WOODSTOCK CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PROGRAM AT BARD FEATURES “THANKSGIVING ACROSS THE AMERICAS” ON NOVEMBER 4

Soprano Cheryl Warfield will perform Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915; program includes works by Copland, Gershwin, and the late Woodstock composer Alan Shulman ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra (WCO) will present a concert titled “Thanksgiving Across the Americas” at Bard College on Friday, November 4. Presented in cooperation with The Bard Center, the concert will begin at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. Admission is $15 for adults, $5 for students, and free for Bard students, faculty, and staff with identification. “The program showcases the multicolored rhythms and styles that have come to mean ‘American Music,’ whether from the Caribbean, the wild west, the South, or by an American twist given to the European waltz,” explains David Leighton, WCO artistic director. Works to be performed include Waltzes for Orchestra by the late Woodstock composer Alan Shulman, Aaron Copland’s Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo, George Gershwin’s Cuban Overture, and Samuel Barber’s idyllic Knoxville, Summer of 1915, with soprano Cheryl Warfield as featured soloist. (The concert will be repeated on Saturday, November 5, at 8:00 p.m. at the Holy Cross Church in Kingston; and on Sunday, November 6, at 3:00 p.m. at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.) On Friday, March 10, at 8:00 p.m., the WCO will perform works by Mozart, Johann Strauss, and Richard Strauss in the program “Magic in Vienna.” The 2005–06 season at Bard concludes with “A Night at the Opera” on Friday, April 28, at 8:00 p.m., when young opera singers will join the WCO for a concert version of Verdi’s Il Trovatore. For further information, ticket reservations, and directions to the concerts, call 845-246-7045, or visit the website www.wco-online.com. # ABOUT THE ARTISTS WCO’s appointment of David Leighton as its new artistic director is the culmination of a yearlong search from a field of more than 120 candidates. Leighton, a graduate of the Juilliard School, was invited by Rafael Kubelik to the Metropolitan Opera as assistant chorus master and assistant conductor when he was 22 years old. He has been a recital accompanist for Luciano Pavarotti, Renata Scotto, Marilyn Horne, Montserrat Caballé, and Paul Plishka. He has conducted the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Dallas Opera; Nashville Opera; Anhaltisches Theater Dessau, Germany; Châtelet Théâtre Musicale de Paris; and IRCAM (Pierre Boulez, director). Leighton assisted the late Sir Georg Solti in the world premiere of Sir Michael Tippett’s Byzantium with the Chicago Symphony. As artistic director of the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, he gave piano recitals and conducted performances featuring 20th-century masterpieces. Cheryl Warfield made her European debut in the role of Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte with the Rome Festival Orchestra, and has appeared throughout Europe, including repeat engagements at the renowned Bregenz Festival. Her repertoire ranges from opera and concert to musical theater, where her credits include the Broadway smash revival of Showboat, directed by Harold Prince. Warfield is noted for her concerts of American Negro spirituals, and has written, produced, and starred in Paul Robeson: A Celebration of Culture; Langston Hughes: A Poet Sings; and Elite Syncopations: African Origins of American Song. The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, formed in 1980 by musicians from the Woodstock area, now comprises professional musicians from the entire Hudson Valley. WCO commissions works by local and regional composers and performs in Woodstock, Kingston, Saugerties, and at Bard College. # # # (10/17/05)

This event was last updated on 10-18-2005

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