News

Assistant Professor and CCS Luma Fellow Lara Fresko Madra published an essay on research-based artist Hande Sever’s solo exhibition at REDCAT in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Take off your eyes consisted of two collections from 2023 and 2025 that combine text and images Sever found in collections in Southern California, including German photography in the Ottoman Empire and archival footage of Ronald Reagan and former Turkish president Kenan Evren. “[These] photographs variously juxtapose scenes of deterioration, overgrowth, development, and progress,” Madra writes. “The tension born out of contrast, within a single image or between the two sets of photographs, articulates not only what is lost [but also] what covered up or replaced that loss.”

The Center for Curatorial Studies is an intensive course of study in the history of contemporary art, criticism, and exhibition making. The graduate program provides extensive practical experience in exhibition-making within a professional museum setting. The faculty include curators, scholars, writers, art historians, and other professionals committed to innovation in the arts.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/holding-and-disappearing-traces-of-the-past/

An essay by Drew Thompson, associate professor at the Bard Graduate Center, appeared in a book featured in the Paris Photo–Aperture 2025 PhotoBook Awards, an annual celebration of the photobook medium’s contributions to the evolving narrative of photography. Thompson’s essay, “Envisioning Liberation: A Brief History of PhotoBooks in Mozambique,” appeared in the book Generalized Visual Resistance: Photobooks and Liberation Movements, an anthology that examines the importance of visual culture in anticolonial struggles. The book is a critical reflection on memory and images through a collection of rare photography books produced as part of liberation movements for independence in the former Portuguese colonies in Africa between the 1960s and 1980s. “The history of photobooks looks different from the vantage point of the African continent,” Thompson writes in his essay.

The Bard Graduate Center is devoted to the study of decorative arts, design history, and material culture through research, advanced degrees, exhibitions, publications, and events.
https://www.parisphoto.com/en-gb/program/paris-photo-aperture-photobook-awards.html

Performance Pairs Rarely-Heard Works by Čiurlionis, Kaprálová, and Lyatoshynsky with Pieces by Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) launches its 11^th season of New York City concerts led by Music Director Leon Botstein with Sounds and Echoes of Empire, on October 13, at Carnegie Hall.  The program features both neglected and more familiar Eastern European works from the late-19^th and early-20^th centuries that reflect the nationalism of the Russian Empire. The first of two performances at Carnegie Hall this season, the concert will initially be performed at the Fisher Center at Bard on October 11-12 and livestreamed on TŌNtube.

TŌN will next perform a FREE concert in Manhattan featuring Strauss’s beloved tone poem Don Juan and works by Vaughan Williams, Henry Purcell, and Samuel Barber led by Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman at Peter Norton Symphony Space on November 23.

For detailed information about the 2025-26 season, visit ton.bard.edu.

Sounds and Echoes of Empire
Monday, October 13, 2025, at 7 pm
Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
The Orchestra Now
Leon Botstein, conductor
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Overture on Russian Themes in D Major, Op. 28
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis: In the Forest (Miške)
Vítězslava Kaprálová: Military Sinfonietta, Op. 11 (Vojenská Symfonieta)
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Festival Coronation March, TH 50
Boris Lyatoshynsky: Symphony No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 50
The evening presents familiar pieces like Rimsky-Korsakov’s Overture on Russian Themes and Tchaikovsky’s grand Festival Coronation March, written to celebrate the coronation of Alexander III, alongside lesser-known works from the same time period. The symphonic poem In the Forest, by Lithuanian composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, was among his earliest musical successes. The Military Sinfonietta of Vítězslava Kaprálová brought international exposure when the work received the prestigious Smetana Foundation award. Boris Lyatoshynsky’s Third Symphony was premiered in his native Ukraine in 1951, but was later revised after being banned by Soviet authorities. TŌN performs the original version in this concert.

Tickets, priced at $29-$50, are available at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800, or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57^th & 7th Avenue.

Celebrating Three Generations of Chinese Composers and the Fusion of Contemporary Music with Dance and Opera

The US–China Music Institute at Bard College announces the launch of ticket sales for the eighth annual China Now Music Festival, taking place in New York City and at Bard College from September 27 through October 5, 2025.

Under the theme “Music in Motion,” this year’s festival will feature three major concerts and a US–China Music Forum, showcasing the creative legacy of three generations of Chinese composers and their groundbreaking work at the intersection of music, dance, and opera.

“This year’s theme, Music in Motion, explores the dynamic flow of contemporary Chinese music—its innovation, cross-cultural dialogues, and ability to evolve with the times,” said Jindong Cai, artistic director and conductor of the festival.

As in past years, this season’s programming is shaped with narrative and conceptual depth. The first program will be performed on September 27 at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and on September 28 at Lincoln Center by The Orchestra Now (TŌN) under the baton of Jindong Cai, featuring guest cellist Hai-Ye Ni and singers Manli Deng and Yue Wu. Works by Ye Xiaogang, Zou Hang, Dai Bo, and Yu Mengshi—composers spanning from the post-1950s to post-1980s generations—will illuminate the lineage of Chinese music from the late 20th century to today, evoking reflections on nature, time, and society.

The second program, presented only once on October 5 at Lincoln Center, will feature the Bard East/West Ensemble in a boundary-crossing performance with a Western string quintet, seven Chinese instruments, and Chinese-Western percussion. The concert begins with two movements from Guan Naizhong’s electrifying double percussion concerto The Age of the Dragon, followed by the haunting 30-minute chamber opera Mi 谜 (The Enigma), featuring tenor Eric Carey, baritone Nathaniel Sullivan, and Peking opera performer Xiangwei Yu. The program closes with Wang Danhong’s Four Seasons of the Lingering Garden, a music-and-dance collaboration with choreographer Dai Jian (France) and dancers Mi Peng and Wang Kan (China), where music and movement interweave.

Festival Highlights include:
• Ye Xiaogang’s The Song of the Earth—A monumental symphonic vocal work revisiting Mahler’s Das Leide von der Erde and inspired by the same Tang Dynasty poetry, performed in New York for the first time since its 2013 Lincoln Center debut.
• Renowned cellist Hai-Ye Ni (Principal Cello, The Philadelphia Orchestra) performs the US premiere of Chinese-Mongolian composer Yu Mengshi’s The Lonely Camel Calf.
• Wang Danhong’s Four Seasons in Lingering Garden—A symphonic poem reimagined with dance by acclaimed choreographer Dai Jian and performed by the Bard East/West Ensemble, blending Chinese and Western instruments with modern dance.
• Ma Hanrui’s chamber opera Mi 谜 (The Enigma)—Inspired by David Henry Hwang’s iconic play M. Butterfly, the work merges Western opera with Peking opera traditions, offering a powerful new interpretation of East-West cultural encounters. Featuring a libretto in English by Pan Geng.

More About the Music:
This year’s festival celebrates the 70th birthday of Ye Xiaogang, a trailblazer of contemporary Chinese symphonic music and a member of the legendary first class of composition students admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music after its reopening in 1978, along with classmates Tan Dun, Chen Yi, and Zhou Long. He later continued his studies in the United States at the Eastman School of Music. Ye and his peers have profoundly influenced younger generations of composers in China and beyond. His students Zou Hang (b. 1975) and Dai Bo (b. 1988) will both have works featured at the festival. Zou, now a professor at the Central Conservatory, is known for his vivid soundscapes that combine classical and popular influences; the festival will present two works from his “Regional Color” series, The Color of Qingdao and The Color of Beijing. Dai Bo, also on the faculty of the Central Conservatory, lost his sight at an early age; his award-winning work Invisible Mountain invites listeners into an inner world of sound shaped by extraordinary perception.

Yu Mengshi, composer of The Lonely Camel Calf, holds a doctorate from the Shanghai Conservatory and was the first Mongolian postdoctoral scholar in composition at the Central Conservatory. His work is both strikingly modern and deeply influenced by Mongolian folk music traditions. Wang Danhong, composer of Four Seasons of the Lingering Garden, is among the most dynamic Chinese composers today, known for her emotionally charged, lyrical, and grand musical language; she is currently a professor at the Central Conservatory. The youngest composer on the program is Hanrui Ma (b. 1998), currently a doctoral student at the Conservatory. Her works, which unite Eastern cultural elements with Western techniques, have been performed by several leading Chinese ensembles.

US-China Music Forum:
This year, on September 28 at 5:00 PM at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the festival will co-host a US-China Music Forum with China Daily. Centered on the theme “Music in Motion” and the core topic of cross-cultural exchange, the forum will draw on the Bard East/West Ensemble’s recent China tour. “This tour not only showcased the richness of diverse musical voices, but also demonstrated the power of music to transcend cultures and foster understanding,” said Artistic Director Jindong Cai. Participating musicians and representatives from the US arts and cultural community will share their experiences, highlighting the unique role of music as a universal language of connection. A reception with drinks and light refreshments will follow.

Schedule of Programs:
The Orchestra Now Performs Three Generations of Composers from China
September 27, 3:00 pm
Sosnoff Theater, Fisher Center at Bard College
Tickets: $15–$55
https://fishercenter.bard.edu/events/china-now-music-festival-music-in-motion/

September 28, 3:00 pm
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center
Tickets: $15–$55
https://ticketing.jazz.org/19439/19440

Bard East/West Ensemble Chamber Opera and Dance Concert
October 5, 3:00 pm
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center
Tickets: $15–$55
https://ticketing.jazz.org/19439/19443

US–China Music Forum: Music in Motion
Co-presented by China Daily
September 28, 5:00 pm
Ertugun Atrium, Jazz at Lincoln Center
Tickets: $10 (includes wine and refreshments)
https://us-china-music-forum-2025.eventbrite.com

For more information, visit: www.barduschinamusic.org/music-in-motion

In October 2025, the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) will inaugurate its new Keith Haring Wing, a 12,000-square-foot addition to its Library and Archives. The expansion responds to the continued growth of CCS Bard’s research center and collections, encompassing art and archival holdings, which have seen an infusion of materials from key contemporary art figures, including gallerist Gavin Brown, scholar and art historian Eddie Chambers, and curator and art historian Robert Storr. The addition more than doubles the current capacity of CCS Bard’s Library and Archives, significantly increasing the number of students, scholars, and researchers it can support.

Supported by a $10M capital project, the Keith Haring Wing is named in recognition of a lead $3M gift from the Keith Haring Foundation, which builds on the organization’s longstanding partnership with CCS Bard. This includes the Keith Haring Chair in Art and Activism, a faculty position that has brought prominent scholars, activists, and artists to teach at Bard for the past decade, and was fully endowed in 2022. Additional lead support for the project is provided by the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, along with major gifts from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, and a private foundation.

“The expansion of the CCS Bard Library and Archives is an investment in our core educational mission and the many people who make up the CCS Bard community,” said Tom Eccles, Executive Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. “It is in this spirit that we thank the Keith Haring Foundation, the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, and other supporters whose contributions have had an indelible impact on the intellectual life of CCS Bard.”

The Keith Haring Wing, designed by the award-winning firm HWKN Architecture with C.T. Male Associates serving as executive architect, is a two-story masonry structure that complements the existing CCS Bard facility, characterized by minimalist, light-filled interiors. Open ceilings and large windows introduce natural light deep into the expanded library, fostering an inviting and productive atmosphere for research and study.

"Returning to the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College to design the Keith Haring Wing has been a deeply meaningful experience. This contextual addition allowed us to re-engage with our earlier work through a modern lens while pushing the architecture forward, introducing light, openness, and new opportunities for artistic expression. It’s rare for a building to grow alongside its community in this way, and we’re proud that our design reflects continuity, honoring the spirit of Bard College,” said Matthias Hollwich, Founding Principal of HWKN Architecture.

The new wing features an expansive open reading space, the Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Reading Room, situated next to open research stacks that can accommodate more than 30,000 additional volumes. The new 30-seat Pontus Hultén Classroom, made possible by a generous gift from the Marieluise Hessel Foundation, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Collaborative Study Room will enable CCS Bard to host a wider range of courses, workshops, and study groups, deepening ties with the undergraduate Art History and Visual Culture program and other college departments. With six new offices, the expansion will also support visiting faculty and researcher positions that engage leading global scholars with the research collection and Bard community, while 6,000 square feet of new storage space below the library will help accommodate the continued growth of CCS Bard’s art and archival collections.

The Pontus Hultén Classroom is named in tribute to the curator and museum director Pontus Hultén (1924-2006) for his pioneering role in transforming the modern art museum into the cultural focal point that it is today. Coinciding with the Keith Haring Wing opening, and the Centre Pompidou exhibition Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hultén in the Grand Palais in Paris, CCS Bard has co-published the first full-scale biography of Hultén with Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther and Franz König, Köln. “Pontus Hultén —Commander of Modern Art” by Claes Britton is available for purchase at the link.

The CCS Bard Library and Archives
The CCS Bard Library and Archives are a crucial resource for students in CCS Bard’s graduate program, undergraduate students from across Bard College, as well as art historians, curators, and interdisciplinary scholars from around the world. Over the past 30 years, the CCS Bard Library has grown from a modest graduate program library into a premier research center for the study of contemporary art and culture, with more than 50,000 volumes and a wide range of primary materials documenting the history of contemporary art and the practices of exhibition-making since the 1960s. The CCS Bard Archives also serve as the institutional repository for the Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art, complementing and enriching the Hessel Museum of Art’s rich permanent collection.

From the Fluxus-era projects of curator John G, Hanhardt to performance-based curatorial works by Ian White and feminist genderqueer collective LTTR, the CCS Archives contains over 40 distinct archival collections, which are extensively contextualized by Special Collections, encompassing over 7,000 rare exhibition-related and artist-produced publications. Following a 2015 expansion that added a dedicated space for the archives and an innovative Collection Teaching Gallery, the demand for access to CCS Bard’s collections, and space for research and teaching within the library, have continued to grow.

Bard College has recently been recognized for its commitment to sustainability by two organizations. This July, the College earned a Gold rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). This nationwide group ranks colleges based on all aspects of sustainability on their campuses, from academic buildings to dining and events planning. Bard’s report included its participation in the Race 2 Zero Waste food scrap conservation program, where it placed first in the food organics Small College category.

Bard’s MBA in sustainability was also ranked the best green MBA by the Princeton Review for the fifth year in a row. The list is based on student ratings of how well their MBA “prepares them to address environmental, sustainability, and responsibility issues in their careers.” Bard’s MBA is based in New York City and utilizes a hybrid curriculum to prepare students for critical social and environmental challenges. “At a time when clean energy and climate change action, organizational justice, reducing plastics and toxic pollution, and enhancing the planet’s biodiversity are all under political attack, Bard remains the leading MBA focused on embedding sustainability as simply good business,” said MBA Director Dr. Eban Goodstein.
https://leadthechange.bard.edu/blog/bards-mba-in-sustainability-again-ranked-1-best-green-mba-and-best-mba-for-nonprofits

In an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bard alumna Sarah Rogers Morris MA ’13 examines how the practice of visual comparison in art allows us to cultivate thinking skills that are vital to public and political life. Drawing on her memories of art history lectures—in which a projector was used to beam two images side by side upon the wall—Morris posits that the learning process of analyzing two visually disparate entities engenders a capacity for a larger search for coherence across disparity and differences in an increasingly polarized world. “Within the classroom, comparing works of art based on formal characteristics encourages students to find meaning in the space where things that do not belong together meet,” Morris writes. “This activity translates beyond the classroom as a lesson in pluralism, a way of engaging in the public sphere where people, who by nature act and think differently from one another, must coexist and work together to build a world in common.” Morris holds an MA in the history of design, decorative arts, and material culture from the Bard Graduate Center. 
https://www.chronicle.com/article/want-to-save-democracy-teach-art-history

Rarely Heard Works by John Cage, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Ulysses Kay, and Boris Lyatoshinsky; and World Premiere of Yevhen Stankovych’s
The Vikings Suite

Special Event at the Fisher Center at Bard: HD Screening of Jurassic Park
with Live Performance of the Score

Conductors James Bagwell, Leon Botstein, Tan Dun, Tatiana Kalinichenko,
Leonardo Pineda, and Zachary Schwartzman

Soloists Mezzo-Soprano Stephanie Blythe; Tenor Ryan Michki;
Violinist Dmytro Tkachenko; Pianists Blair McMillen and Terrence Wilson

The Orchestra Now (TŌN), the visionary orchestra and master’s degree program founded by Bard College, and led by president, conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, begins its 11th season on September 20, 2025, and continues through May 12, 2026. Acclaimed for its novel combinations of both well-known and seldom-heard repertoire, TŌN offers 13 programs and a total of 20 concerts this season, including two at Carnegie Hall, three at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, three free concerts in Manhattan at Peter Norton Symphony Space and the Julia Richman Educational Complex, and 12 at the Orchestra’s home at Bard College’s Fisher Center, including one special event.

The Orchestra welcomes 28 new members this season, for a total of 63 musicians from 18 countries around the globe: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Mongolia, Netherlands, Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.K., and the United States.

Highlights of the 2025-26 season
Leon Botstein conducts two concerts at Carnegie Hall, including a program of works by rarely-heard Eastern European composers and an all-Richard Strauss concert. The popular Sight & Sound series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art returns with three programs investigating the ties between fine arts and music through a focus on ancient Egyptian artwork and the music of Saint-Säens, Johann Strauss II, and Mozart; the simplistic style of Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck alongside the works of Sibelius; and Mozart’s final Symphony, the Jupiter. The Fisher Center series at Bard College offers 12 performances of seven different programs, including a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with celebrated mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and the U.S. premiere of Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych’s The Vikings Suite. Of note is a special event at Bard: a screening of Jurassic Park with a live performance of the film score. There are also three free concerts in Manhattan, led by TŌN resident conductor Zachary Schwartzman at Peter Norton Symphony Space, and conductor Leonardo Pineda at the Julia Richman Educational Complex, joined by NYC’s All-City High School Orchestra.

“As we begin our 11th season, I look forward to building on the achievements of last year’s 10th anniversary, which included two successful concerts in Germany marking the Orchestra’s first European tour,” said founder and music director Leon Botstein. “Over the past decade, TŌN musicians can now be found as professionals in orchestras around the world, and as faculty members of major universities. I have no doubt that, in addition to their given musical talents, this is due to the foundation of TŌN’s program: exposure to both standard and unfamiliar repertoire, and experience with such special projects as movie screenings and recordings. On that note, I’m especially proud of two additional recordings coming out in the fall: Premieres, featuring violinist Gil Shaham; and Transcription as Translation.”

Broadcasts and Recordings
This year marks the 9th season of TŌN’s popular broadcast series on WMHT-FM, the classical music radio station of New York’s Capital Region, and the 8th season on WWFM, the Classical Network station serving New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, both featuring programs from the Orchestra’s Fisher Center series. TŌN’s performances are also heard regularly on American Public Media’s Performance Today. TŌN’s latest album, Exodus—featuring Josef Tal’s Exodus, Walter Kaufman’s Indian Symphony, and Marcel Rubin’s Symphony No. 4, Dies Irae—was released in September 2024. Scheduled for release in Fall 2025 are two albums: Premieres, featuring violinist Gil Shaham on Canary Classics in works by Scott Wheeler, Avner Dorman, and Bright Sheng (September 5); and Transcription as Translation, with works by Smetana and Beethoven on AVIE Records.

For detailed information about the 2025-26 season, visit ton.bard.edu.

CARNEGIE HALL SERIES, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage

Sounds and Echoes of Empire
Monday, October 13, 2025, at 7 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Overture on Russian Themes in D Major, Op. 28
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis: In the Forest (Miške)
Vítězslava Kaprálová: Military Sinfonietta, Op. 11 (Vojenská Symfonieta)
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Festival Coronation March, TH 50
Boris Lyatoshynsky: Symphony No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 50
This program spotlights Eastern European works from the late-19th and early-20th centuries that reflect the nationalism of the Russian Empire. More familiar pieces like Rimsky-Korsakov’s Overture on Russian Themes and Tchaikovsky’s grand Festival Coronation March, written to celebrate the coronation of Alexander III, are performed alongside lesser-known works. The symphonic poem In the Forest, by Lithuanian composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, was among his earliest musical successes. The Military Sinfonietta of Vítězslava Kaprálová brought international exposure when the work received the prestigious Smetana Foundation award. Boris Lyatoshynsky’s Third Symphony was premiered in his native Ukraine in 1951, but later revised after being banned by Soviet authorities. TŌN performs the original version in this concert.

Strauss’s Alpine Symphony
Tuesday, May 12, 2026, at 7 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Blair McMillen, piano
Members of the Bard Festival Chorale
James Bagwell, choral director
Members of the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra (for An Alpine Symphony)
All-Richard Strauss Program
Burleske in D Minor, TrV 145
Times of the Day, TrV 256, Op. 76 (Die Tageszeiten)
An Alpine Symphony, TrV 233, Op. 64 (Eine Alpensinfonie)
After a string of successful tone poems, An Alpine Symphony was Richard Strauss’s first such composition after nearly a dozen years of focusing on opera. Written for a massive orchestra that includes such rarities as the heckelphone, thunder sheets, and a wind machine, this rich masterpiece takes listeners through the ascent and descent of a mountain in the Alps, with meadows, streams, storms, and vistas along the way. Strauss’s Burleske for piano and orchestra is performed by Blair McMillen. Hailed as “prodigiously accomplished and exciting” (New York Times), he is co-founder and co-director of the Rite of Summer Music Festival at New York City’s Governors Island. Also on the program is Times of the Day, a setting of four nature poems by Joseph von Eichendorff.

Tickets, priced at $25-$50, are available starting in August at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800, or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57^th & 7th Avenue.

SIGHT & SOUND SERIES AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
 The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

In the popular Sight & Sound series, The Orchestra Now explores the parallels between orchestral music and visual art. Each performance includes a discussion with conductor and music historian Leon Botstein accompanied by on-screen exhibition images and live musical excerpts, followed by a full performance of the works and an audience Q&A.

Egypt in Music and Art
Sunday, December 7, 2025, at 2 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Terrence Wilson, piano
Johann Strauss II: Egyptian March, Op. 335
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Magic Flute Overture, K.620
Camille Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, “Egyptian”, Op. 103
Artwork from the exhibition Divine Egypt
In ancient Egypt, images of gods weren’t just images—they brought the gods to life. Egyptians believed that it was through their depictions in tombs, temples, and shrines that the deities could enter sacred spaces and become active participants in rituals, offering a vital connection between the human and divine worlds. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, European composers like Mozart and Johann Strauss II incorporated influences from the Middle East into some of their music. Saint-Saëns’s Fifth Piano Concerto was written in Egypt, where the composer included in his work the melody of a Nubian love song he had heard along the Nile. Grammy-nominated pianist Terrence Wilson, winner of the SONY ES Award for Musical Excellence, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Juilliard Petschek Award, will perform the concerto with TŌN.

The exhibition Divine Egypt will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue from October 12, 2025–January 19, 2026 in gallery 899.

Sibelius, Schjerfbeck, and Finland
Sunday, March 1, 2026, at 2 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Jean Sibelius: Finlandia, Op. 26
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 105
Artwork by Helene Schjerfbeck and others
Beloved in Nordic countries for her highly original style, Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck overcame immense personal struggles working in a remote location for decades, producing a powerful body of work through sheer willpower. Over the years, her art shifted from traditional and realistic subjects to a simplified, spare style. The music of Schjerfbeck’s contemporary compatriot Jean Sibelius saw a similar change over time. His patriotic 1900 work Finlandia paints a clear picture of the historical progress of Finland and its bright future. By the time he finished his Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh symphonies 20 years later, Sibelius became increasingly concerned with paring down his music to the bare essentials.

The exhibition Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue December 5, 2025–April 5, 2026 in gallery 964.

Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony
Sunday, March 29, 2026, at 2 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, “Jupiter”, K. 551
Artwork to be announced
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most prolific and influential artists of the Classical period. He gave piano concerts starting at age five, wrote his first opera at age 11, and composed more than 800 works by the time of his death at age 35. He wrote dozens of symphonies, composing the final three over six weeks in the summer of 1788. The Symphony No. 41, his last, puts on full display his extraordinary compositional technique.

Tickets, priced at $30 - $50, include same-day museum admission. Tickets will be available starting in August and may be purchased at metmuseum.org, by calling The Met at 212.570.3949, or at The Great Hall box office at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

THE FISHER CENTER SERIES AT BARD, Sosnoff Theater

The Orchestra Now presents its 11th season of 7 different programs and 12 concerts. Performances at the Fisher Center led by Leon Botstein will be livestreamed on TŌNtube at ton.bard.edu/tontube.

Mahler’s Third Symphony
Saturday, September 20, 2025, at 7 pm
Sunday, September 21, 2025, at 2 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano
Bard Conservatory Preparatory Chorus
Bard College Chamber Singers
Members of Bard Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program
James Bagwell, choral director
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor
For the fourth year in a row, TŌN opens the season with a Mahler symphony. The Third Symphony is the composer’s longest work, a deeply personal and all-encompassing masterpiece that stands as a towering monument to nature and humankind’s place within it. Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe—a Musical America Vocalist of the Year, Opera News, and Richard Tucker Award-winner—joins the orchestra for two of the Symphony’s six movements, singing a text by Nietzsche telling of joy transcending death and worldly suffering, and then a German folk poem about heavenly joy rewarding the faithful.

Sounds and Echoes of Empire: A Carnegie Hall Preview Concert
Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 7 pm
Sunday, October 12, 2025, at 2 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Overture on Russian Themes in D Major, Op. 28
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis: In the Forest (Miške)
Vítězslava Kaprálová: Military Sinfonietta Op. 11 (Vojenská Symfonieta)
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Festival Coronation March, TH 50
Boris Lyatoshynsky: Symphony No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 50

TŌN performs this program at Carnegie Hall on October 13; see description above.

Dvořák and the Music of Ukraine
Saturday, January 24, 2026, at 7 pm
Tatiana Kalinichenko, conductor
Dmytro Tkachenko, violin
Victoria Poleva: Nova
Antonín Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53
Myroslav Skoryk: Carpathian Concerto
Yevhen Stankovych: The Vikings Suite (U.S. Premiere)
Ukrainian musicians Tatiana Kalinichenko—co-founder, music director, and conductor of the New Era Orchestra in Kyiv—and internationally-recognized violinist Dmytro Tkachenko, winner of the Carl Nielsen, Lysenko, and Wronski Solo Violin Competitions—come to the Fisher Center for a one-night-only concert. Tkachenko performs Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, which includes a uniquely Czech finale featuring two popular folk dances. The program also presents music by three Ukrainian composers: Skoryk’s Carpathian Concerto, inspired by the folklore of the country’s Western region; the U.S. premiere of Stankovych’s suite from his ballet The Vikings; and Poleva’s 2022 composition Nova, a salute to the courage of the Ukrainian people.
 
Stravinsky, Cage, and C.P.E. Bach
Saturday, February 7, 2026, at 7 pm
Sunday, February 8, 2026, at 2 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Ulysses Kay: Chariots: Orchestral Rhapsody
John Cage: Suite for Toy Piano (orch. Lou Harrison)
Igor Stravinsky: Symphony in C, K061
C. P. E. Bach: Symphony D Major, H. 663, W. 183/1
Albert Roussel: Symphony No. 3 in G Minor, Op. 42
Leon Botstein leads TŌN in a concert of music spanning over 200 years, from 1776 to 1978, with four 20th-century works. The program comprises Ulysses Kay’s Chariots, based on the spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”; Lou Harrison’s orchestration of John Cage’s Suite for Toy Piano, which was initially used as music for Merce Cunningham’s choreographed piece A Diversion; Stravinsky’s Symphony in C, which he finished composing in America before he conducted the premiere with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in D Major, written in Hamburg and dedicated to Friedrich Wilhelm, Crown Prince of Prussia; and one of Albert Roussel’s most beloved works, his Third Symphony, composed for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930.

Strauss’s Alpine Symphony: A Carnegie Hall Preview Concert
Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 7 pm
Sunday, May 10, 2026, at 3 pm
Leon Botstein, conductor
Blair McMillen, piano
Members of the Bard Festival Chorale
James Bagwell, choral director
Members of the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra (for An Alpine Symphony)
All-Richard Strauss Program
Burleske in D Minor, TrV 145
Times of the Day, TrV 256, Op. 76 (Die Tageszeiten)
An Alpine Symphony, TrV 233, Op. 64 (Eine Alpensinfonie)

TŌN performs this program at Carnegie Hall on May 12; see description above.

Tickets, priced at $15 - $35, will be available starting in August at fishercenter.bard.edu, or by calling the Fisher Center at 845.758.7900.  

SPECIAL EVENTS AT THE FISHER CENTER AT BARD

TŌN Benefit: Jurassic Park in Concert
Saturday, November 15, 2025, at 7 pm
Sunday, November 16, 2025, at 2 pm
James Bagwell, conductor
John Williams: Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg’s epic 1993 adventure film, Jurassic Park, pits man against prehistoric predators in a cinematic smash hit that features stunning imagery and groundbreaking special effects. Williams, the composer of more than 100 film scores and recipient of five Academy Awards, worked closely with Spielberg while creating the score.  He wanted to create music that "would convey a sense of’ awe and fascination" and used a wide range of instruments, including harps, a shakuhachi, and synthesizers. Jurassic Park, will be projected in HD with TŌN performing John Williams’ score live.

Jurassic Park is a trademark and copyright of Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. Licensed by Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Tickets, priced at $25 - $75, will be available starting in August at fishercenter.bard.edu, or by calling the Fisher Center at 845.758.7900.

Tan Dun Conducts
Saturday, April 18, 2026, at 7 pm
Tan Dun, conductor
Program to be announced
Grammy and Academy Award-winning composer and conductor Tan Dun makes his fourth appearance with TŌN.

Tickets, priced at $15 - $35, will be available starting in August at fishercenter.bard.edu, or by calling the Fisher Center at 845.758.7900.

FREE CONCERTS SERIES

Don Juan and Vaughan Williams
Sunday, November 23, 2025, at 4 pm
Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, New York, NY
Zachary Schwartzman, conductor
Ryan Michki, tenor
Richard Strauss: Don Juan, Op. 20, in E Major
Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge
Henry Purcell (arr. Steven Stuckey): Funeral Music for Queen Mary, Z. 860
Samuel Barber: Symphony No. 1 in One Movement, Op. 9
TŌN Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman returns with the Orchestra to Symphony Space for another free concert. The program comprises Strauss’s beloved tone poem Don Juan, followed by 2024 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition winner tenor Ryan Michki in a performance of Vaughan Williams’ English song cycle On Wenlock Edge, written after the composer had spent three months studying with Maurice Ravel in Paris. Also on the program are Stuckey’s arrangement of Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary, composed 330 years ago in 1695, and Barber’s Symphony No. 1 in One Movement.

TŌN + All-City High School Orchestra
Sunday, December 21, 2025, at 3 pm
Julia Richman Educational Complex, 317 E 67th Street, New York, NY
Leonardo Pineda, conductor
Selections performed with the All-City High School Orchestra
David West, principal director
Program to be announced
The Orchestra Now and conductor Leonardo Pineda present a free holiday-season concert at the Julia Richman Educational Complex on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. For the second year in a row, TŌN is joined by NYC’s All-City High School Orchestra for a side-by-side performance.

Franck, Faust, and William Tell
Sunday, March 8, 2026, at 4 pm
Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, New York, NY
Zachary Schwartzman, conductor
Gioachino Rossini: William Tell Overture
Charles Gounod: Faust Ballet Music
César Franck: Symphony in D Minor
TŌN Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman leads the Orchestra in a free concert of audience favorites. The program comprises Rossini’s popular William Tell Overture, famed for the final notes that came to be used as the Lone Ranger theme music in movies and on radio; the ballet music from Gounod’s opera Faust, which premiered in Paris in 1859 and is based on the Goethe play telling the story of a philosopher who sells his soul to the devil; and French composer César Franck’s Symphony in D Minor, completed two years before his death and known for the repeating themes that occur throughout all of its movements. 

Tickets are free. Advance RSVP requested at ton.bard.edu, available in August.

Director of the Bard MBA in Sustainability Eban Goodstein was honored at the United Nations headquarters in New York City as the winner of the PRME (Principles of Responsible Management Education) Educational Leaders Award for 2025. Goodstein was recognized for founding and continuing to lead Bard’s innovative MBA in Sustainability, one of the few graduate programs worldwide that fully integrates a focus on sustainability and mission-driven leadership into a core business curriculum. On receiving the Leadership in Education Award, Goodstein acknowledged the program’s faculty and students, saying, “Our teachers are all mission-driven people who work on the cutting edge of business sustainability. They are  the engine of our community.” He added that “the faculty are inspired by the creativity and commitment of our students to creating a better world.” PRME works with over 800 business and management schools worldwide to promote the integration of sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into higher education. 
 
https://leadthechange.bard.edu/blog/dr.-eban-goodstein-receives-2025-un-prme-leadership-in-education-award