The Orchestra Now Performs Gershwin, Jazz, And The Music Of Jewish Émigrés Led By Guest Conductor Joann Falletta At Fisher Center On November 14-15, And Carnegie Hall On November 17

U.S. Premiere of Ignatz Waghalter’s Violin Concerto in A Major, NY Premiere of Lazare Saminsky’s Vigiliae, Triad of Poems; and First NY Performances of Works by Louis Gruenberg and Ernst Toch in Nearly 100 Years

Violinist Mira Wang is Soloist

The Orchestra Now (TŌN), the pioneering orchestra and master’s degree program founded by Bard College, welcomes back acclaimed conductor JoAnn Falletta, Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO), for her fifth appearance with TŌN on November 14-15 at the Fisher Center at Bard College, and November 17 at Carnegie Hall. The program compares the musical styles of five Jewish composers—many of whom were Eastern European émigrés to the U.S.—writing during the explosive rise of the Jazz Age. The November 14-15 concerts will be livestreamed on TŌNtube at ton.bard.edu/tontube.

In addition to Gershwin’s An American in Paris and the NYC premiere of Saminsky’s Vigiliae, the program also offers the first NYC performance since 1930 of Gruenberg’s Jazz Suite, and the first NYC performance since 1928 of Toch’s Comedy for Orchestra. The highly praised soloist in the NYC premiere of Waghalter’s concerto is Chinese-born violinist Mira Wang, a Sony Classical recording artist, director of Germany’s Moritzburg Festival Academy, and a first-prize winner in the Geneva International Violin Competition.

Gershwin, Jazz, and the Music of Jewish Émigrés: A Carnegie Hall Preview Concert
Saturday, November 14, 2026, at 7 pm, Fisher Center at Bard College
Sunday, November 15, 2026, at 2 pm, Fisher Center at Bard College
Tuesday, November 17, 2026, at 7 pm, Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Mira Wang, violin
Louis Gruenberg: Jazz Suite, Op. 28 (First NY performance since 1930)
Ignatz Waghalter: Violin Concerto in A Major, Op. 15 (U.S. premiere)
Lazare Saminsky: Vigiliae, Triad of Poems, Op. 4 (NY premiere)
Ernst Toch: Comedy for Orchestra in One Movement, Op. 42 (First NY performance since 1928)
George Gershwin: An American in Paris

Multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta, recognized by Gramophone Magazine as among the “Fifty Great Conductors” of all time, leads this program. She is the first woman music director of a major American orchestra. Written pre-WWI, Ignatz Waghalter’s Violin Concerto exemplifies the European style before jazz took hold, while Lazare Saminsky, who was critical of the new musical form, gave us the mystical triad Vigiliae. The soloist is internationally acclaimed violinist Mira Wang, who is an Artist in Residence at the Bard Conservatory of Music. Composed at the height of the Roaring Twenties in Germany, Ernst Toch’s Comedy for Orchestra in One Movement incorporates a rhythmic pulse representing the impact jazz had on the European avant-garde. Louis Gruenberg’s 1925 Jazz Suite demonstrates the marriage of jazz with traditional classical form, which reached its pinnacle with George Gershwin’s An American in Paris, an American who captured the energy of Europe through a jazz-colored lens.

Tickets for the Fisher Center Series at Bard, priced at $15 - $35, are available at fishercenter.bard.edu, or by calling the Fisher Center box office at 845.758.7900.  

Tickets for Carnegie Hall, priced at $25-$50, are available at carnegiehall.org, by calling 212.247.7800, or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57^th & 7th Avenue.

Post Date: 10-29-2026