Bard's Fisher Center Presents an Outstanding Season of Music, Dance, and Theater Productions

Highlights include world premiere of major work by choreographer Tere O’Connor;
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo with Bernard Herrmann’s score performed live by the
Bard College Conservatory of Music Orchestra;
The Orchestra Now Series; Trisha Brown Dance Company;
The Catskill Jazz Factory
; Innovative Student Dance and Theater Productions; and More
 
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—This fall, The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents an extraordinary series of music, dance, art, and theater programs taking place in the world class Sosnoff and LUMA Theaters. Additional information, including subscriptions and discounts, is available at fishercenter.bard.edu. Tickets can be ordered online at fishercenter.bard.edu or by calling the box office at 845-758-7900.
 
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The Orchestra Now
Leon Botstein, Music Director
Sosnoff Theater
September 23, 24; October 21, 22; November 18; February 3, 4, 17, 18; April 14, 15
Tickets: $25–35
 
 
Saturday, September 23 at 8 pm
Sunday, September 24 at 2 pm
Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony
Leon Botstein, conductor
Modest Mussorgsky, Night on Bald Mountain
Sergey Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 2
            ChaoJun Yang, piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 3
Saturday, September 23 at 8 pm
Sunday, September 24 at 2 pm
 
Saturday, October 21 at 8 pm
Sunday, October 22 at 2 pm
Beethoven’s Glorious Ninth
Leon Botstein, conductor
Frank Martin, Six Monologues from Jedermann
Chloe Olivia Moore, soprano
Teresa Buchholz, mezzo-soprano
John Pickle, tenor
Alfred Walker, bass-baritone
Bard College Chamber Singers Bard Festival Chorale
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9
 
Saturday, November 18 at 8 pm
Bruckner’s “Romantic” Symphony
Gerard Schwarz, conductor
Aaron Copland, Jubilee Variation
Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 4, “Romantic”
 
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Film with Live Orchestra
Alfred Hitchcock’s  VERTIGO

Live with the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra
Presented in partnership with Upstate Films to benefit the Bard College Conservatory of Music

Sosnoff Theater
Saturday, September 16 at 8 pm
Sunday, September 17 at 2 pm
Tickets: $25–75; $125 Upstate Films’ 45th anniversary ticket includes a membership to Upstate Films
 
Named the “Greatest Film of All Time” by the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound, this romantic, psychological thriller hypnotizes audiences on the big screen, accompanied by Bernard Herrmann’s haunting score performed live by the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra and conducted by James Bagwell. Starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, this Hitchcock classic (released in 1958) follows a detective forced to retire after his fear of heights causes the death of a fellow officer and the girl he was hired to pursue. This leads into a cycle of madness and lies, resulting in a definitive Hitchcock work of obsession, manipulation and fear.
 
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Dance
Sarah Michelson
September 2017/
World Premiere/LAB commission
LUMA Theater
Friday, September 22 at 7 pm
Saturday, September 23 at 7 pm
Sunday, September 24 at 7 pm
Tickets: $35; $10 for students
 
Playful, demanding, rigorous, and inscrutable—Sarah Michelson creates dances of unmatched intensity. This world premiere of new work from the Doris Duke Artist Fellow and Bessie Award–winning choreographer was created over four years of Live Arts Bard residencies with Bard students and professional dancers. The result of their collaboration will premiere in three venues in the Fisher Center. In Michelson’s words, “It’s work, studio work, to look at and be with, constructed in this time for this time—an attempt to stay fresh and work hard, but invite no celebration, no opinion, no success.”
 
“Her disturbing, witty dance-theater-architecture pieces disorient you from the get-go. Let her postmodern reverie delight our eyes and tease our minds.”
—Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice
 
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In Conversation: Stephen King and Owen King
Sosnoff Theater
Wednesday, September 27 at 7 pm
Tickets: $40

Limited Availability
 
Stephen King, author of more than 50 worldwide bestsellers, and fellow author (and son) Owen King discuss their provocative and gloriously absorbing new collaboration. Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is the highest of high-stakes stories—what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?
 
Each ticket includes one copy of Sleeping Beauties. A limited number of attendees will be chosen at random to receive signed copies. Presented in association with Oblong Books & Music. This event includes an audience Q&A, but not a public book signing.
 
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Trisha Brown Dance Company
LUMA Theater
Thursday, September 28 at 7:30 pm
Friday, September 29 at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15; free for Bard students, faculty, and staff
 
The Trisha Brown Dance Company performs selections from its current repertory, presented as an open rehearsal to conclude its Bard residency. Featuring two pieces from the final decade of Brown’s celebrated career, along with one of her most influential works, Accumulation (1971), this program honors Brown, who passed away this year, and her legacy as a monumental force of American dance.
 
Accumulation (1971)
Music: “Uncle John’s Band” by the Grateful Dead

L’Amour au théâtre (2009)
Music from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie
 
Groove and Countermove (2000)
Music by Dave Douglas
 
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Catskill Jazz Factory
Fred Hersch and Sullivan Fortner
Heard Fresh: Music for Two Pianos
Sosnoff Theater
Saturday, October 7 at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $25–50
 
Named “The most arrestingly innovative pianist over the last decade,” by Vanity Fair, jazz titan Fred Hersch joins his protégé Sullivan Fortner, the 2015 American Pianists Association Cole Porter Fellow in Jazz, for a cross-generational, double piano concert. Hersch’s Fisher Center debut follows the release of a new album, Open Book, and the publication of his memoir Good Things Happen Slowly, which chronicles Hersch’s life as an openly gay, HIV-positive jazz player with a deep look into the jazz culture that made such a status both transgressive and groundbreaking.
 
“A pianist of cultivated taste and erudition… the sort of jazz musician who brings a lissome elegance to his playing.” –New York Times on Fred Hersch
 
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Dance
Tere O’Connor
Long Run
World Premiere/LAB commission
LUMA Theater
Friday, October 13 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, October 14 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, October 15 at 2 pm
Tickets: $35; $10 for students
 
This is the world premiere of a major new work from Tere O’Connor, one of the foremost choreographers of our day, whose abstractions engage the tension between the geometries of the rectangular stage, the organic forms of nature, and the vast terrain of human behavior. Long Run pushes the emotional content of O’Connor’s movement to new physical extremes, allowing time-based elements like polyrhythms, velocity, and duration to overtake the performers as they struggle to bring their bodies into a state of calm.  Tere O’Connor is a Live Arts Bard Choreographic Fellow.
 
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In Conversation: Daniel Mendelsohn and Nick Flynn
Sosnoff Theater
Friday, October 20 at 8 pm
Tickets: $25; free for Bard students, faculty, and staff
 
Award-winning memoirist and critic Daniel Mendelsohn’s new book is a deeply moving tale of a father and son’s transformative journey in reading—and reliving—Homer’s Odyssey. When 81-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. Acclaimed poet, memoirist, and Hudson Valley resident Nick Flynn (Another Bullshit Night in Suck City) joins Bard Professor in the Humanities Daniel Mendelsohn on stage to discuss the Odyssey’s themes of deception and recognition, marriage and children, the pleasures of travel, and the meaning of home.
 
This event includes an audience Q&A and book signing.
 
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In Conversation: Neil Gaiman and Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket)
Sosnoff Theater
Saturday, December 9 at 8pm
Tickets: $25; free for Bard students, faculty, and staff
 
Join a public conversation between Neil Gaiman, Bard Professor in the Arts, and Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket), bestselling author of the beloved A Series Of Unfortunate Events and noted literary critic. Handler and Gaiman will discuss adaptation, collaboration, and the role of the writer as giver of advice. “My parents claim that when I was six years old I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, and my answer was that I wanted to be an old man who lived at the top of a mountain giving advice,” says Handler.
 
Part of a regular series of conversations at the Fisher Center hosted by Professor Gaiman. This event includes an audience Q&A. Signed copies of the authors’ work will be available for sale.
 
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Special Holiday Jazz Event
Cécile McLorin Salvant, with Sullivan Fortner on piano
Sosnoff Theater
Sunday, December 17 at 3 pm
Tickets: $25-65
 
Grammy Award-winner Cécile McLorin Salvant has had a remarkable rise to stardom, taking the jazz world by storm since becoming the youngest person ever to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010.  Through original compositions, timeless hits, and forgotten gems, the breathtaking young vocalist brings jazz, vaudeville, blues, and folk music into her own powerful and distinct style.  Returning after a sold-out Fisher Center debut in 2013, Salvant will perform an intimate duo concert featuring selections from her new album Dreams and Daggers (2017) and special holiday surprises.  
 
“You get a singer like this once in a generation or two.” – Wynton Marsalis
 
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Bard College Theater and Performance Program

Attempts on Her Life
Written by Martin Crimp and directed by Jonathan Rosenberg
LUMA Theater
Thursday, October 26 at 7:30 pm
Friday, October 27 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, October 28 at 2 pm
Saturday, October 28 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, October 29 at 4 pm
Tickets: $15; free for Bard students, faculty, and staff
 
Crimp’s rarely performed masterwork is an examination of the construction of identity in the age of modern media. The protagonist, Anne, never appears, but the question of who she is or was is examined from different, contradictory, and brilliantly theatrical perspectives.
 
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Bard College Dance Program
Fall Dance Concert
LUMA Theater
Friday, November 10 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 11 at 2 pm
Saturday, November 11 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, November 12 at 4 pm
Tickets: Free, reservations required
 
Choreographed and performed by Bard students, this concert gives participants a chance to explore new territory in dance making. Some dances are presented in partial fulfillment for acceptance into the program.
 
 
Bard College Senior Dance Concert
LUMA Theater
Friday, December 8 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, December 9 at 2 pm
Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, December 10 at 4 pm
Tickets: Free; reservations required
 
Choreographed and performed by seniors in the Bard College Dance Program, this concert of Senior Projects in dance represents the culmination of four years of intensive choreographic inquiry.
 
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Bard College Conservatory of Music
Bard Conservatory Orchestra 
Leon Botstein, music director
Sosnoff Theater
October 21; November 11; December 2; December 16
Tickets for all events: Suggested donation of $20 (orchestra seating), $15 (parterre and first balcony); free for the Bard community with ID

Saturday, October 21 at 2 pm
Maestro Botstein will lead the Conservatory Orchestra in a special one-hour preview of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, the “The Titan.”
 
Saturday, November 11 at 8 pm
The program includes Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto in E flat with soloist Szabolcs Koczur, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan.” Conducted by Leon Botstein.
 
Saturday, December 2 at 8 pm
The Conservatory Orchestra performs Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun; Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé, Suite No. 2; and the world premiere of Telescope by Daniel Castellanos ’18. Guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni is recognized as one of the brightest young conductors of his generation for his eloquent, yet fiery, style.
 
Saturday, December 16 at 8 pm
Winter Songfest
Sosnoff Theater
Tickets: $25-65
A holiday tradition of seasonal selections copresented by the Bard Conservatory and Bard Music Program, featuring the Bard Symphonic Chorus with musicians from the Conservatory Orchestra, The Orchestra Now, and Graduate Vocal Arts Program. James Bagwell, conductor.
 
After Winter Songfest join us for a reception with the artists; $100 donation
All proceeds benefit the Conservatory’s Scholarship Fund.
For more information go to fishercenter.bard.edu, or call the box office at 845-758-7900.
 
For downloadable high resolution photography go here: http://fishercenter.bard.edu/press/photos/?gid=897312#a_media
 
 
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College
 
Named for the late Richard B. Fisher, 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, seven weeks of performing arts programs reflecting the life and times of the featured composer of the esteemed Bard Music Festival, now celebrating its 28th 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. The Bard College Conservatory of Music and Bard College Music Program stage regular orchestral and chamber concerts.
 
The 2017 Fall season is made possible in part through the generous support of Jeanne Donovan Fisher, the Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation, the Board of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, and the Friends of the Fisher Center, as well as grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
 
Live Arts Bard is made possible by the members of the Live Arts Bard Creative Council: Alicia Davis, Jeanne Donovan Fisher, Dr. Terry S. Gotthelf, Richard Katzman, Stephen Simcock, and Sarah Stack.
 
Sarah Michelson’s four-year residency and commission are made possible by a Live Arts Bard Choreographic Fellowship, with lead support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 
 
Tere O’Connor is a Live Arts Bard Choreographic Fellow with lead support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The presentation of Long Run is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
 
 
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This event was last updated on 09-05-2017