WOODSTOCK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA WITH ARS CHORALIS WILL PERFORM AT BARD COLLEGE ON MARCH 18 Program features works by Beethoven and Handel

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard Center presents the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra (WCO) on Friday, March 18. The program, conducted by Miriam Burns, will begin at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. Ars Choralis will join the orchestra for this concert. Admission to the concert is $12 for adults; students, children, and Bard faculty and staff are admitted without charge. The program includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21, and Handel’s The Messiah, parts 2 and 3. Soloists are: soprano Rose-Marie Todaro, alto Mary Deyerle Hack, tenor Charles Sokolowski, and bass Louis Otey. (The performance will be repeated on Saturday, March 19, at 8:00 p.m. at Holy Cross Church in Kingston; and on Sunday, March 20, at 3:00 p.m. at the Reformed Church in Saugerties.) The WCO’s 2004–05 spring season concludes at Bard’s Olin Hall on Wednesday, April 27, at 8:00 p.m., and features works by Beethoven. This concert will be conducted by David Rudge. (Additional performances will be on Saturday, April 23, at 8:00 p.m. at Holy Cross Church in Kingston; and on Sunday, April 24 at 3:00 p.m. at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.) On Sunday, April 10, a special benefit concert for the WCO is planned that features performances by the Strawberry Hill Strings, under the direction of Carol Schaad. Admission is $12 for adults; $10 for seniors; and $6 for students. The program will begin at 3:00 p.m. in Bard’s Olin Hall. 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 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 Ars Choralis, founded in 1966, has performed with the WCO in more than 20 concerts since the early 1980s. Under the musical direction of Barbara Pickhardt, the chorus has performed throughout the Hudson Valley, as well as on tour in Budapest and Vienna. The members of Ars Choralis believe in “music’s ability to touch the heart, expand one’s horizons, break down barriers between people, and encourage the spirit to become its ideal,” according to Pickhardt. Guest conductor Miriam Burns is one of the cover conductors on the staff of the New York Philharmonic, having been appointed by Kurt Masur in 1999. In this capacity, she accompanied the New York Philharmonic on tour to the Far East and was the tour assistant conductor to music director Lorin Maazel. Burns is also the music director/conductor of the Lawton Philharmonic in Oklahoma and the Orchestra of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. She was associate music director of the Bronx Opera Company for nine years. Increasingly in demand as a guest conductor throughout the United States and abroad, Burns made her debut in Germany, conducting at the Stadthalle in Wuppertal, the First Ladies Symphony Orchestra of Poland. Whe also conducted Bournemouth Symphony in Englan for three concerts in 1999. Most recently, she had return engagements with the orchestras of both the Skaneateles Festival and the C.W. Post Summer Chamber Music Festival. Her guest conducting also has included engagements with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Dubuque Symphony, Peoria Symphony, Lincoln Symphony, Ridotto Chamber Orchestra, Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic, New Amsterdam Symphony, South Shore Symphony, and the New York All-State Orchestra. She has received conducting awards from the Aspen Music Festival, studying with Paul Vermel, and the Conductors Guild, which presented her its prestigious biennial prize, the Robinson Scholarship, in 1989. In addition to her professional affiliations, she completed the Artist Diploma Fellowship in Yale University’s eminent Conductor Apprentice Program upon special invitation of Yale faculty. Burns completed a master’s degree and professional studies in orchestral conducting on full scholarship at the Mannes College of Music in New York, where she studied with Semyon Bychkov, Yakov Kreizberg, and Michael Charry. 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, and Saugerties, and at Bard College. # # # (3/11/05)

This event was last updated on 04-06-2005

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