Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents

Signs, Games, and Messages 2026: A Kurtág Festival

2026 marks the centenary of Hungarian composer György Kurtág, whose music is distinguished by precision, clarity, and deep emotional and cultural resonance. The seventh season of Bard Conservatory of Music’s annual Kurtág Festival celebrates this occasion with an expanded program featuring Bard faculty, students, and international artists connected to Kurtág. The festival places Kurtág’s music in dialogue with composers who shaped or reflect his artistic world - from Bach and Bartók to Abrahamsen and Adès.

Artists performing in the festival include Benjamin Appl (baritone); James Baillieu (piano); Sydney Cornett (mezzo-soprano); Lucy Fitz Gibbon (soprano); Kayo Iwama (piano): Benjamin Hochman (piano); András Kemenes (piano); Alexandra Knoll (oboe); Ryan McCullough (piano); Erika Switzer (piano); András Szalai (cimbalom); and additional faculty and students of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Artistic Director: Benjamin Hochman.

This festival has been permanently endowed through the generous support of László Z. Bitó '60 and Olivia Carino.

All festival events are free and open to the public. Rolling festival updates will be posted on this webpage and in our weekly eblasts.

---

Program One
Kurtág And the Lieder Tradition
Wednesday, March 11, 7pm
Olin Hall
Program One information

Program Two
Abrahamsen’s Schnee
Friday, March 27, 7pm
Conservatory Performance Space
Program Two information

Program Three
Bach Inventions and Sinfonias
Saturday, March 28, 1pm
Conservatory Performance Space
Program Three information

Movie Screening
Kurtág Fragments
Saturday, March 28, 3:30pm
Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Center
Presented in Collaboration with Brooklyn Public Library & The National Film Institute, Hungary
Special Program information 

Program Four
Songs, Laments, Dances, Games
Saturday, March 28, 7pm
Chapel Of the Holy Innocents
Program Four information

Program Five
Pre-concert lecture with Gergely Fazekas
I compose to seek the truth: The musical universe of György Kurtág
Sunday, March 29, 1:30pm
Conservatory Performance Space


Kurtág, Mozart, And the Bach Family
Sunday, March 29, 3pm
Conservatory Performance Space
Program Five information

Program Six
György Kurtág in Context:
Bach, Bartók, And Kurtág
Part of Brooklyn Public Library’s
Classical Interludes Series
Saturday, April 4, 4pm
Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Cultural Center
Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library
Program Six information

Free and open to the public
Download: Kurtag Program FINAL.pdf

For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].

View Press Release

Location: Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space