The Orchestra Now (TŌN) the far-sighted orchestra and master’s degree program founded by Bard College president, conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, announced its ninth season performances, happening from Sept. 16, 2023, through May 19, 2024.
The Orchestra Now is a group of 59 vibrant young musicians from 13 different countries across the globe, including the United States, Austria, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea, and more. The main mission of the orchestra is to make orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences by sharing unique personal insights in a welcoming environment. Hand-picked from the world’s leading conservatories—including the Yale School of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Royal Academy of Music, and the New England Conservatory of Music—the members of TŌN give on-stage introductions and demonstrations, write concert notes from the musicians’ perspective, and have one-on-one discussions with patrons during intermissions.
Conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein founded TŌN in 2015 as a graduate program at Bard College, where he is also president. TŌN offers both a three-year master’s degree in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies and a two-year advanced certificate in Orchestra Studies. The Orchestra’s home is the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard, where it performs multiple concerts each season and takes part in the annual Bard Music Festival. Dubbed by the HuffPost as “dramatic and intense,” TŌN performs regularly at venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others across NYC and beyond.
The Orchestra Now has also performed with many distinguished guest conductors and soloists, including Leonard Slatkin, Neeme Järvi, Gil Shaham, Fabio Luisi, Vadim Repin, Hans Graf, Peter Serkin, Gerard Schwarz, Tan Dun, and JoAnn Falletta. They are featured on several recordings, including Buried Alive with
baritone Michael Nagy, released on Bridge Records in August 2020, which includes the first recording in almost 60 years, and only the second recording ever, of Othmar Schoeck’s song cycle Lebendig begraben.
For the 2023-2024 season, TŌN offers 20 programs and a total of 27 concerts, including two at Carnegie Hall, three at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, one at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater, three free concerts at Manhattan’s Peter Norton Symphony Space and Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and six at the Orchestra’s home at Bard College’s Fisher Center. This year marks the seventh season of The Orchestra Now’s popular broadcast series on WMHT-FM, the classical music radio station of New York’s Capital Region. TŌN’s performances are also heard regularly on American Public Media’s Performance Today.
As we approach the ninth successful season of TŌN, I am exceedingly proud of all we have accomplished since the Orchestra was launched in 2015. Since then, TŌN has performed a remarkable 668 works by 304 composers in 36 venues for more than 88,000 live and virtual concertgoers, with 320 soloists and 33 conductors. I am delighted to continue that impressive record in the 2023-24 season with three U.S premieres, an exploration of numerous undiscovered masterworks, and a roster of guest artists that range from Metropolitan Opera star Stephanie Blythe—Artistic Director of Bard Conservatory’s Vocal Arts Program—to rising young winners of Bard Conservatory Concerto Competitions.
Leon Botstein.
For more information about The Orchestra Now and to purchase tickets to the upcoming 2023-2024 season, visit here.
Carnegie Hall Series
Exodus: Jewish Composers in Exile
Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023 at 7 p.m.
The Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall series opens with Leon Botstein and the orchestra performing rarely heard works by Jewish composers written while they were in exile from their homelands during World War II. The program comprises Alexandre Tansman’s rhythmic Polish Rhapsody, inspired by the invasion of his homeland, the NYC premiere of Josef Tal’s dramatic Exodus, based on the Passover Haggadah, Walter Kaufmann’s Indian Symphony, written while in exile in Bombay, and Marcel Rubin’s melancholy Symphony No. 4, Dies irae, reflecting his experiences during the Second World War.
Violinist as Composer
Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 7 p.m.
Leon Botstein spotlights four European virtuoso violinists who were also major composers in their respective countries but are not household names elsewhere today. The program includes Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s contemplative Partita for Orchestra, Hungarian composer Joseph Joachim’s Variations for Violin and Orchestra, the New York City premiere of a recently discovered concerto by famed Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe, and the energetic and passionate Second Symphony of Romanian composer George Enescu.
Rose Theatre
Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun
Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 3 p.m.
TŌN welcomes rising French conductor Chloé van Soeterstède, who has conducted orchestras around the globe, including the London and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras. Her program begins with one of Debussy’s most popular works, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, inspired by a poem about the mythical creature and nymphs. Principal trombonist of the London Symphony Orchestra, Peter Moore, joins the orchestra for Dani Howard’s Trombone Concerto. The afternoon concludes with Rachmaninoff’s vibrant Symphonic Dances, the last piece he ever wrote, and his only work that was fully composed in the United States.
Sight & Sound series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In the popular series Sight & Sound, Leon Botstein explores the parallels between orchestral music and the visual arts. Each program is accompanied by on-screen artworks and musical excerpts performed by The Orchestra Now, followed by a full performance and audience Q&A.
Copland, Culture & Politics in the 1930s
Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023 at 2 p.m.
The 1930s were a time of political and social turmoil in the United States. Through the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, art and music aided the struggling nation’s search for identity and hope, depicting and publicizing the struggle of the era’s masses. Aaron Copland mixed everyday Americana tunes with classical music in an unprecedented way. His strict orchestral Statements for Orchestra, written at a time when the composer was becoming more politically active, and Wild-West ballet Billy the Kid both quote popular folk music of the day, earning him a reputation as the United States “populist” composer.
The exhibition Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue from Sept. 7–Dec. 10, 2023 in galleries 691–693.
Debussy & Matisse: Creating New Colors
Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 2 p.m.
Artist Henri Matisse helped to revolutionize the visual arts in the first decades of the 20th century with experiments in a technicolor style that changed the course of French painting. In the same era Claude Debussy was rejecting classical German musical tradition, developing his own style of harmony and orchestral coloring that would strongly influence a wide range of composers for years to come. His expressive Images for Orchestra, which evokes English, Spanish, and French cultures, exemplifies the composer’s explorations in color and texture.
Still, Johnson & the Harlem Renaissance
Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 2 p.m.
With the rise of new, urban Black communities both in NYC and abroad, the Harlem Renaissance became the first African-American-led movement of international modern art. With that art came developments in visual art, poetry, jazz, and concert music. William Grant Still’s dramatic Lenox Avenue, which was commissioned by CBS for a 1937 radio broadcast, was inspired by street scenes in Harlem. Meanwhile, his orchestration of James P. Johnson’s Yamekraw, A Negro Rhapsody, was a response to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, capturing what the composer felt was a more “authentic” rhapsody about a black neighborhood in Savannah, Georgia.
The exhibition Harlem Renaissance will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue from Feb. 20–July 28, 2024, in Gallery 999.
The Fisher Center Series at Bard
The Orchestra Now, Bard’s orchestral masters, presents its ninth season of six different programs and 11 concerts. All performances will be livestreamed on TŌNtube.
Two Sides of Vienna
Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023 at 2 p.m.
Music Director Leon Botstein opens TŌN’s ninth season with a concert juxtaposing two distinct styles of Viennese music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These include the vibrant and festive melodies of Franz Lehár and the Strauss brothers, and Mahler’s beautifully tragic Sixth Symphony. The concert opens with music from Lehár’s well-known 1905 operetta The Merry Widow, written in 1940 to celebrate the composer’s 70th birthday. This is followed by two dance pieces: Eduard Strauss’ train-themed polka Bahn frei!, and his brother Johann Jr.’s majestic Emperor Waltz. The program closes with a contrasting style from the same era, Mahler’s deeply personal Symphony No. 6.
Jean-Marie Zeitouni Conducts
Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023 at 7 p.m.
Celebrated Canadian conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni makes his debut with TŌN in an all-French program, beginning with Saint-Saëns’ exuberant Bacchanale from his opera Samson et Dalila. Then mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, a co-founder of the Lynx Project who has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, performs Berlioz’s song cycle The Summer Nights. The program also includes Fauré’s music for the play Pelléas et Mélisande, and d’Indy’s soaring and lyrical Symphony on a French Mountain Air, featuring Bard College Conservatory faculty pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough.
Stephanie Blythe Sings Brahms
Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024 at 3 p.m.
Award-winning mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, artistic director of Bard Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, joins TŌN for an all-Brahms concert. She performs his profound and dramatic Alto Rhapsody. The program also includes the sweeping cantata, Rinaldo, concluding with Brahms’ masterful First Symphony, which the composer toiled over for 14 years before its debut performance.
Beethoven’s 6th & The Rite of Spring
Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 2 p.m.
TŌN welcomes spring with three musical tributes to the vernal equinox. These include Egon Wellesz’s 1911 The Dawn of Spring, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, performed alongside members of the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, and Beethoven’s lush Pastoral Sixth Symphony, echoing the composer’s love of nature.
Free Concert Series
These concerts are free, no tickets necessary, advance RSVP suggested. Check here for RSVP information.
Schumann & Strauss
Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023 at 4 p.m.
Peter Norton Symphony Space
TŌN Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman returns with the orchestra to Symphony Space for another free concert. The program comprises Barber’s overture The School for Scandal, Strauss’ powerfully evocative tone poem Death and Transfiguration, and Schumann’s intense and emotional Symphony No. 4.
Mendelssohn & Sibelius
Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024 at 4 p.m.
Peter Norton Symphony Space
Zachary Schwartzman returns with the orchestra to Symphony Space for another free concert. The program comprises Mendelssohn’s fiery Ruy Blas Overture, Prokofiev’s masterful Violin Concerto No. 2 with soloist Yangxin Song, a winner of the 2022 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition, and Sibelius’ voluptuous Symphony No. 1.
Schumann’s Piano Concerto
Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 3 p.m.
Bard College at Simon’s Rock
TŌN Assistant Conductor Andrés Rivas returns to Simon’s Rock for a free concert that includes Species of Motion by retiring music department chair Larry Wallach. The program also includes a performance of Schumann’s symphonic Piano Concerto, performed with Yilin Li, a winner of the 2022 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition.
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