The Bard Center Offers a Series of Free Concerts in February

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard Center presents three Sunday concerts in February that are open to the public without charge. All begin at 3:00 p.m. in Bard College’s Olin Hall. On Sunday, February 11, cellist Diane Chaplin and pianist Sharon Bjorndal present a program titled “A Mad Empress Remembers,” taken from the featured work by American Romantic composer Charles Wakefield Cadman. This tone-drama for cello and piano paints the life story and descent into insanity of the Empress Carlota, whose husband, Maximilian, was Emperor of Mexico for two short years. The program also includes J. S. Bach’s Suite for Unaccompanied Cello in D Minor; Beethoven’s Sonata in C major, Op. 102, No. 1; and Ginastera’s Pampeana No. 2. Diane Chaplin is the cellist of the Colorado Quartet, quartet in residence at Bard, and is an assistant professor on the music faculty. She has toured the world with the Quartet, and recorded several critically acclaimed discs. Pianist Sharon Bjorndal, visiting instructor on the Bard music faculty, is an accompanist, opera coach, and conductor, and has been a chorus master with the New York City Opera. “Three Bachs and Elliott Carter and Colleagues” is the title of the program on Sunday, February 18, with flutists Patricia Spencer and Tara Helen O’Connor and harpsichordist Frederick Hammond. The program offers works by Johann Sebastian Bach and two of his sons juxtaposed with works by Elliott Carter and two of his close colleagues, including J. S. Bach’s Trio Sonata in G Minor, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s Sonata in F Major, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Trio Sonata in E Major, Elliott Carter’s Scrivo in vento, Goffredo Petrassi’s Dialogo angelico, and Robert Aitken’s My Song. Patricia Spencer teaches flute and chamber music at Bard College and Hofstra University. As a recitalist and member of Da Capo Chamber Players, she has commissioned more than 80 solo, duo, and chamber works for flute, and has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Russia. In 2001, Tara Helen O’Connor, a faculty member of The Bard College Conservatory of Music, was awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is a founding member of the New Millennium Ensemble, which won the Naumburg Award in 1995, and flute soloist of the renowned Bach Aria Group. Frederick Hammond, the Irma Brandeis Professor of Romance Culture and Music History at Bard, performs widely in Europe and the United States as solo organist and harpsichordist. He was the keyboard continuo player for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and has appeared with such conductors as Christopher Hogwood, Nicholas McGegan, Simon Rattle, Paul Hindemith, and Leon Botstein. Da Capo Celebrates Bard on Sunday, February 25, in a program of chamber works by Bard faculty, a Bard alumnus, and a current Bard student. “Each of these works has a festive twist guaranteed to help listeners appreciate the extraordinary creativity of the Bard music community,” says flutist and Da Capo member Patricia Spencer. The program includes works by three Bard professors: Joan Tower, “Rain Waves,” John Halle, “A Free People,” and Kyle Gann, selections from “Private Dances”; a Bard student, Craig Judelman, “Septet I”; and a Bard alumnus, Daniel Sonenberg ’92, “Maybe They’re A Mouse.” Da Capo is widely acclaimed for its virtuosity, stimulating programs, and openness to a wide spectrum of styles in new music. Its dedication to working with composers is matched by a commitment to rehearsing each piece as a living, moving, breathing entity, rather than as a fixed blueprint. Winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1973, Da Capo has been a leader in building a strong heritage of present-day American chamber music and can point with pride to more than 90 chamber music works written especially for the ensemble by Joan Tower, Philip Glass, Harvey Sollberger, and Philippe Bodin, among many others. The Da Capo Chamber Players are flutist Patricia Spencer, clarinetist Meighan Stoops, violinist David Bowlin, cellist André Emelianoff, and pianist Blair McMillen. For this concert, Diane Chaplin is the guest cellist. For further information, call The Bard Center at 845-758-7425. # # # (01.26.07)

This event was last updated on 02-26-2007

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