BARD COLLEGE COMMUNITY CHORUS SEEKS SINGERS FOR PERFORMANCE OF THE FAURÉ REQUIEM IN MAY

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY—The Bard College Community Chorus, directed by James Bagwell, is looking for experienced singers to join the chorus and perform the Fauré Requiem on May 10, at Bard College. Bagwell, who recently joined the College as assistant professor of music and director of choral music, is enthused about the prospect of eventually enlarging the chorus to about 125 singers.

\"As a community chorus at a college we are privileged to offer experienced area singers a venue to perform within the oratorio chorus tradition,\" Bagwell says. \"There are no dues or music fees for members, and singers can look forward to performing with a full orchestra at their concerts.\" No audition is required for singers to join the chorus. Rehearsals will be held weekly, from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m., beginning on Tuesday, February 6, at Bard Hall on the Bard College campus.

Bagwell maintains an active schedule throughout the United States as a conductor of choral, operatic, and symphonic literature. He is the principal guest conductor and artistic adviser of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, which he will conduct this season in a performance of Bach\'s B Minor Mass, along with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and the Indianapolis Chamber Singers, a professional ensemble that he founded. Bagwell is also the music director of the May Festival Youth Chorus in Cincinnati and the director of choruses for the May Festival Summer Chorus. He has also trained choruses for major American orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, and Ashville Symphony, working with such notable conductors as Raymond Leppard, James Conlon, Christof Perick, Imre Palló, Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Robert Porco, and Robert Shaw. He has been appointed music director of the Light Opera of Oklahoma and will conduct three productions for its 2001 summer festival.

Bagwell has served as a coach in the studio of baritone Giorgio Tozzi, prepared numerous opera choruses for the Indiana University Opera Theater, and conducted studio opera productions at Indiana University. As a graduate student at Florida State University, Bagwell founded and served as artistic director for the United States Music Ensemble, one of the few musical organizations in the country that focused on regional North American music. He has specialized in American music and researched and prepared the first transcriptions of newly discovered manuscripts connected to the Southern shape-note hymn tradition. After receiving a bachelor\'s degree in music from Birmingham-Southern College, Bagwell earned master\'s degrees from Florida State University in conducting and musicology and a doctor of music degree in conducting from Indiana University.

For further information about the Bard College Community Chorus, call the music program at 845-758-7250.

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This event was last updated on 03-02-2001

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