THE WOODSTOCK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OFFERS FOUR CONCERTS AT BARD COLLEGE FOR THE 2002-03 SEASON
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra (WCO) will offer four concerts at Bard College during the 2002–03 season. Each of the programs, presented by The Bard Center, will begin at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. Admission: $12 adults; $6 non-Bard students; free for children 12 and under and Bard students, staff, and faculty.
On Wednesday, September 25, the program will focus on works of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Elgar's Concerto for Cello in E Minor (with guest cellist Ling Kwan) and Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 in G. [This concert will be repeated at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, September 27, at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Kingston; and at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 29, at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.]
On Wednesday, October 30, the WCO will perform an all-Beethoven program, including Overture to Coriolan; Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, "Eroica"; and Romance for Violin in F Major, with violinist Julie Berman. [This concert will also be offered at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 26, at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Kingston; and on Sunday, October 27, at 3:00 p.m. at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.]
On Wednesday, March 12, 2003, the WCO will offer a concert of "Mostly Mendelssohn." Works to be performed include Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture, "Fingal's Cave"; Nocturne from A Midsummer Night's Dream; and Symphony No. 1 in C Minor. A new work by Casey Hale will also receive its premiere by the WCO. [This program will also be offered at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Kingston; and on Sunday, March 9, at 3:00 p.m. at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.]
The final concert of the 2002-03 WCO season at Bard College will take place on Wednesday, April 16, when the orchestra will offer an all-Mozart program. Works to be performed include Symphony No. 31 in D, "Paris"; Concerto for Flute and Harp, with flutist Melissa Sweet and harpist Kathleen Wychulis; and Symphony No. 35 in D, "Haffner." [This program will also be offered at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Kingston; and at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 13, at the Reformed Church of Saugerties.]
On Saturday, April 5, there will be a benefit concert of choral selections, performed by both the Kingston High School Choir, directed by Paul Scatenato, and the Rhinebeck High School Choir, directed by Grace Lalicki, who will appear with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra. This program will begin at 3:00 p.m. in Olin Hall and will benefit the choruses and the WCO.
The WCO, formed in 1980 by musicians from the Woodstock area, has expanded over the years and is now composed of 38 professional musicians from the entire Hudson Valley area. The WCO regularly commissions and performs music by local and regional composers. Each season it gives approximately 14 performances at locations in Bearsville, Kingston, Saugerties, and at Bard College.
WCO artistic director Luis Garcia-Renart's "supreme gift as conductor is his ability to inspire and elicit depth of expression from all his musicians, whatever level of technical ability," wrote music critic Kitty Montgomery in the Daily Freeman. This is Garcia-Renart's 12th year as artistic director of the WCO. He is a professor of music at Bard College and also serves on the faculties of Vassar College, the Piatigorsky seminars at the University of Southern California, and Yale University's summer programs in chamber music. He was born in Barcelona, Spain, and studied at the Music School of the National University and the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico. From 1951 until 1956, his cello studies were supervised by Pablo Casals. He also studied directly with Casals in France and in Puerto Rico until 1960. That same year he won a scholarship to study at the Conservatory of Moscow with Mstislav Rostropovich and Aram Khachaturian. Garcia-Renart attended the conservatories of Bern and Basel, Switzerland; and Trossingen, Germany, where he was a pupil of Sándor Veress and Sándor Vegh. Garcia-Renart has won awards at the Casals International Contests in Paris in 1956, Xalapa in 1959, and Israel in 1961. He also received the Harriet Cohen Cello Prize in London in 1959. In addition to conducting, Garcia-Renart has been an active soloist in Europe, the Soviet Union, Israel, and North and South America.
These concerts are made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and through the generosity of the Homeland Foundation and of the Leon Levy Foundation at Bard College. For further information or to order tickets, call the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra at 845-246-7045.
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(8.20.02)