The Orchestra Now OUT OF THE SILENCE: A CELEBRATION OF MUSIC Series Streams September 5-26

The Orchestra Now (TŌN), Bard Music Festival, and Bard College Conservatory of Music will present Out of the Silence: A Celebration of Music. The video series of four free live-streamed concerts for string orchestra, piano, and percussion is coming to UPSTREAMING, the Fisher Center's virtual stage, from September 5 - 26.

Classical WMHT-FM 89.1/88.7 radio will broadcast the audio of all four programs the week following each live-streamed concert on Fridays at 8 PM, airing on September 11, 18, 25, and October 2. Click here to listen online.

All programs are free, performed by the Orchestra under the leadership of Music Director Leon Botstein-with appearances by TŌN's Academic Director and Associate Conductor James Bagwell, Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman, and Assistant Conductor Andrés Rivas-on the Bard College campus without an audience and with appropriate safety measures. Keyboard faculty from the Bard College Conservatory of Music will join TŌN for several concerts. Pairing works by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, and Bartók-all past subjects of the Bard Music Festival-with music by ten prominent Black composers from Classical pioneer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges to contemporary Americans Alvin Singleton, Adolphus Hailstork, and Jessie Montgomery, Out of the Silence strives to showcase a broad range of important black composers whose work is rarely brought to light. Reservations are requested.

The accomplishments of these too-often neglected composers include the first Pulitzer Prize for Music given to an African-American, awarded to George Walker; an ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein Award for Jessie Montgomery, whose works have been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall; and the many achievements of Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Bologne. The son of a slave, he was not only the first-known classical composer of African ancestry, but also an accomplished violinist, champion fencer and colonel of the first all-Black military regiment in Europe.

Out of the Silence: A Celebration of Music

Performances stream live from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, at UpStreaming, the Fisher Center's virtual stage.

PROGRAM ONE

Sat, Sep 5 at 5:30pm (Fri, Sep 11 at 8:00pm broadcast WMHT)

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein & James Bagwell, conductors

William Grant Still (1895-1978): Out of the Silence, from Seven Traceries (1939)

William Grant Still (1895-1978): Serenade (1957)

George Walker (1922-2018): Lyric for Strings (1946)

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47): String Symphony No. 8 in D (1822)

PROGRAM TWO

Sat, Sep 12 at 5:30pm (Fri, Sep 18 at 8:00pm broadcast WMHT)

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein, James Bagwell, Andrés Rivas & Zachary Schwartzman, conductors

Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981): Strum (2018)

Alvin Singleton (b. 1940): After Choice (2009)

Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941): Sonata da Chiesa (1990)

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904): Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (1875)

PROGRAM THREE

Sat, Sep 19 at 5:30pm (Fri, Sep 25 at 8:00pm broadcast WMHT)

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein, Andrés Rivas & Zachary Schwartzman, conductors

Roque Cordero (1917-2008): Adagio trágico (1972)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912): Four Novelettes, Op. 52 (1903)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93): Serenade for Strings, Op. 48 (1880)

PROGRAM FOUR

Sat, Sep 26 at 5:30pm (Fri, Oct 2 at 8:00pm broadcast WMHT)

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein, conductor

Duke Ellington (1899-1974): Solitude (1941; arr. Gould)

Duke Ellington (1899-1974): Sophisticated Lady (1932; arr. Gould)

Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-99): Violin Concerto in G, Op. 2, No. 1 (1773)

(with Ashley Horne, violin)

Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936)

All programs are subject to change.