A Celebration of Sondheim & Friends

James Bagwell maintains an active international schedule as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral music. He was recently named associate conductor and academic director of The Orchestra Now (TŌN) and was appointed principal guest conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra in 2009. He has led both ensembles in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. He served as music director of The Collegiate Chorale from 2009–15. Highlights included conducting rarely-performed operas at Carnegie Hall, including Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Rossini’s Möise et Pharaon, and Boito’s Mefistofele. He conducted the New York premiere of Philip Glass’ Toltec Symphony and Osvaldo Golijov’s Oceana at Carnegie Hall. His performance of Kurt Weill’s Knickerbocker Holiday at Alice Tully Hall was recorded live for Gaslight Records and is the only complete recording of the work. He has collaborated since 2011 with singer and composer Natalie Merchant, conducting orchestras across the country, including the San Francisco and Seattle Symphonies. Other recent performances include Glass’ Another Look at Harmony at the Park Avenue Armory and leading the Little Opera Theatre of New York’s production of Rossini’s Opportunity Makes the Thief.

Mr. Bagwell is a regular guest conductor for The Tulsa Symphony. In 2011 and 2012 he conducted the Amici New York Orchestra at the OK Mozart Festival, and in December 2014 made his second appearance with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He frequently appears as guest conductor for orchestras around the country and abroad, including the Jerusalem Symphony, the Interlochen Music Festival, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.

A noted choral director, Mr. Bagwell has prepared The Concert Chorale of New York for performances with the New York Philharmonic over the past several years. In 2018, he prepared The Concert Chorale for performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and prepared two concerts for the Mostly Mozart Festival. Since 2003 he has been director of choruses for the Bard Music Festival, conducting and preparing choral works during the annual SummerScape festival.

Mr. Bagwell is Professor of Music at Bard College and Director of Performance Studies in the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

A renowned opera singer and recitalist, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is one of the most highly respected and critically acclaimed artists of her generation. With repertoire that ranges from Handel to Wagner, German lieder to contemporary and classic American song, she feels at home equally on opera, concert, recital, and cabaret stages. She has performed in many world-class venues like Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Paris National Opera, and the San Francisco, Chicago Lyric, and Seattle Operas, and with orchestras that include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Orchestra of New York, Minnesota Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Ensemble Orchestre de Paris, and the Concertgerbouworkest. She has also appeared at the Tanglewood, Cincinnati May, and Ravinia festivals, and at the BBC Proms.

Ms. Blythe’s many operatic roles include title roles in Carmen, Samson et Dalila, Orfeo ed Euridice, La Grande Duchesse, Tancredi, Mignon, and Giulio Cesare; Frugola, Principessa, and Zita in Il Trittico, Fricka in both Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Ulrica in >Un Ballo in Maschera, Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, Ježibaba in Rusalka, Madame de Haltiere in Cendrillon, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, and Ino/Juno in Semele. She also created the role of Gertrude Stein in Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27 at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and performed Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd at the San Francisco Opera and Nettie Fowler in Carousel at the Houston Grand Opera and with the New York Philharmonic. More recently, she has expanded her repertoire to include non-traditional casting as the title role in Gianni Schicchi with San Diego Opera, and Don Jose in Carmen with Chicago Opera Theater.

Ms. Blythe was named Musical America‘s Vocalist of the Year in 2009, received an Opera News Award in 2007, and won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award in 1999. In 2019, she had the honor of being appointed Director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College. She occasionally moonlights as dramatic tenor, Blythely Oratonio.