WOODSTOCK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OFFERS CONCERT AT BARD COLLEGE ON OCTOBER 6

Program features works by Beethoven, Puccini, Rossini, and Louis Spohr ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard Center presents the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra (WCO) 2004–2005 season at Bard College beginning with a performance on Wednesday, October 6. The program, conducted by Brian Salesky, will begin at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. Admission is $12 for adults; students, children, and Bard faculty and staff are admitted without charge. Al Sweet, executive director of the WCO, notes that this is “the first of five concerts to feature candidates for the position of music director of the WCO, which was vacated by Luis Garcia-Renart upon his retirement last year.” The program includes Rossini’s Overture to the Barber of Seville; Puccini’s Crisantemi for strings; Louis Spohr’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, Op. 131, with the Tourmaline String Quartet; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F, Op. 93. The WCO 2004–2005 season at Bard’s Olin Hall continues on November 12 with a concert featuring works by Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, and a world premiere by Loren Lentz. On March 23 the WCO will perform works by Beethoven and Handel and will be joined by Ars Choralis. The final concert of the season will be on April 25 and will feature works by Beethoven and a world premiere by Suzanne Sorkin. All performances will begin at 8:00 p.m. These concerts are made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and at Bard through the generosity of the Homeland Foundation and the Leon Levy Endowment at Bard College. For further information or to order tickets, call the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra at 845-246-7045. ABOUT THE ARTISTS The WCO, formed in 1980 by musicians from the Woodstock area, has expanded over the years and now comprises 38 professional musicians from the entire Hudson Valley. The WCO regularly commissions and performs music by local and regional composers. Each season it gives approximately 14 performances in Woodstock, Kingston, Saugerties, and at Bard College. The Ridgefield Press notes that “the members of the Tourmaline String Quartet are a well-matched group . . . whose combined musical sensitivity and polished technique and stage presence assure fine musical communication. They match in every way, with sonorous tone quality, ease of execution and admirable precision.” Quartet members are violinist Betty-Jean Hagen and Rachel Handman, violist Suzanne Corey, and cellist Melissa Westgate. The guest conductor for this concert, Brian Salesky, has enjoyed a highly versatile, international career as a conductor of symphony and chamber music, opera and operetta, ballet and modern dance, Broadway musicals and popular music. He began his career as resident conductor and administrator at the New York City Opera, and has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Denver, Greensboro, San Diego, and Syracuse; the Los Angeles and Indianapolis chamber orchestras; the opera companies of Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Washington, D.C.; and two Broadway productions, Man of La Mancha and On Your Toes. Salesky made his European debut in L’Elisir d’amore at Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceo, where he has since returned for Madama Butterfly. He has also performed at Orquesta Sinfonica de la Radio/TV Espanola, Opera Australia, the Spoleto Festival, and the symphony orchestras of Winnipeg and Peru. # # # (9/15/04)

This event was last updated on 09-16-2004

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