News

Daniel Fish's "scrappy student staging" of Oklahoma! became a Bard legend. Then it transformed from the Theater Program to Bard SummerScape, and now to Broadway.

Talk to people about the director Daniel Fish, and certain words tend to come up a lot. Intense. Exacting. Tortured.

There’s his work, which lies at the challenging intersection of experimental theater, opera, film and installation art. And then there’s the man himself, whose rail-thin physique, storm of dark hair and penchant for black tends to draw analogies to a Dostoyevsky character.

The Bard College Conservatory of Music presented The Degree Recital of the Graduate Conducting Program on March 30, featuring conductors Renée Anne Louprette and Michael Patterson, who led exceptional performances of works by Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Mozart, and Stravinsky for an enthusiastic, near-capacity audience in Olin Hall.

Daniel Fish came to Bard to direct students in a production of Oklahoma! when Vaill was a senior. Twelve years later, “Vaill's portrayal of Jud Fry is about to become one of the most talked-about performances of the year.”

Filmmakers Adam Khalil ’14 and Zack Khalil ’11, who are brothers and Bard graduates, will received a two-year, $40,000 grant to pursue their work.

Elliott Sharp ’73—multitalented performer, composer, and producer—continues to be a leading figure in Manhattan’s downtown music community.

The show chronicles how a study of the indigenous people of British Columbia, originally published in 1897, has acted as a guide for contemporary Kwakiutl peoples.

The yearlong residency program is open to alumni/ae of the Bard MFA program and affiliated artists of Live Arts Bard. This year’s winners: artists William Lamson, Caitlin MacBride, and Tania El Khoury, visiting assistant professor of theater and performance at Bard; and pianist Courtney Bryan.

Artist Tschabalala Self ’12 explores the iconography, interiority, and subject status of black women in her multimedia portraits. She discusses her exhibition at Seattle’s Frye Art Museum in this interview.

The Orchestra Now (TŌN) continues its season at Bard Fisher Center on April 6 and 7 with Verdi’s celebrated Requiem, led by TŌN’s music director, Leon Botstein. The immense work is set for double choir and orchestra, and will feature soprano Margaret Tigue, mezzo-soprano Chloë Schaaf, and bass Wei Wu.

Rosenbaum, one of America’s most outspoken film critics, weighs in on Steven Spielberg, Elaine May, the Coen brothers, and Yiddishkeit.

In Seismic Belt, “Boshnack writes with purpose and passion, with an uncanny way of expressing a narrative. She is a musician, a composer, a feminist, an activist, and most certainly, a storyteller.”

The exhibition of more than 65 works includes abstract geometric paintings, punching bags, sculptures, and video.

Led by The Boston Globe’s “bona fide b-girl,” Ephrat Asherie makes her Fisher Center debut with Odeon, a high-energy, hybrid hip-hop dance work set to and inspired by the music of early 20th-century Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, played live. Odeon will be performed in the Fisher Center’s LUMA Theater on Saturday, April 13 at 7:30  p.m., and Sunday, April 14 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at fishercenter.bard.edu or by calling 845-758-7900.

Odeon delves into what happens when you bring together the extended family of street and club dances—including breaking, hip hop, house and vogue—remix them, pick them apart, and push them in new choreographic directions. An original dance work for seven dancers and four musicians, Odeon is the second collaboration between sister and brother team Ephrat and Ehud Asherie, choreographer and musical director, respectively.

Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie, a 2016 Bessie Award winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance, creates work for the dynamic group of multifaceted dancers in her company Ephrat Asherie Dance. The company embodies many different street and club dance styles including breaking, hip hop, house and vogue and is dedicated to revealing the inherently complex and dynamic qualities of these forms, “paving the way for something new” (The New York Times). 

While in residence at the Fisher Center, Asherie will also be developing a new work, which will be presented to the public in an open rehearsal on Friday, April 12 at 7 p.m. also in the LUMA Theater. This work-in-progress showing will be free and open to the public.

Odeon is presented through the Bard College Dance Program’s partnership with the American Dance Festival. Presentation support is provided by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

EPHRAT “BOUNCE” ASHERIE, a 2016 Bessie Award Winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance, is a New York City–based B-girl, dancer, and choreographer. As artistic director of Ephrat Asherie Dance (EAD) she has presented work at the Apollo Theater, FiraTarrega, Jacob’s Pillow, New York Live Arts, Summerstage, and the Yard, among others. Ephrat has received numerous awards to support her work, including a Mondo Cane! commission from Dixon Place, a Creative Development Residency from Jacob’s Pillow, Workspace and Extended Life Residencies from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, a Travel and Study Grant from the Jerome Foundation, and two residencies through the CUNY Dance Initiative. Her first evening-length work, A Single Ride, received two Bessie nominations in 2012 for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and for Outstanding Sound Design by Marty Beller. Most recently, Ephrat received a National Dance Project award to support the development and touring of her newest work, Odeon. Set to premiere in the summer of 2018, Odeon was also made possible by Jacob's Pillow Dance, Mass MoCA, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, and the Jacob's Pillow Fellowship at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU Post. Ephrat is a regular guest artist with Dorrance Dance and has worked and collaborated with Doug Elkins, Rennie Harris, Bill Irwin, David Parsons, Gus Solomons Jr., and Buddha Stretch, among others.

Ephrat has been on faculty at Wesleyan University and set pieces for students at Smith College, SUNY Brockport, Alvin Ailey Dance Center, University of Texas Rio Grande and Texas Tech University.  Ephrat teaches at Broadway Dance Center and is a founding member of the all-female house dance collective, MAWU. She earned her BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Italian and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she researched the vernacular jazz dance roots of contemporary street and club dances.

Ehud Asherie, “a master of swing and stride" (The New Yorker), is a jazz pianist who integrates the venerable New York piano tradition into his inventive style. He has toured clubs and festivals around the world, including South America, Europe and Asia. Asherie’s playing can be heard on countless recordings, including the 2010 Grammy Award winning soundtrack of HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire.’ He recently released his twelfth album entitled ‘Shuffle Along’ (Blue Heron Records), a solo piano performance of Eubie Blake songs from the musical ‘Shuffle Along.’

Several Bardians are among the 75 artists whose work was chosen for this year’s Whitney Biennial. Congratulations to Jeffrey Gibson, artist in residence, and Tiona McClodden, Keith Haring Fellow in Art and Activism, as well as Bard College alumni/ae Adam Khalil ’14, Zack Khalil ’11, Carolyn Lazard ’10, and Lucas Blalock ’02; and Bard MFA alumni/ae Kyle Thurman ‘16, Christine Sun Kim ‘13, Martine Syms ‘18 and Madeline Hollander ‘19.

The two-day conference, “Tradition and Discovery: Teaching Chinese Music in the West,” includes guest speakers and concerts featuring performances by celebrated pipa virtuoso Wu Man and the Chinese instrument majors of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Bard College: The Montgomery Place Campus announces three spring series of events celebrating the history and arts of one of the Hudson Valley’s esteemed historic estates. Toward an Ethical Imagination: Gilsonfest, Spring Salon Series on Music of the Gilded Age, and The Gilded Garden: Historic Ornament in the Landscape at Montgomery Place are presented at Montgomery Place and locations in Red Hook, New York, beginning on Sunday, March 10 and culminating on Memorial Day weekend, May 24–27. Most of the events are free and open to the public. For reservations and more information go to bard.edu/montgomeryplace.

Toward an Ethical Imagination: Gilsonfest

Toward an Ethical Imagination: Gilsonfest is a collaboration between Bard College, Historic Red Hook, Dutchess County Historical Society, and Red Hook Quilters focusing on the life of Montgomery Place gardener Alexander Gilson, an African American slave, who after being freed stayed on as head gardener and eventually opened his own nursery business.

The program kicks off on Sunday, March 10 at 3 p.m. with a lecture, “A People’s History: Oral Histories and Inclusion,” by Susan Merriam, Associate Professor of Art History at Bard College, at the Elmendorph Inn, Red Hook, New York.

On Friday, May 24 at 11:30 am the program continues with the opening of an exhibition, Alexander Gilson: From Property to Property Owner, at the Historic Red Hook Annex, Cherry Street, Red Hook. It includes an exhibition by students in a Bard College class about Alexander Gilson, a quilting presentation by the Red Hook Quilters, and a presentation on historic garden artifacts and plants.

There will be a public signage dedication in honor of the life of Alexander Gilson on Friday, May 24 at 1 pm at the Montgomery Place Visitor Center. Following the dedication, there will be a gathering at the Montgomery Place Greenhouse tool room to celebrate an adjunct exhibition on Alexander Gilson.

The program concludes on Sunday, May 26, at 2 pm with the lecture “History of Memorial Day” by Myra Young Armstead, Lyford Paterson Edwards and Helen Gray Edwards Professor of Historical Studies at Bard College. This will be presented at the Montgomery Place Coach House, followed by refreshments on the Mansion House north porch.

Events are free and open to the public and no registration is required. For more information, go to bard.edu/montgomeryplace.

Funding for Toward an Ethical Imagination: Gilsonfest is provided by The Lumina Foundation.

Spring Salon Series on Music of the Gilded Age

Hosted in partnership with Hudson River Heritage and coproduced and curated by Christopher Brellochs.

Saturday, May 11, 3 pm
Concert: “The Musical Life of Cora Livingston Barton and Her Husband Thomas Barton at Montgomery Place,” a recital with Christopher Brellochs, saxophone and Rita Costanzi, harp

Montgomery Place Mansion House Parlor. Admission: $25, limited to 40 seats. For more information and to purchase tickets for this event, please go to hudsonriverheritage.org.

Cora Livingston Barton and her husband Thomas Barton expanded the Montgomery Place estate to better capture the Romantic sensibilities of the time; music filled the house and the farming operations become more separated from the “pleasure gardens.” It was 1860 and the beginning of the Gilded Age; relatives such as Major General Richard Delafield, who was stationed at West Point, inspired the dedication of musical compositions such as “Florida March” and “Manassas March.” This performance will be a unique opportunity to hear these forgotten gems and experience music at Montgomery Place like Cora and Thomas did more than 150 years ago.

PROGRAM
Florida March
Manassas March
Berceuse, Op. 16 (1879)         Gabriel FAURÉ (1845–1924)
The Carnival of the Animals: The Swan (1886)        Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921)
Hommage a Bellini     Antonio PASCULLI (1842–1924)
Meditation, Op.18 (1898)       Gabriel VERDALLE (1845–1915)
Introduction, Theme, and Variations (1879)  Caryl FLORIO (1843–1920)

Saturday, May 18, 3 pm
Lecture: “Music of the Gilded Age in the Hudson Valley”
Montgomery Place Mansion House Parlor; tickets are $25. The concert is limited to 40 seats. For more information and to purchase tickets for this event, please go to hudsonriverheritage.org.

Dutchess Community College Associate Professor Christopher Brellochs, who has been presenting this beautiful music in authentic historical settings, will discuss the role and importance of music during the Hudson Valley Gilded Age.

Sunday, May 26 at 4 pm
“The Gardener of Montgomery Place and the Composer of Newburgh, New York,” an outdoor saxophone quartet performance
Montgomery Place North Porch; free and open to the public. Attendees are requested to bring their own lawn chairs and/or blankets. In the event of rain, the concert will take place in the historic Montgomery Place Coach House, and be limited to the first 50 attendees.

During the early 19th century, the gardener at Montgomery Place was an African American slave named Alexander Gilson, who, after being freed, stayed on to continue as head gardener. He eventually opened his own nursery business. Downriver in Newburgh, New York, composer Ulysses J. Alsdorf, whose grandfather was freed by the Manumission Act of New York State on July 4, 1827, had a similar life journey. The Alsdorfs were entrepreneurs, involved in everything from catering to dance schools, and became prominent citizens of the thriving Hudson Valley City of Newburgh. Ulysses J. Alsdorf’s music was used to celebrate the Newburgh portion of the 1909 Henry Hudson–Robert Fulton Celebration, when a steamboat traveled from Manhattan to Albany, stopping in Newburgh. His music will do the same for this event, 110 years later.

Christopher Brellochs, soprano saxophone
Eric Aweh, alto saxophone
Joe North, tenor saxophone
Wayne Tice, baritone saxophone

PROGRAM
Selections by Ulysses J. Alsdorf (1872-1952) will include:
Ramsdell Park March (1897)
In College Colors (1900)
Dear Hudson-Fulton Days (1908)
Boom, Boom, Boom It Up! (1908)

Additional selections by:
Quatuor pour saxophones (1861)       Jean-Baptiste MOHR (1823–1891)
Quatuor pour saxophones (1863)       Léon KREUTZER (1817–1868)
Premier Quatuor (published 1888)     Louis MAYEUR (1837–1894)
Quartette (Allegro de Concert) (1879)           Caryl FLORIO (1843–1920)

Funding for the Montgomery Place 2019 Spring Salon Series on Music of the Gilded Age is provided by Charles and Valerie Jacob.

The Gilded Garden: Historic Ornament in the Landscape at Montgomery Place

A Garden Party Exhibition Opening

Produced in partnership with and curated by Barbara Israel and her staff from Barbara Israel Garden Antiques.

Friday, May 24, 4 pm
Opening will take place in the Ellipse Garden, located in front of the Greenhouse
The gardens at Montgomery Place once featured decorative garden ornaments and furniture alongside the living plants. During the mid-1800s, renowned architect Alexander Jackson Davis was hired to redesign the mansion as well as consult on the surrounding grounds. He introduced the property owners, Louise Livingston and her daughter Cora and son-in-law Thomas Barton, to landscape designer and writer Andrew Jackson Downing, who designed the gardens surrounding the jewel box–like conservatory directly across from the mansion. It was the style of the time to adorn the grounds with a lavish display of garden ornaments, including cast iron, terra-cotta, and marble objects. Displaying a wide-ranging mix of styles, these pieces were acquired from European and American manufacturers. Elaborate arbors and columnar supports of wirework held up climbing vines. Urns as large as 15 feet wide served as centerpieces for flower beds edged by elaborate rococo revival border tiles of terra-cotta. Many of the garden ornaments pictured in early photographs of the conservatory survive in the museum’s collection. The garden was considered a domestic space, allowing the confines of the home to extend into the landscape. The interior decoration of conservatories followed suit. Designed to be beautiful inside as well as outside, these glasshouses typically featured statuary, furniture, urns, potted plants, and hanging baskets. Program is free and open to the public.

Funding provided by the A. C. Israel Foundation and Plymouth Hill Foundation.

In conjunction with the above programs and Commencement activities, the Montgomery Place Mansion House will be open for viewing on Saturday, May 25 from 10:30 am to 1 pm and on Sunday, May 26 from 1:30 to 4 pm. For more information go to: bard.edu/montgomeryplace.
 

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Bard College: The Montgomery Place Campus, a 380-acre estate adjacent to the main Bard College campus and overlooking the Hudson River, is a designated National Historic Landmark set amid rolling lawns, woodlands, and gardens, against the spectacular backdrop of the Catskill Mountains. Renowned architects, landscape designers, and horticulturists worked to create an elegant and inspiring country estate consisting of a mansion, farm, orchards, farmhouse, and other smaller buildings. The Montgomery Place estate was owned by members of the Livingston family from 1802 until the 1980s. In 1986, Livingston heir John Dennis Delafield transferred the estate to Historic Hudson Valley, in whose hands it remained until 2016, when Bard College acquired the property.
 

Artist Pfaff discusses the importance of iconography, the inspiration she draws from New York’s Chinatown, and the role of being a woman in a “macho” space.

Joan Tower, Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts, and one of America’s most significant living composers, will receive the award at the League’s 74th National Conference in Nashville, June 3–5, 2019.

The Times interviews Damon Daunno and Amber Gray, stars of the original Bard SummerScape production. Daunno is reprising his role as Curly for the play’s Broadway run.

The Bard College Conservatory Orchestra performs at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts’s Sosnoff Theater on Saturday, March 9. The performance features  Mark Russell Smith, guest conductor, and five-time Grammy Award–winner soprano Dawn Upshaw in a program that includes Samuel Barber’s Symphony in One Movement, Op. 9; Oliver Knussen’s Requiem—Songs for Sue; and Mussorgsky/Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The Conservatory Orchestra performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 at the Fisher Center on May 10 and May 12, conducted by Leon Botstein, music director, with Eve Gigliotti, mezzo-soprano, the Bard College Chamber Singers, and the Bard Festival Chorale.