BARD COLLEGE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC OFFERS FREE CONCERT WITH CONDUCTOR LEON BOTSTEIN IN THE FISHER CENTER ON MAY 11 Program features performance by the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra with violin soloist Luosha Fang, a winner of the 2005–06

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard College Conservatory of Music concludes its spring 2006 Concerts and Lectures series with a free program in The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College on Thursday, May 11, at 8:00 p.m. The Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Leon Botstein, performs in the acoustically superb Sosnoff Theater. “We are thrilled to have Leon Botstein conduct this final 2005–06 concert of the Bard College Conservatory Chamber Orchestra,” says Robert Martin, director of the Conservatory. “As president of the College he has led the way in the creation of the Conservatory, and as music director of the American Symphony Orchestra he is a musical inspiration for all of us.” The program includes Haydn’s Te Deum for the Empress Maria Therese, with the Bard Chamber Singers, directed by James Bagwell; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Op. 55, in E-flat Major (“Eroica”); and Louis Spohr’s Violin Concerto No. 8 in A Minor, Op. 47, featuring violinist Luosha Fang (selected for this concert as a winner in the 2005–06 Conservatory Concerto Competition, held in December 2005). The May 11 concert is the fourth appearance of the Bard College Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra performed in September under the baton of Conservatory associate director Melvin Chen, in November under Brazilian conductor Fabio Machetti, and in February under Harold Farberman, founder and artistic director of the Conductors Institute at Bard. Seating for the concert is on a first-come, first-served basis. For further information, call the Fisher Center Box Office at 845-758-7900. # Leon Botstein is music director of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York and of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the radio orchestra of Israel. He is also the founder and coartistic director of the Bard Music Festival. Botstein conducted the American staged premiere of Dukas’ opera Ariane et Barbe-bleue at the New York City Opera in October, in December conducted Die ägyptische Helena with Deborah Voigt in Madrid, and in spring 2006 led a tour of North America with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming engagements include an appearance with the BBC Symphony in London. Regular radio broadcasts of Botstein’s concerts with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra may be heard in syndication throughout the United States. His recent recording of Chausson’s opera Le roi Arthus with the BBC Symphony for Telarc has been released to rave reviews. Other acclaimed recordings include two discs with the American Symphony Orchestra: music by Copland, Sessions, Perle, and Rands for New World Records, and music by Ernst von Dohnányi for Bridge Records. Botstein has also conducted on a prestigious series of recordings for Telarc, including Gavriil Popov’s epic Symphony No. 1 and Shostakovich’s Theme and Variations, Op. 3 (nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award in the category of best orchestral performance); Liszt’s Dante Symphony and Tasso; Glière’s Symphony No. 3, “Il’ya Muromets” (all with the London Symphony); Max Reger’s Böcklin Tone Poems and Romantic Suite; Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra; music of Karol Szymanowski; symphonies of Karl Amadeus Hartmann; Dohnányi’s D Minor Symphony; and Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony, Schalk edition (all with the London Philharmonic). With the American Symphony Orchestra and also for Telarc, he has recorded live performances of two operas by Richard Strauss, Die ägyptische Helena with Deborah Voigt and Die Liebe der Danae with Lauren Flanigan, both of which received critical acclaim. Botstein’s extensive discography also includes works by Brahms, Schubert, Bruch, and Mendelssohn. A prominent scholar of music history, Botstein is editor of The Musical Quarterly and author of numerous articles and books on such diverse topics as music, education, history, and culture. Last year he addressed the United Nations on “Why Music Matters” as part of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Lecture Series. He is the recipient of the National Arts Club Gold Medal, the Austrian Cross of Honor from the Austrian Cultural Forum, Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Medal, and the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Since 1975 he has been president of Bard College, where he is also Leon Levy Professor in the Arts and Humanities. Luosha Fang, violinist, was born in Shanghai, China, in 1988. At the age of 4, she began violin lessons with her father, a member of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. At the age of 8, she played the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 with a youth orchestra in Shanghai. At the age of 9, she entered an elementary school attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and subsequently attended the middle school there, studying with Qing Zheng. Fang came to the United States in August 2005 to study at The Bard College Conservatory of Music. In December 2005, she was selected to participate in the New York String Orchestra Seminar directed by Jaime Laredo, performing in Carnegie Hall. Her teachers at The Bard Conservatory of Music are Ida Kavafian and Arnold Steinhardt. # Building on its distinguished history of innovation in the arts and education, Bard College has launched The Bard College Conservatory of Music. This innovative, five-year, double-degree program is guided by the principle that musicians should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences to achieve their greatest potential. While training and studying for the bachelor of music degree with world-class musicians and teachers and performing in state-of-the-art facilities, such as the Frank Gehry–designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard Conservatory students also pursue a bachelor of arts degree at Bard, one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges. The Bard College Conservatory of Music’s instrumental and composition faculty includes world-class musicians and composers, including violinists Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Weigang Li, Laurie Smukler, and Arnold Steinhardt; violists Steven Tenenbom, Michael Tree, and Ira Weller; cellists Sophie Shao and Peter Wiley; double bassist Marji Danilow; pianists Melvin Chen, Jeremy Denk, Peter Serkin, and piano master classes with Richard Goode; oboists Laura Ahlbeck and Richard Dallessio; flutist Tara Helen O’Connor; clarinetists Laura Flax and David Krakauer; bassoonist Marc Goldberg; hornists Julie Landsman and Jeffrey Lang; trombonist John Rojak; and trumpeter Mark Gould. The Colorado Quartet and Da Capo Chamber Players are in residence. Members and principals of the American Symphony Orchestra are also available for instruction, coaching, and leading of sectional rehearsals in the Conservatory Orchestra. In 2006–07, the Conservatory will introduce three additional programs: the Vocal Arts Graduate Program, directed by Dawn Upshaw; The Conductors Institute and its graduate program in conducting, directed by Harold Farberman; and the Composition Program, directed by Joan Tower and George Tsontakis. For more information about The Bard College Conservatory of Music, call 845-758-7196, e-mail [email protected], or log onto the program’s website, www.bard.edu/conservatory. # # # (4/19/06)

This event was last updated on 06-14-2006

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