GALA GRADUATION CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE CONDUCTORS INSTITUTE AT BARD ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 1 Free concert will feature works by Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Debussy, Dvořák, Mahler, Mozart, Mussorgsky, and Puccini, as well as world premieres by the six c

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Conductors Institute at Bard presents the 2004 Gala Graduation Concert on Sunday, August 1. The program, free and open to the public, will be held in Olin Hall from 12 noon to 2:30 p.m. and from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. The six candidates for the degree of master of fine arts in conducting will direct the Institute Orchestra in a selection of works including the world premieres of their own compositions, written under the tutelage of Laurence Wallach and Joan Tower. The first half of the program, from noon to 2:30 p.m., features Elizabeth Askren conducting works by Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, Mussorgsky, and the world premiere of Askren’s O (a haiku for Paul). Octavio Mas Arocas will conduct works by Berlioz, Beethoven, Debussy, Mahler, Mussorgsky, and the world premiere of Arocas’s own SamhainBolero. The second half of the program, from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m., will begin with Miguel Sanz Madrid conducting works by Mozart, Debussy, Mahler, Berlioz, Mussorgsky, and the world premiere of Madrid’s Clara Confusion. Emanuele Andrizzi will conduct works by Mozart, Berlioz, Brahms, Mahler, and the world premiere of Madrid’s Il tormento e l’estasi. The program will conclude with Clair Bacher conducting works by Mozart, Berlioz, Debussy, Dvořák, Mussorgksy, and the world premiere of Bacher’s Nocturno. This is the second consecutive summer in which the six candidates have participated in the Institute's six-week program. They also completed required course work at Bard during the intervening academic year, including classes in composition, basic orchestra repertoire, languages, a “second” instrument (string or piano), and solfège. In addition, they have had private studies and master classes in technical score study and analysis with Maestro Harold Farberman, as well as podium time with the Institute string quintet and conducting opportunities with the Bard College Community Orchestra, Chorus, and Vocal Ensembles. Harold Farberman founded the Conductors Institute 25 years ago to fill a void in the United States with a summer training program for conductors. "I hit on a formula that remains the same to this day—vigorous technical training and promotion of American music in a cooperative atmosphere," he said. The Conductors Institute is in its sixth year at Bard College, and this is the fourth year that the master of fine arts degree in conducting is being offered. In addition to Farberman, the year-round graduate program faculty include: Bard professors James Bagwell, Kyle Gann, Christopher Gibbs, Franz Kempf, Joan Tower, and Laurence Wallach, as well as cellist Ling Kwan, pianist Sylvia Suzowsky, and violinist Marka Young. During the two six-week summer Institutes, the M.F.A. candidates each week have had new instructors and repertoire, assuring them of exposure to a variety of expert opinions. Visiting faculty in 2004 include Maestri Karen Lynne Deal, Guillermo Figueroa, Raymond Harvey, Apo Hsu, and Eduardo Navega; and composers Stephen Paulus, Joseph Schwantner, and Roberto Sierra. Composer and conductor HAROLD FARBERMAN has written diverse works for orchestra, three operas (most recently, The Song of Eddie, which was premiered at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College early in July), numerous chamber works, a score for an Academy Award-winning documentary film, and music for dance companies. Many of his works, which have been performed all over the world, are represented on three CDs devoted to his music, released by Albany Records. An advocate of modern music, Farberman received the Ives Award for his definitive interpretations of the work of Charles Ives. His recordings of Mahler, Michael Haydn, and Irwin Bazelon, as well as that of Ives and his own music, have earned worldwide recognition for excellence. Farberman founded the Conductors Guild and is the author of a pioneering work, The Art of Conducting Technique: A New Perspective, an innovative approach to the physical placement and movement of the baton. He is also the founder and artistic director of the Conductors Institute and director of Bard’s master of fine arts degree program in conducting. A member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s percussion section from 1951 to 1963, Farberman was its youngest performer when he joined the orchestra immediately after graduating from The Juilliard School of Music. For further information, call 845-758-7425 or visit the website www.bard.edu/ci. # # # (7/26/04) ABOUT THE CONDUCTORS EMANUELE ANDRIZZI was born in Rome, Italy, where he began his studies in piano and composition. He graduated in 1988, with honors in piano, from the Conservatorio A. Casella. He continued his studies in composition at Conservatorio Santa Cecilia with Teresa Procaccini and Ivan Fandor. In 2002 he was admitted to the conservatory’s conducting program, with Maestro Bruno Aprea, and at the same time worked as piano accompanist and coach in the conservatory’s singing classes. He began his studies with Maestro Harold Farberman in the Conductors Institute at Bard in the summer of 2002, and entered the institute’s graduate program in conducting the following year. Born in New York in 1976, ELIZABETH ASKREN has diplomas in conducting and piano from The Juilliard School (pre-college division) and the Oberlin Conservatory, and from the Schola Cantorum and the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, France. Her teachers have included conductors Janos Furst, Dominique Rouits, and Louis Lane, and pianists Sergio Perticaroli, Byron Janis, and Joseph Schwartz. A recipient of the 1998 Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, she has attended the summer programs of the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Vienna Hochschule für Musik, and the Tanglewood BUTI. Throughout 2003 she worked as assistant conductor to David Stern, with such ensembles as Concerto Koln in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Ensemble Leonardo da Vinci in Paris’s Theatre de la Ville. During her year at Bard she was assistant music director to James Bagwell in a production of Eric Overmyer’s In a Pig’s Valise. Most recently she was the assistant conducting teacher to Janos Furst during his 2004 European conducting master class in Szeged, Hungary. Askren is currently music director of the chorus and orchestra of Sciences Po in Paris, a post she has held for three years and will continue upon her return to France this fall. She is also the cofounder and associate conductor of FACE, a Franco-American chamber ensemble dedicated to preserving and strengthening Franco-American contemporary cultural ties, and artistic director of the Fondation des Etats-Unis in Paris. CLAIRE BACHER began her musical training in Bloomington, Indiana, and studied in the Pre-College Piano Program at Indiana University. She attended Stanford University, where she managed and directed university bands, and graduated with degrees in music and in chemistry. After working as a concert producer and in arts administration for several years in the San Francisco area, she returned to Indiana University to study conducting before beginning her studies in the graduate program in conducting at Bard College. PAOLO FRONDONI was born in Milan, Italy, where he obtained a degree in contrabass at the Conservatorio G. Verdi. Already the winner of many auditions and prizes during his years at the conservatory, he went on to play principal bass in several chamber and symphonic orchestras prior to being named principal with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, and then with the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala. During those years he continued his studies in composition and conducting. He began the master of fine arts degree program in conducting of the Conductors Institute at Bard in the summer of 2003. OCTAVIO MAS AROCAS was born in Valencia, Spain, where he obtained his master’s degree in trumpet with honors and played in several orchestras. At the same time, he pursued studies in conducting with Maestro Gilberto Serembe in Pescara, Italy. He also pursued conducting courses and master classes in London, Basel, and Spain, with such maestros as Denise Ham, George Hurst, Colin Metters, and Neil Thomson. He has conducted several orchestras and is the founder of Deza Classical Orchestra and the instrumental ensemble Stringendo. A guest conductor of the Murcia Young Symphonic Orchestra and Valencia University Philarmony, among others, Mr. Mas Arocas conducted the 2002 yearly meeting and tour of the Portugal Young National Orchestra Templarios. In June 2003, while holding his four-year position as principal conductor of Silleda City Wind Orchestra, he was awarded a full scholarship from the Spanish Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza in coordination with the Institute of International Education (IIE) to pursue his master of fine arts degree in conducting at Bard College with Maestro Farberman, to whom he is very thankful after a good year of learning the art of the conducting technique. MIGUEL SANZ MADRID began his musical studies in Valencia, Spain. He continued at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Madrid, where he finished his diploma in flute with Salvador Espasa. He has also studied with Trevor Wye and Geoffrey Gilber. At the age of 22o, he took a tenured position at the Alconcon Music College in Madrid, where he has developed his career as a flute teacher. He is also a member of the staff of the flute courses at Segovia and Pozuelo.

This event was last updated on 08-06-2004

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