Image Credit: Mary Ellen Mark

Spring Season Begins February 14

Highlights Include Chris Washburne and the SYOTOS Band,
Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, American Symphony Orchestra Concerts, An Opera Double Bill, An Evening with Anna Deavere Smith, Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s Romeo & Juliet, and Dance Productions Including Joanna Kotze’s it happened it had happened it is happening it will happen and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in Residence

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.— The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents a full spring season of performing arts events, including jazz, opera, and orchestral concerts, and innovative dance and theater productions, from February through May. All programs take place in the Fisher Center’s venues. Additional program information can be found at fishercenter.bard.edu. Tickets go on sale on December 9, and can be ordered online at fishercenter.bard.edu or by calling the box office at 845-758-7900.

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Chris Washburne and the SYOTOS Band

“A Latin jazz institution.”—Time Out New York

Spend Valentine’s Day with one of the hottest jazz bands on the scene. SYOTOS—an acronym coined by Chris Washburne, meaning See You On The Other Side—performs boundary-busting music that gives new meaning to Latin jazz. Founded by Washburne in 1992, SYOTOS boasts stars from the ensembles of Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, and Ray Barretto. Their music fuses strands of Afro-Cuban, funk, jazz, gospel, and contemporary classical into a swirl of surging rhythms and spicy solos. Presented with the Catskill Jazz Factory.

February 14 at 7:30 p.m.

LUMA Theater

Tickets: $20

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An Evening with Anna Deavere Smith

“Anna Deavere Smith is the ultimate impressionist. She does people’s souls.”
—New York Times

Widely acclaimed as one of the most provocative writers and performers of our time, Anna Deavere Smith is as celebrated for her investigative “documentary style” theater (Fires in the Mirror, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992) as for her starring roles on The West Wing and Nurse Jackie. Join her for an intimate evening in which she shares portraits of real people she has embodied over the past two decades.

February 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Sosnoff Theater


Tickets start at $25

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American Symphony Orchestra

February 21 and 22

The ASO series continues in February featuring Concerto Competition winner Dongfang Ouyang ’14, violin. Program includes Joan Tower, Stroke; Erkki Melartin, Concerto in D Minor for violin and orchestra, Op. 60; and Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 2. Conducted by Leon Botstein, music director.

April 11 and 12

ASO closes its 2013–14 season with Johann Strauss’s Emperor Waltz, Accelerations, and The Blue Danube; Julius Conus’s Violin Concerto, featuring Zhi Ma ’15, violin; and Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2. Conducted by Leon Botstein, music director.

All concerts at 8 p.m.; preconcert talk 7 p.m.

Sosnoff Theater

Tickets: $25, 30, 35, 40

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Nature Theater of Oklahoma

Romeo & Juliet

“A hilariously deconstructed take on the enduring classic.”—Time Out New York

“Tell us the plot of Romeo and Juliet.” Thus began a series of phone calls to friends, the exact transcripts of which are performed with vigor and charm by Nature Theater of Oklahoma. As one by one the respondents fumble through the characters and plot points, we realize that when memory lets us down, a necessary creativity takes over. The result is an irreverent and daring romp through Shakespeare’s best-loved play, where our fallible recollections take center stage. 

This young American avant-garde theater troupe has received accolades all over the world for their quest to reclaim and reimagine the oral traditions of theater. At times hilarious, at times bizarre, and always disarmingly sincere, Nature Theater of Oklahoma is one of the most important ensembles working in the theater today. Conceived and directed by Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper, the cast features Anne Gridley ’02 and Robert M. Johanson with Elisabeth Conner. Presented by Live Arts Bard, Bard College’s residency and commissioning program for the performing arts.

February 21 at 7:30 p.m., followed by a discussion with the artists

February 22 at 7:30 p.m.

February 23 at 2 p.m.

LUMA Theater

Tickets: $25

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Nilaja Sun

Open Rehearsal of Pike Street

After sold-out performances at the Fisher Center with her tour-de-force No Child . . . Nilaja Sun returns to Bard to develop Pike Street, a new play about a Lower East Side family during the “storm of the century.” Her work-in-progress residency will culminate in this open rehearsal. Directed by Ron Russell and presented by Live Arts Bard, Bard College’s residency and commissioning program for the performing arts.

March 1 at 2 p.m., followed by a discussion with the artists

LUMA Theater

Free admission—reservations required via the box office

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An Opera Double Bill

Featuring the talented singers of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program and the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, this student performance includes the world premiere of Payne Hollow by Shawn Jaeger and The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten. Conducted by James Bagwell and directed by Nicholas Muni.

March 14 at 7 p.m.

March 16 at 2 p.m.

Sosnoff Theater

Tickets: $15, $25, $35, and $100*

*The $100 ticket includes premium seating and an invitation to a special champagne reception with the artists on Sunday, March 16 ($75 tax deductible).

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Joanna Kotze

it happened it had happened it is happening it will happen 

“A mind capable of transforming a familiar space into something eerie and unrecognizable.”—New York Times

Joanna Kotze is the recipient of the 2013 “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer. Full of refreshing, imaginative physicality and delightfully unexpected humanity, this work earned her that recognition. Three dynamic movers—Kotze, Stuart Singer, and Netta Yerushalmy—create a study in contrasts that leaves room for uncertainty between ideas of the known and the unknown. Presented by Live Arts Bard and the Bard Dance Program.

April 18 at 7:30 p.m., followed by a discussion with the artists

April 19 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Sosnoff Stage Right

Tickets: $25

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Giuseppe Verdi's Messa da Requiem

Conducted by Leon Botstein, music director, with
James Bagwell, chorus master.

Featuring members of the American Symphony Orchestra, Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, Longy Conservatory Orchestra and the Longy Chorale, Bard College Chamber Singers, and Bard Festival Chorale.

April 25 and 26 at 8 p.m.

Sosnoff Theater
         

Suggested donation: $20 (orchestra seating); $15 (parterre / first balcony)

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Conservatory Sundays Series

The Sunday matinee concert series is performed by students of The Bard College Conservatory of Music, with faculty and special guests. All ticket sales benefit the Conservatory’s Scholarship Fund.

April 6

Conservatory Sundays: Sō Percussion and Bard Percussion

With guest artist Blair McMillen, the ensembles perform works by Kyle Gann, Steve Reich, John Cage, Daníel Bjarnason, and Martin Bresnick.

May 18

Conservatory Sundays: Conservatory Orchestra

Program includes Bohuslav Martinů’s Memorial to Lidice for orchestra and Thunderbolt; Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in E Major, featuring pianist Peter Serkin; and Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3. Conducted by Leon Botstein, music director.

3 p.m.
Sosnoff Theater

Suggested donation: $20 (orchestra seating); $15 (parterre / first balcony

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Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

Work-in-Progress Showing

The world-renowned Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company culminates its annual creative residency at Bard with a showing and discussion of the company’s latest projects, including the reconstruction of duets Just You (1993) and Shared Distance (1982).

LUMA Theater

May 17 at 2 p.m., followed by a discussion with the artists

Free admission—reservations via the Box Office

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To download high-resolution images go to fishercenter.bard.edu/press.

For tickets and additional information about these programs contact the Fisher Center box office at [email protected], or call 845-758-7900.

About The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College

Named for the late Richard B. Fisher, the former chair of Bard’s Board of Trustees, the Fisher Center has become an influential force in performing arts programming, earning critical acclaim for innovative productions of opera, orchestral, chamber, dance, and theater programs. The Center was designed by legendary architect Frank Gehry and distinguished acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, and has received international praise for its breathtaking architecture and superb sound.

Each summer the Fisher Center presents the Bard SummerScape festival, eight weeks of performing arts programs reflecting the life and times of the featured composer of the esteemed Bard Music Festival, now celebrating its 25th year. Fall and spring seasons include original productions, special one-night-only concerts, and touring artists from around the globe.

The Fisher Center is home to the Bard College Theater & Performance and Dance Programs, providing students access to exceptional theater facilities and opportunities to work with professional directors and dramaturges on publicly attended productions throughout the year. Live Arts Bard, a residency and commissioning program, is a laboratory for professional artists in theater, dance, and performance to test ideas and develop new projects, many of which premiere at the Fisher Center. The Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Bard College Music Program stage regular orchestral and chamber concerts.

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December 3, 2013