Bard's Music Program Presents Vocal Concert on May 16 at the Fisher Center

Program features Handel’s Dixit Dominus and The Ways of Zion Do Mourn

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Under the direction of James Bagwell, the Bard College Symphonic Chorus and Chamber Singers perform in the acoustically superb Sosnoff Theater of the Fisher Center on Wednesday, May 16. The program begins at 8:00 p.m. and tickets are $5 (free for Bard students and children 12 and under). The program features Georg Frederick Handel’s Dixit Dominus and The Ways of Zion Do Mourn. “These are two of Handel’s real choral masterpieces, but are rarely performed, due in part to the difficulty of the choral writing,” explains Maestro Bagwell.

Conductor James Bagwell maintains an active schedule throughout the United States as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral literature. In December 2006 he made his major orchestra debut leading the Jerusalem Symphony in two concerts, and in March 2007 he led a subscription concert with the Tulsa Symphony. In summer 2005 he led six sold-out performances of Copland’s The Tender Land as part of Bard SummerScape, which received unanimous praise from the New York Times, New Yorker, and Opera News. This past summer he returned to SummerScape to conduct three Offenbach operettas, and will return in 2007 to lead a production of The Sorcerer. Now in his eighth season as music director of Light Opera Oklahoma, he conducted three new productions for the 2006 summer festival season, including the OK Mozart International Music Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Since 2001 Mr. Bagwell has conducted numerous concerts with the Bard Festival Chorale and the Bard Chamber Players. In October 2002 he premiered Cinderella’s Bad Magic by microtonal composer Kyle Gann as part of the Alternativa Festival in Moscow. In 2005, he was named music director of the Dessoff Choirs in New York City who, under his leadership, made two appearances at Carnegie Hall in 2006.

In 2003 Bagwell was named director of choruses for the Bard Music Festival, conducting and preparing choral works during the summer festival at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard, and at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. Since 2004 he has prepared the Concert Chorale of New York for concerts with the American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Mostly Mozart Festival, all in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Bagwell has trained choruses for a number of major orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Japan), American Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with such noted conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Louis Langrée, Leon Botstein, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Raymond Leppard, James Conlon, Christof Perick, Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Leon Fleischer, and Robert Shaw. Since 1997 he has been music director of the May Festival Youth Chorus in Cincinnati, conducting regularly during the May Festival, Carolfest, and outreach concerts throughout the Cincinnati area. In addition to his work with the Youth Chorus, he prepared the May Festival Summer Chorus for eight seasons for the Riverbend Summer Festival. 

James Bagwell is artistic director for the New York Repertory Singers, and serves as conductor for the Berkshire Bach Society Choruses. From 1998–2001 he was artistic director and conductor of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and the Indianapolis Chamber Singers, a professional ensemble he formed in 1999. In 2000 he joined the faculty of Bard College, where he is director of the Music Program.

Seating for the May 16 concert is on a first-come, first-served basis. For further information, call 845-758-7900.

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(04/25/07)

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This event was last updated on 05-18-2007

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