Fisher Center, Bard College Conservatory of Music
Natalie Merchant in concert with the Bard College Conservatory of Music Orchestra
March 5, 2011
A Benefit for the Bard College Conservatory of Music
Sosnoff Theater
8 pm
Sosnoff Theater
8 pm
Tickets: $60, 100, 200*
"What Merchant provided on stage was a tour de force through a host of musical genres that included New Orleans, Chinese, Jazz Age, Celtic, R & B, [and] bluegrass." — The Atlantic, October 2010
Singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant performs songs from her latest recording project, Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch Records, 2010), as well as selected works from her extensive catalogue, backed by the Bard College Conservatory of Music Orchestra, conducted by James Bagwell. This special concert is a benefit for the Conservatory’s Scholarship Fund and the Preparatory Division.
Merchant is one of the most successful and respected recording artists of our time. She began her career in the early 1980s as the lead singer and lyricist for the pop band 10,000 Maniacs. In 1994, she moved on to a solo career, recording several of the top-selling albums of the past 20 years, including Tigerlily, Ophelia, and Motherland. A captivating live performer, Merchant is a "brassy, deep singer with interesting nuances that are like a captivating deep chocolate" (Salt Lake City Tribune). For Leave Your Sleep, she adapted the poetry of e.e. cummings, Ogden Nash, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Gerard Manley Hopkins into songs influenced by klezmer, bluegrass, chamber music, and folk.
*Tickets at this level include priority seating and a post-concert reception with the artists.