2022
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Friday, January 28, 2022
A Chinese New Year Concert with The Orchestra Now
Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm EST/GMT-5
The third annual Chinese New Year Concert presented by the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, The Sound of Spring, is a celebration of one of the most important holidays in the Lunar calendar, a time for enjoying friends and family and looking ahead to the bright future of a new year. This year’s concert features Bard’s The Orchestra Now, joined by a select group of top vocal and instrumental artists, performing musical works that showcase the wonderful diversity and artistry of Chinese symphonic music.
Pre-Concert talk with Jindong Cai at 7 PM
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Friday, April 8, 2022
Scholars' Presentations
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
The US-China Music Institute's annual conference, co-presented this year by the Asian Studies Program, invites four scholars to discuss the intersections between Chinese music, calligraphy, and visual arts.
Presentations
Qing 清: the Key Standard of Qin Aesthetics in Song Dynasty China (960-1279)
Meimei Zhang, Occidental College, Department of Comparative Studies in Language and Culture
Silk Strings and Rabbit Hair: Qin Music and Calligraphy
Mingmei Yip, Bard Conservatory of Music, US-China Music Institute
Chinese Calligraphy: History, Significance, and Musicality
Yu Li, Loyola Marymount University, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Chen Zhen: the Harmony of the Life Force
Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky, Bard College, Asian Studies and Art History
Q&A and Discussion to follow.
The Ink and Sound conference is being held in celebration of the completion of the first major phase of the Ink Art and New Music Project, a collaboration between the Bard Conservatory, Hong Kong University, and M+, Hong Kong. During the conference two concerts will feature premieres of seven new musical compositions, each inspired by contemporary ink art in the M+ collection and featuring mixed Chinese and Western instruments.
More information at: Ink and Sound: a Conference on Chinese Music and Visual Arts.
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Friday, April 8, 2022
Part of the Conference Ink and Sound: a Conference on Chinese Music and Visual Arts
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
The US-China Music Institute proudly presents the premiere performances of four new chamber works for mixed ensembles of Western and Chinese instruments, created by composition students of the Bard Conservatory of Music and Hong Kong University as part of the Ink Art and New Music Project, a collaboration between the Bard Conservatory, Hong Kong University, and the M+ Museum, Hong Kong. Each of the four new compositions was developed in response to a specific piece of art from M+ Museum's extensive collection of 20th-21st Century Ink Art from Asia.
Bard Conservatory musicians will perform the new works, plus a selection of additional Chinese chamber pieces, as part of the US-China Music Institute's fourth annual conference, Ink and Sound: a Conference on Chinese Music and Visual Arts.
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Saturday, April 9, 2022
Part of the Conference Ink and Sound: a Conference on Chinese Music and Visual Arts
Bard Hall 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Join students and faculty from the Asian Studies Program and the US-China Music Institute in a multidisciplinary interactive salon, an Elegant Gathering ('Yaji' 雅集) inspired by the traditions of the literati in ancient China, featuring Chinese music and calligraphy demonstrations, plus poetry readings. Professor Li-hua Ying will introduce the event with a talk on how poetry, painting, calligraphy, and music have connected deeply in Chinese culture.
Light lunch and tea will be served.
(Suggested donation; $20 ($10 for students). Cash only.)
This event is part of the US-China Music Institute's fourth annual conference, Ink and Sound: a Conference on Chinese Music and Visual Arts.
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Saturday, April 9, 2022
Part of the Conference Ink and Sound: a Conference on Chinese Music and Visual Arts
Olin Auditorium 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
The US-China Music Institute proudly presents the premiere performances of three new works by composers Hingyan Chan, Yiwen Shen, and Yeung-Ping Chen for mixed ensembles of Western and Chinese instruments. These works were commissioned as part of the Ink Art and New Music Project, a collaboration between the Bard Conservatory, Hong Kong University, and the M+ Museum, Hong Kong. Each of the new compositions was developed in response to a specific piece of art from M+ Museum's extensive collection of 20th-21st Century Ink Art from Asia.
Bard Conservatory musicians will perform the new works as part of the US-China Music Institute's fourth annual conference, Ink and Sound: a Conference on Chinese Music and Visual Arts.
In addition, the newly formed Bard East/West Ensemble will preview two pieces from their upcoming debut at the Kennedy Center on April 16 for the Coal + Ice festival on climate change, sponsored by Asia Society. With special guest Guo Yazhi on selected wind instruments.
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Friday, April 22, 2022
World Music Workshop
Bard Hall 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Local musician Chris Stephens will offer a special educational performance featuring a collection of historic lute instruments from the Silk Road, including the Chinese pipa and the sitar of India, each performed in their traditional style along with American folk music on the Banjo. Chris will discuss and demonstrate each instrument's unique specialties and highlight their similarities stemming from their shared history.
About:
Chris Stephens is a multi-instrumentalist musician specializing in the connections among Silk Road lutes and the banjo. Originally a sitar student of Hindustani music master Ustad Imrat Khan, Chris took interest in the relationships between instruments related to sitar and through years of practice and immersive listening has been teaching himself the traditional music of China, Persia, and the Middle East for over 10 years. Originally from Missouri, Chris has brought his music program around the Midwest US during his musical career, and now resides in New York’s Hudson Valley. Website: WorldMusician.co
This event is free to the public and is sponsored by the US-China Music Institute. Non-Bard community members must submit proof of vaccination to attend. Register at: https://forms.gle/1fQbjYVj8xp9XUL8A
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Sunday, May 15, 2022
Spring Concert
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
The Bard Chinese Ensemble presents a selection of traditional and new music for Chinese and Western instruments, with original compositions and arrangements by Chinese Ensemble director Chen Tao.PROGRAMThe Long Tune (Mongolian Suite No. 1)
Chen Tao
Mongolian (Mongolian Suite No. 2)
Tengger
Arr. Chen Tao
Toast Song & Chopstick Dance (Mongolian Suite No. 3)
Chen Tao
Moon Reflecting in the Er-Quan Pond
A Bing
Arr. by Pen Xiu-Wen
Re-arr. by Chen Tao
Melody of Raiment of Rainbows
Jiang-Nan Silk & Bamboo music
Arr. by Chen Tao
Arkansas Traveler
Arr. by Chen Tao
At the Frontier
Classical music
Arr. by Zhang Da-Sen
Re-arr. by Chen Tao
Dance of Yun Nan
Chen Tao
Livestream link: https://youtu.be/GpEQg2ypE9A
Bard Conservatory events are now open to fully vaccinated members of the community.
All visitors must demonstrate proof of vaccination to attend in person.
ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE
The Bard Chinese Ensemble is composed of the Conservatory’s Chinese instrument majors and various students of Western instruments joining each semester, depending on the repertoire. Chinese Ensemble is an essential component of the double-degree program in Chinese instruments offered through the US-China Music Institute at Bard, in partnership with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
The director and conductor of the Chinese Ensemble is Chen Tao, a dizi (bamboo flute) master and the artistic director of Melody of Dragon, an educational and performing arts organization in New York City focusing on traditional Chinese music. Chen Tao studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and has been teaching and performing in the New York area for nearly 30 years.
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Sunday, October 9, 2022
East of West, the Fifth Annual China Now Music Festival
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
The opening concert of the 2022 the China Now Music Festival takes us to the streets, alleyways, and majestic outskirts of Beijing with a program featuring selections from Guo Wenjing’s opera Rickshaw Boy, Ye Xiaogang’s powerful Great Wall Symphony, and Russian-born Jewish American composer Aaron Avshalomov’s Hutongs of Peking. Jindong Cai conducts The Orchestra Now and guest soloists.
More information HERE
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Thursday, October 13, 2022
Part of the Fifth Annual China Now Music Festival - East of West
Hudson Hall, 327 Warren St, Hudson, NY 12534 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Painted Skin 画皮 is composer Hao Weiya’s modern operatic interpretation of a haunting story from Strange Tales of Liao Zhai* by Pu Songling (originally published in 1740).
The opera made its debut in 2018 at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center in Shanghai. For the 2022 China Now Music Festival, director Michael Hoffman and music director Jindong Cai have created a new production that transports this supernatural ghost story to modern America, and features a cast of three singers,accompanied by a 20-piece Chinese chamber orchestra.
An all new production directed by Michael Hoffman VAP ’15 and conducted by Jindong Cai.
More information HERE
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Saturday, October 15, 2022
Part of the 5th Annual China Now Music Festival - East of West
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Painted Skin 画皮 is composer Hao Weiya’s modern operatic interpretation of a haunting story from Strange Tales of Liao Zhai* by Pu Songling (originally published in 1740).
The opera made its debut in 2018 at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center in Shanghai. For the 2022 China Now Music Festival, director Michael Hoffman and music director Jindong Cai have created a new production that transports this supernatural ghost story to modern America, and features a cast of three singers, including acclaimed NY-based Peking opera singer Qian Yi, accompanied by a 20-piece Chinese chamber orchestra.
An all new production directed by Michael Hoffman VAP '15 and conducted by Jindong Cai.
more information HERE
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Saturday, October 22, 2022
Part of the Fifth Annual China Now Festival
Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
The music of Alexander Tcherepnin and the art of Xu Beihong 徐悲鸿
The Fifth annual China Now Music Festival concludes with a program highlighting the aesthetic crosscurrents between East and West in the early-mid 20th century, including symphonic works in honor of the great painter Xu Beihong (1895-1953), and a rarely performed chamber opera by Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977). Jindong Cai conducts the Orchestra of the New Asia CMS, with guest soloists including pianist Xu Fangfang, the daughter of Xu Beihong.
More information HERE.
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Sunday, December 4, 2022
Chen Tao, conductor
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST/GMT-5
The Bard Chinese Ensemble welcomes Kunqu and Peking opera singer Michelle Yang to perform music from Peony Pavilion and other Chinese opera. The program will also feature premieres of several new arrangements of Chinese music by director Chen Tao for the Ensemble’s unique mix of Chinese and Western instruments.
Free and open to the public.
This concert will also be livestreamed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/G4EWmxvN54g
https://youtu.be/G4EWmxvN54g
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Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Professor Xinyan Li's Chinese Folk Music Class
Jazz Room, Blum N211 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Students of the course Literature and Language of Chinese Music III: Folk Music, taught by Professor Xinyan Li, present a concert of traditional folk tunes and new student compositions in the styles of different regions of China.
