The Orchestra Now Presents Concerts at Bard in Celebration of Charles Ives at 150

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Bard College is pleased to present Charles Ives at 150, a two-week festival celebrating the sesquicentennial of Charles Ives, the leading American concert composer of his time. The festival will begin this Saturday, November 9, and will offer concerts and discussions on the Bard Campus through Saturday, November 16 at the Fisher Center, before culminating in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Thursday, November 21.

The festival will furnish a unique opportunity to freshly explore Ives’ significance in framing the ever-elusive American experience. Curated by eminent Ives scholar J. Peter Burkholder and cultural historian Joseph Horowitz, and supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, this cross-disciplinary festival will showcase the breadth of Ives’ output, including the Second Symphony and Orchestral Set, the symphonic poem Central Park in the Dark, piano works including the Concord Sonata, and a number of songs.

CONCERTS AND EVENTS

IVES AND THE PIANO
Saturday, November 9 at 6 pm at Olin Hall on the Bard College campus
Recital, readings, artwork, and discussion.
Featuring Donald Berman, Leon Botstein, Kyle Gann, and Joseph Horowitz
Free and open to the public. No RSVP necessary.
More info

CHARLES IVES: A LIFE IN MUSIC
Saturday, November 16 at 5 pm and Sunday, November 17 at 12 pm at Olin Hall on the Bard College campus
Scripted playlet with songs and commentary.
Featuring William Sharp, Donald Berman, Richard Aldous, J. Peter Burkholder, Kyle Gann, and Joseph Horowitz
Free and open to the public. No RSVP necessary.
More info

CHARLES IVES’ AMERICA
Saturday, November 16 at 7 pm and Sunday, November 17 at 2 pm at the Fisher Center at Bard
Orchestral concert including performances of songs quoted in Ives’ music, followed by a discussion.
Featuring The Orchestra Now (TŌN), Leon Botstein, William Sharp, J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Berman, and Joseph Horowitz
Tickets from $15. Livestream pay-what-you-wish.
Info and tickets

CHARLES IVES’ AMERICA
Thursday, November 21 at 7 pm at Carnegie Hall
Orchestral concert including performances of songs quoted in Ives’ music, preceded by a discussion at 6 pm.
Featuring The Orchestra Now (TŌN), Leon Botstein, William Sharp, J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Berman, and Joseph Horowitz
Tickets from $29 ($25 + $4 fee)
More info

Festival participants include historian Richard Aldous, Eugene Meyer Distinguished Professor of History at Bard College; pianist Donald Berman, piano department chair at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and president of the Charles Ives Society; Leon Botstein, Bard College president, music historian, and music director and conductor of TŌN; musicologist J. Peter Burkholder, preeminent Ives scholar and distinguished professor emeritus of music in musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music; Kyle Gann, Taylor Hawver and Frances Bortle Hawver Professor of Music at the Bard College Conservatory of Music and vice president of the Charles Ives Society; cultural historian Joseph Horowitz, producer of the Naxos documentary film Charles Ives’ America; baritone and actor William Sharp, widely regarded as a supreme exponent of Ives’ songs; and TŌN, Bard College’s graduate orchestral training program.

About Charles Ives
The leading American concert composer of his time, Charles Ives (1874–1954) was also an iconic American genius whose story links to Transcendentalism, the Civil War, camp meetings, and Wall Street. Charles Ives at 150 will furnish a unique opportunity to freshly explore Ives’ significance in framing the ever-elusive American experience. Too often, he has been viewed as an outsider, an oddball, an accident, an avant-gardist ahead of his time, but Ives vividly exemplifies his own American time and place: the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. Festival performances will showcase the breadth of Ives’ output, including the Second Symphony and Orchestral Set; the symphonic poem Central Park in the Dark; piano works including the Concord Sonata; and a number of songs.
  About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year, residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in more than 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 13 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 164-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.
 

This event was last updated on 11-06-2024

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