Welcome Letter
Please join us to celebrate the artists, audiences, students, faculty, and communities that have written the Fisher Center’s story for its first two decades and will imagine it into the future.—Gideon Lester, Artistic Director and Chief Executive
Read the Welcome LetterCELEBRATING OUR FIRST TWO DECADES
Before we break ground on the Maya Lin-designed performing arts studio building this October, let us first applaud the past 20 years of performances in the awe-inspiring Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center for the Performing Arts.
New York Times Profile
“Since opening 20 years ago, the Fisher Center has emerged as a hothouse for the creation of uncompromising, cross-disciplinary and sometimes hard to describe hits.”—New York Times
Read the ProfileCELEBRATE OUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY
Recognize this milestone year and ensure the Fisher Center remains a cultural beacon.
For twenty years, our extraordinary supporters have helped the Fisher Center evolve into a vibrant professional performing arts center, unmatched in its commitment to artists and innovation across disciplines. Give today to support groundbreaking work and the future of our artistic home for many years to come.
Ulysses
ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE
James Joyce’s Ulysses has fascinated, perplexed, scandalized, and/or defeated readers for over a century. Building on a rich history of staging modernist works—Gatz, The Sound and the Fury, The Select (The Sun Also Rises)—Elevator Repair Service (ERS) takes on this Mount Everest of twentieth-century literature in their Fisher Center debut.
September 21 – October 1
A Symphonic Night at the Movies: The Wizard of Oz
PERFORMED LIVE BY THE BARD CONSERVATORY ORCHESTRA
Experience a recently re-mastered version of one of the most beloved films of all time, The Wizard of Oz. The Bard Conservatory Orchestra conducted by James Bagwell will perform the treasured songs by composer Harold Arlen and the Academy Award-winning score by Herbert Stothart.
September 23—24
Neil Gaiman: The Bard Lectures
Award-winning author, professor in the arts at Bard, and Fisher Center Advisory Board member Neil Gaiman has an astonishingly broad career: from journalism to graphic novels; fiction for adults and children; and writing for film, television, and theater. Over three nights this fall, Gaiman continues a series of lectures on writing in which he will explore his creative strategies, sharing stories and offering advice—live and in-person at the Fisher Center.
Lecture 3 • Pulling Back the Curtain: How Fiction Works and Why It Still Matters
Thursday, October 12 at 7 pm
Lecture 4 • To Pay the Pied Piper: The Cost of Stories
Friday, October 13 at 7 pm
Lecture 5 • On Endings, Epilogues, and Afters
Saturday, October 14 at 7 pm
The Orchestra Now
2023–24 Season
In the 2023–24 season, The Orchestra Now—Bard’s graduate-level training orchestra made up of vibrant young musicians from across the globe—gives 11 performances at their home base, the Fisher Center at Bard.
All TŌN concerts include on-stage introductions and demonstrations by the musicians, concert notes that give insight into the musicians’ perspective, and a chance to have one-on-one discussions with orchestra members during intermission.
Two Sides of Vienna
September 16–17
Jean-Marie Zeitouni Conducts
September 30
Exodus: Jewish Composers in Exile
November 4–5
Stephanie Blythe Sings Brahms
February 3–4
Beethoven’s 6th & The Rite of Spring
April 6–7
Violinist as Composer
May 4–5
Bard Conservatory of Music
Fall 2023
Highlights of the Bard Conservatory Orchestra’s Fall 2023 season with music director Leon Botstein include Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman and Duke Ellington’s New World A-Comin’, performed with renowned jazz pianist Marcus Roberts and members of his ensemble, The Modern Jazz Generation. A December concert of Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony and Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D featuring solo organist Renée Anne Louprette GCP ’19 concludes the season.
Uncommon Connections
October 28—29
Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony) and Ethel Smyth Mass in D
December 9
CHINA NOW MUSIC FESTIVAL: THE BRIDGE OF MUSIC
GENERATIONAL CROSSINGS
Led by Jindong Cai, the China Now Music Festival returns to the Sosnoff stage for its sixth season with a concert honoring two of the most influential composers from China working in the US today, Zhou Long and Chen Yi.
October 6
GROUNDBREAKING CONCERT
for the Fisher Center Performing Arts Lab
Designed by Maya Lin
Audiences are invited to attend a special celebration of the Fisher Center as the culmination of its 20th Anniversary. The day will feature a one-of-a-kind concert with Ms. Lisa Fischer & Grand Baton, alongside The Orchestra Now conducted by James Bagwell, and a rare performance of Béla Bartók’s The Wooden Prince, conducted by Leon Botstein. The concert will be preceded by a groundbreaking for the new Maya Lin-designed performing arts studio building and a private reception.
October 21
The Performing Arts are Essential
Support the creation of innovative work by adventurous artists.
Support
This season is generously supported by Jeanne Donovan Fisher, the Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation, Felicitas S. Thorne, the Advisory Boards of the Fisher Center at Bard and Bard Music Festival, Fisher Center and Bard Music Festival members, the Ettinger Foundation, the Thendara Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. Fisher Center LAB has received funding from members of the Live Arts Bard Creative Council, the Lucille Lortel Foundation, and the Fisher Center’s Artistic Innovation Fund, with lead support from Rebecca Gold and S. Asher Gelman ’06 through the March Forth Foundation.
Visit the Fisher Center
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, situated on the east bank of the Hudson River in the beautiful Hudson Valley, about 90 miles north of New York City and 220 miles southwest of Boston.
