Bard Conservatory Orchestra Presents World Premiere of Thurman Barker's South Side Suite
“In this piece, the jazz quintet represents the vocabulary that I learned in [my] early years of combo playing . . . The first movement centers on a theme that shifts around from section to individual instrument to section. The second movement sets up a repeated vamp while sections play a cat and mouse game with each other until reaching a finale on a repeated ostinato pattern from the strings,” says Barker.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Thurman Barker began his professional career at the age of 16 playing for blues singer Mighty Joe Young. Classically trained at the American Conservatory of Music, he quickly established a reputation as a professional drummer. He has played backup for Billy Eckstein, Marvin Gaye, Bette Midler and Vicki Carr. He was the house drummer at the Schubert Theatre in Chicago for 10 years where he played for national touring companies in Hair, The Wiz, The Me Nobody Knows, Promises, Promises, 1776, Bubblin’ Brown Sugar, A Raisin in the Sun, Grease, One Mo' Time, and Ain’t Misbehavin’. A charter member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Barker has performed worldwide and recorded with Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Meyers, Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Sam Rivers, Billy Bang, Joseph Jarman, and Henry Threadgill. He has produced five recordings under his own record label, Uptee Productions. In 1994, his composition, "Dialogue," commissioned by Mutable Music, premiered at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. He has since completed a second commission for Mutable Music as well as two commissions for the Delaware Valley Chamber Orchestra in Sullivan County, New York. The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra premiered his chamber piece, "Expansions," in May 1999. He has developed and taught in the jazz program at Bard College since 1993.
In addition to leading the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, Leon Botstein is in his 25th year as music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. He has been hailed for his visionary approach to creating unique concert programs and reviving rarely performed works. His programming gives audiences opportunities to hear live performances of works that are often neglected in the standard repertory, often broadening the experience with preconcert talks, while bringing his distinctive style to core repertory works. He is artistic codirector of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, which take place at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where he has been president since 1975, and is conductor laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, where he served as music director from 2003–11. Botstein leads an active schedule as a guest conductor all over the world, and can be heard on numerous recordings with the London Symphony (including its Grammy- nominated recording of Popov’s First Symphony), the London Philharmonic, NDR Hamburg, and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Many of his live performances with the American Symphony Orchestra are available online, where they have cumulatively sold more than a quarter of a million downloads. In recent seasons he has conducted the Royal Philharmonic, Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Aspen Music Festival, the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, Taipei Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas in Venezuela. Highly regarded as a music historian, Botstein’s most recent book is Von Beethoven zu Berg: Das Gedächtnis der Moderne (2013). He is the editor of The Musical Quarterly and the author of numerous articles and books. For his contributions to music he has most recently received an honorary Doctor of Music from Sewanee: The University of the South, and before that he received the award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters; Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Award, as well as the Cross of Honor, First Class, from the government of Austria.
Members of Time Factor
Pianist Noah Barker, a multi-instrumentalist and composer from Jeffersonville, New York, is the son of the avant-garde jazz drummer, Thurman Barker. He started classical piano studies at age seven and moved on to jazz as a teenager. After undergraduate studies at the University of Louisville, he received a master of arts degree in music composition and production from SUNY Purchase in 2014. Barker relocated to Brooklyn and started Never Forever Records. He fronts the group Noisebody, in addition to playing with Jerry Paper, Joanna Teters, Murals, and Purr.
Clarinetist Paavo Carey enjoys a versatile career as a music director, arranger, composer, conductor, saxophonist, and educator. Noted for his energetic and passionate performances, he currently serves as music director at Madison Memorial High School, in Madison, Maine, and has taught jazz master classes at Colby College. He was the founding band director at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens. As a saxophonist, Mr. Carey performs in clubs and concert halls throughout the tri-state and New England areas as well as internationally. He is a long time member of the critically acclaimed Me We and Them Orchestra.
Guitarist and composer James Emery has been active on the international jazz and contemporary music scene since 1975. He has recorded 26 CDs and performed in more than 25 countries. In addition to international critical acclaim as a leader of his own ensembles, he is recognized for his work with the String Trio of New York, which he co-founded in 1977. Emery has performed and recorded with Henry Threadgill, Joe Lovano, Anthony Braxton, Steve Reich, and Leroy Jenkins. He has received numerous grants and commissions, including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
Dean Torrey is a double bassist and composer from Fairfield, Connecticut, currently residing in Brooklyn. He attended the Jazz Studies Program at SUNY Purchase, where he studied with Doug Weiss and Scott Colley. Since graduating and moving to New York in 2014, Torrey has worked with many great musicians including NEA Jazz Master Muhal Richard Abrams, Hal Galper, Ray Gallon, Tim Green, Thurman Barker, Alex Hoffman, and many others.
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See www.bard.edu/conservatory for the full concert calendar.
ABOUT THE BARD COLLEGE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC ORCHESTRA
The unique undergraduate curriculum of the Bard College Conservatory of Music is guided by the principle that musicians should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences to achieve their greatest potential. The five-year, double-degree program combines rigorous Conservatory training with a challenging and comprehensive liberal arts program. All Conservatory students pursue a double degree in a thoroughly integrated program and supportive educational community. Graduating students receive a bachelor of music (B.Mus.) and a bachelor of arts in a field other than music (B.A.). At the Bard Conservatory the serious study of music goes hand in hand with the education of the whole person.
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This event was last updated on 10-26-2020