ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard Music Program presents two concerts, on Wednesday, December 7, and Tuesday, December 13, at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. Admission is $5, free for children 12 and under. Both programs begin at 8:00 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater. The Bard College Chamber Singers and Community Chorus, under the direction of James Bagwell, associate professor of music and director of orchestral and choral music at Bard, will perform Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de Confessore and Haydn’s Mass in Time of War on Wednesday, December 7. Soloists for this event are soprano Amy Justman, mezzo-soprano Teresa Buchholz, tenor Scott Williamson, and bass Charles Sprawls. Maestro Bagwell notes that the Mass in the Time of War was chosen as “as the continuation of the Bard Community Chorus performances of the six last masses of Franz Joseph Haydn, which are some of the greatest choral masterworks of the end of the 18th century. Haydn added the subtitle ‘ in time of war,’ as a response to Napoleon’s threats of invasion of Vienna in the late 1790s.” On Tuesday, December 13, the Bard College Orchestra, under the direction of Mark Mandarano, will perform Schumann’s Overture, Scherzo, and Finale, Op. 52;Beethoven’s Overture (Coriolan), Op. 62; Karl Husa’s Pastoral for string orchestra; and Mozart’s Concertone for two violins and orchestra, with special guests violinists Julie Rosenfeld and D. Lydia Redding, members of the acclaimed Colorado Quartet. The orchestra was founded seven years ago by Joan Tower. She passed the baton to James Bagwell, who has now passed it to Mandarano. Maestro Mandarano says, “When I attended Cornell University in the 1980s, I had the good fortune to study with Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Karel Husa. It’s a privilege for me to introduce his music to the Bard community. It’s also very exciting to have members of the prestigious Colorado Quartet join us in performance—they will help us celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday with the Concertone in C Major.” Reservations are recommended. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Call the Fisher Center Box Office at 845-758-7900. About the Artists Conductor James Bagwell maintains an active schedule throughout the United States as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral literature. During Bard SummerScape 2005, he led six sold-out performances of Copland’s The Tender Land, which received unanimous praise from the New York Times, New Yorker, and Opera News. In October 2002 he premiered Cinderella’s Bad Magic by microtonal composer Kyle Gann in Moscow as part of the Alternativa Festival. As music director of Light Opera Oklahoma, he conducted three new productions for the 2005 summer festival season, including the company’s debut at the OK Mozart International Music Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and a concert version of La Périchole. In 2003 Bagwell was named director of choruses for the Bard Music Festival, conducting and preparing choral works during the summer festival at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, and at Alice Tully Hall in New York. During the 2004–05 season he prepared the Concert Chorale of New York for concerts with the American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Mostly Mozart Festival, all in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, and has trained choruses for a number of major American orchestras, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and the Asheville (NC) Symphony. He is music director of the May Festival Youth Chorus in Cincinnati and the Dessoff Choirs in New York City; artistic director for the New York Repertory Singers; and conductor for the Berkshire Bach Society Chorus and Orchestra. Bagwell has worked with noted conductors such as Leon Botstein, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Louis Langrée, Raymond Leppard, James Conlon, Christof Perick, Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Leon Fleischer, and Robert Shaw. In 2000 he joined the faculty of Bard College, where he is director of the Music Program. Conductor Mark Mandarano is the principal guest conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he has recently completed a four-year tenure with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Orange County, first as assistant and then as associate conductor. From 1994–99 he served as resident conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. At Carnegie Hall, Mandarano performed with both the American Composers Orchestra and the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra. He has also led critically acclaimed tours throughout the United States and Russia. In the spring of 1998, Mandarano conducted the world premiere performances of the work that won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999: Melinda Wagner’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion. In the fall of the 1998, Maestro Mandarano returned to Carnegie Hall to perform the same work with the American Composers Orchestra. Violinist D. Lydia Redding is the founding member and second violinist of the Colorado Quartet. With the Quartet she has performed in more than 20 countries, and the ensemble’s recordings include Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and contemporary composers. Redding has taught the Rafael Trio Workshop in Adamant, Vermont, and lectured on Bartók at the European Mozart Academy, Poland. She is a visiting assistant professor of music at Bard and a Bard Center Fellow. In addition to her performances with the Colorado Quartet, violinist Julie Rosenfeld makes frequent guest appearances around the country. She has performed with Chamber Music at Lincoln Center, and at Marlboro Music Festival, La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, Skaneateles Festival, Steamboat Springs Festival, and the Newport Music Festival. In 1992 Rosenfeld was the first female adjudicator at the Banff International String Quartet Competition; she has also been on juries for the Coleman, Concert Artists Guild, and Juilliard Concerto Competitions. She frequently collaborates with pianist/composer André Previn, and performed the West Coast premiere of his Violin Sonata in 1996; their recording of French chamber music is available on the BMG label. Rosenfeld is visiting assistant professor of music at Bard and a Bard Center Fellow. # # # (10/21/05)