of Music; Washington National Cathedral; the United States Military Academy at West Point; and the Bard Music Festival.

Renée Anne Louprette, director

Renée Anne Louprette maintains an international career as an organ recitalist, accompanist, conductor, and teacher. As director of the Bard Baroque Ensemble, she leads an annual series of Bach cantatas presented in Bard’s Chapel of the Holy Innocents and at venues throughout the Hudson Valley region. She is director of the National Competition in Organ Improvisation and a 2022 U.S.-Romanian Fulbright Scholar. Recent recitals include such venues as Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris; Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; Royal Festival Hall, London; Rochester Celebrity Organ Recital Series, Eastman School of Music; Washington National Cathedral; the United States Military Academy at West Point; and the Bard Music Festival. She is associated with several distinguished sacred music programs in the New York City area, having served as associate director of music at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, associate director of music and the arts at Trinity Church Wall Street, associate director at the Unitarian Church of All Souls, and director of music at the Church of Notre Dame. She has collaborated with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Berkshire Bach Society, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Clarion Music Society, Piffaro, American Symphony Orchestra, Dessoff Choirs, Los Angeles Dance Project, and the Empire Brass Quintet, among others. Conducting positions have included assistant conductor of the chamber singers and symphonic chorus at Bard College; founder and conductor, Les Demoiselles de Notre Dame, New York City; and assistant conductor of the South West London Choral Society. Professor Louprette has also held academic positions at Rutgers University, Manhattan School of Music, Hartt School, and Montclair State University. Her recording of the Great Eighteen Chorales of J. S. Bach on the Metzler organ in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, was named a classical music Critics’ Choice in 2014 by the New York Times. In 2018, she released a recording of 20th-century French organ repertoire on the Acis Productions label to critical acclaim. Her recording of Bach’s Clavier-Übung III on the Acis label will be released in a celebratory recital at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York in September 2023.

BM, Graduate Professional Diploma (organ performance), Hartt School, University of Hartford; Diplôme Supérieur, Centre d'Études Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse; MM, conducting, Bard College Conservatory of Music. At Bard since 2019.

Interested in playing with the Bard Baroque Ensemble?

  • How to Join
    At the start of the semester, students from the College or Conservatory wishing to join the Baroque Ensemble should contact director Renée Anne Louprette at [email protected] to express their interest in joining.

    Beginning in the Fall 2023 semester, all members will be auditioned and interviewed to assess eligibility for full participation in the group. Interested participants should have studied the instrument they intend to play in the ensemble for a minimum of three years through private lessons and should have a sufficient ability to sightread a standard level of repertory within a group rehearsal setting.

    Rehearsals take place on Sunday evenings in Olin Hall from 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm.

Upcoming Events

  • Sunday, November 24 at 5:00pm in Bard’s Chapel of the Holy Innocents
    Music from Spain from the 12th through 18th Centuries

    Program to include works by: 
    Gracia Baptista, Pedro Guerrero, Andrea Falconieri, Antonio Martín y Coll, Antonio Soler, Joan Cabanilles, Sebastián Durón, Vicente Baset, and from the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat manuscript

    with 
    Soloists from the Graduate Vocal Arts Program
    Tenors and Basses of the Bard Chamber Singers
    Bard Preparatory Division Chorus
  • Saturday, April 19 at 7:00pm in Sosnoff Theater, Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
    Concert in Memory of Frederick Hammond (1937-2023), Irma Brandeis Professor Emeritus of Romance Cultures and Music History

    Program to include: 
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550
    Johann Sebastian Bach – Concerto for Two Harpsichords, Strings, and Basso Continuo in C
    Minor, BWV 1060
    Johann Sebastian Bach – Cantata No. 1: Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How Brightly
    Shines the Morningstar)

    with
    Soloists from the Graduate Vocal Arts Program
    Bard Chamber Singers
    Bard Preparatory Division Chorus

Performance Archive

  • Handel Aria Project
     
  • Bard Baroque Ensemble in Olin Hall
  • Bard Baroque Ensemble Baroque dancer Caroline Copeland
Bard Baroque Ensemble
Photo Credit: Christopher Kayden

Bard Baroque Ensemble

Bard Conservatory
Bard College
Conservatory of Music
30 Campus Road
Annandale-on-Hudson
New York 12504-5000
845-758-7196
[email protected]
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All photos by Karl Rabe unless stated otherwise.