Bard Music Professor Marcus Roberts Performs in Gala Concert to Inaugurate Philadelphia Orchestra’s Newly Named Marian Anderson Hall
Jazz pianist and Bard Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music Marcus Roberts was a featured artist in the dedication and gala concert held in the newly named Marian Anderson Hall in Philadelphia to honor the legacy of internationally renowned American contralto and civil rights icon Marian Anderson (1897–1993), who was the first Black singer to perform at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, reports NPR.
Bard Music Professor Marcus Roberts Performs in Gala Concert to Inaugurate Philadelphia Orchestra’s Newly Named Marian Anderson Hall
Post Date: 06-26-2024
New Muse 4tet, Led by Gwen Laster, Wins Chamber Music America 2024 Performance Plus Award
New Muse 4tet, an ensemble led by jazz faculty member Gwen Laster, was awarded a $11,300 Performance Plus grant by Chamber Music America, a national network for ensemble music professionals. The grant will enable New Muse 4tet to record new music, building off of the successes of their debut album, Blue Lotus.New Muse 4tet, Led by Gwen Laster, Wins Chamber Music America 2024 Performance Plus Award
Post Date: 04-29-2024
Professor Marcus Roberts Honored with 2024 Dorothy and David Dushkin Award in Recognition of His Artistry and Contributions to Music Education
Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music Marcus Roberts will receive this year’s Dorothy and David Dushkin Award at the Music Institute of Chicago gala, where he will also perform, in May 2024. Established more than 30 years ago and named for the Music Institute’s visionary founders, the award recognizes international luminaries in the world of music for their contributions to the art form and youth education.Professor Marcus Roberts Honored with 2024 Dorothy and David Dushkin Award in Recognition of His Artistry and Contributions to Music Education
Marcus Roberts is a highly acclaimed modern jazz pianist, composer, and educator who has graced the Music Institute of Chicago’s Nichols Concert Hall stage for many years. He is known for his ability to blend jazz and classical idioms into something wholly new and for his unique approach to jazz trio performance, which relies on all musicians sharing equally in shaping the direction of the music by using a system of musical cues and flexible forms to change its tempo, mood, texture, or form. He is the founder of the Modern Jazz Generation, a multigenerational ensemble that is the realization of his long-standing dedication to training and mentoring younger jazz musicians.
Post Date: 10-31-2023
Jazz Program Events
Musical Traditions in Difficult Times
News + Notes
Department News
New Jazz Ensembles and Workshops:
Jazz Piano Workshop: Francesca Tanksley
Jazz Standards Ensemble I: Eric Person
Jazz Improvisation: Jessica Jones
Jazz Appreciation, Bard Early College: Peter O’Brien
Bard Early College Ensemble, Brooklyn, New York: Greg Glassman
Bard Jazz Studies announces the creation of the Jeff Marx Award for Jazz Studies students demonstrating musical and academic excellence with consideration for inclusivity and financial need. We invite you to share in our excitement and we encourage you to participate by helping to bring this important project to fruition. You can donate online now at https://bardian.bard.edu/register/bcf, or send a check, payable to Bard College with “Jeff Marx Award” in the memo, to:
Bard College
ATTN: Sasha Boak-Kelly
PO Box 5000
Annandale on Hudson, NY 12504
Bard Jazz Studies announces an affiliation with The Bethesda Blues & Jazz Youth Orchestra. The Bard Jazz faculty will be giving ongoing online, and later live, masterclasses to the Youth Orchestra.
Alumni/ae News
Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez '16 appears as the featured vocalist on the first disk of a ten CD set by William Parker titled "The Music of William Parker - Migration of Silence / into and Out of The Tone World" (Centering Records 1020-1029; USA). She is also prominently featured in the glowing New York Times review:
“Listen,” the singer Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez implores in the opening notes of the monumental new boxed set from William Parker, the champion of improvised music, community building and appreciation of beauty.
Parker composed the track as “a map or a mantra” to the outsize collection of music that follows, the 10 CDs of new material that make up the bassist and composer’s recently released “Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World.” For many, free jazz or creative music has a reputation, justified or not, for being off-putting or difficult. But “Listen,” a stirring sliver of a track, declares that we only need to know one thing to enter what Parker has long called “the tone world”: How to hear. The set’s second track, a storming ’70s R&B groove played by jazz trio and string quartet, finds Sokolov-Gonzalez celebrating what Parker believes can happen once our ears are tuned in: “Cosmic funk will save the world.”
Parker, a bandleader and composer who was once declared by The Village Voice “the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time,” explained his conception of a “tone world” over video interview in late January. “When you play music in this world, you’re actually stepping into another world,” he said from his apartment in Lower Manhattan. “No matter what’s happening with you, whether you owe 10 months’ rent, or you’re dealing with some kind of mental anxiety or hardship, the music takes over and you step into the tone world.”
Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez '16 filmed a video with SoFar Sounds and played a show with Starchild & The New Romantic and Rocky Snyda on January 5, 2020, at the Brooklyn Bowl.
Two of our alumni have composed the music for a major film to be released in 2018. Zachary Seman ’11 and Charles Klarsfeld ’11 are credited as composers on The Brits Are Coming. Zach Seman also just completed the score to the new Louis CK film, I Love You Daddy.
Max Pitman ’18 started a new job at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College May 2018 — Company Management Intern at Bard SummerScape 2018, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
Guitarist Miles Sweeney ’18 and drummer/keyboardist Evan Garcia Renart ’12 announce their new record release of Off Road Minivan @offroadminivan Pre-Order their EP here smarturl.it/OffRoadMiniVan.
Zachary Walker-Kahne ’18 started new job teaching piano at The Community Music Space, Red Hook, New York.
Paul Parker ’14 started a new job at Maestrano as a junior software engineer – February 8, 2018.
Faculty News
John Esposito taught masterclasses in July 2023 as a faculty member at the High Peaks Festival: Close Encounters With Music at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts.
Angelica Sanchez’s Nonet recorded and released the album Nighttime Creatures on Pyroclastic Records (October 2023).
Angelica Sanchez received 2023 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship for composition. She spent her residency in Umbria, Italy at Civitella Ranieri. Read more
John Esposito’s Sunjump Records announces a new release from Second Sight titled Tiger Tracks, featuring Dave Douglas on trumpet, Jeff Marx on tenor and soprano saxophone, John Esposito on piano, Allen Murphy on bass, Jeff Siegel on drums, and Frederick Berryhill on percussion. The album was recorded in 1987 at Dreamland Studio in Woodstock, NY by Dave Cook, assisted by Harvey Sorgen. Edited & mastered in 2016 at NRS Catskill, NY by Scott Petito, with John Esposito serving as Executive Producer. The album features cover art by Todd Weinstein and package design by Laura Steele.
John Esposito’s Sunjump Records announces a new release from Sangeeta Michael Berardi called Divine Song, featuring Sangeeta Michael Berardi on guitar, Archie Shepp on tenor saxophone (tracks 1 & 6), Roswell Rudd on trombone (tracks 1, 6, 7, & 8), Mario Pavone on bass (tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8), Eddie Gomez on bass (tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, & 8), and Rashied Ali on drums (tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, & 8). The album was edited and mastered by Scott Petito in 2017 at NRS, in Catskill, NY, and John Esposito served as executive produced by John Esposito. Divine Song features cover art by Sangeeta Michael Berardi and package design by Laura Steele.
Marcus Roberts will be presenting an online masterclass on November 17, 2020 at 6:30 pm. The subject will be “The Jazz Trio”. Introduced by Professor Whitney Slaten.
Gwen Laster has released a new EP entitled Gameboard. It can be found at: gwenlaster.com/gameboard.html. She was also the recipient of the 2019 Arts Mid Hudson Project Grant, the 2018/2019 Jubilation Foundation Grant, and the 2018 Puffin Foundation Grant.
Gwen Laster completed a Residency Project in Denver, Colorado from August 11 to 15, 2019, in collaboration with We Free Strings. Funded by Chamber Music America.
The debut recording of New Muse 4tet with Gwen Laster will be released in October 2019, with funding in part from the Puffin Foundation.
Gwen Laster has received Project Grant funding from Arts Mid Hudson for performance by two string bands—New Muse 4tet and We Free Strings for Classical Connections—Afro Atlantic, 21st century and Beyond. Music featuring 20th/21st century composers and original works as a vehicle for social activism.
Gwen Laster will be performing with New Muse 4tet in concert in Woodstock New York as part of the Maverick Concert series.
Gwen Laster will be embarking upon a Midwest Tour, a New Muse 4tet Residency, and a Leadership role as an Inclusion Facilitator at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. The tour schedule is:
Ann Arbor, Michigan — EP Release.John Esposito has received a grant from the Peter S Reed Foundation to present a concert in summer 2020 and produce a short documentary film of John Esposito & A Book Of Five Rings w an installation by Video Artist Laura Steele.
Chicago, Illinois — EP Release.
Chicago, Illinois — Residency — Ravinia — Reach, Teach, Play.
John Esposito will visit and teach Jazz at the Smolny Institute in St Petersburg, Russia for a week in October 2019.
Bard Jazz Studies welcomes the addition of new Ethnomusicologist Whitney Slaten.
Bard Jazz Studies welcomes the addition of new saxophone instructor Eric Person. www.ericperson.com
Bard Jazz Studies welcomes the addition of two new instrumental instructors: cellist/ composer Akua Dixon (akuadixon.com) and violinist/composer Gwen Laster (www.gwenlaster.com.)
2017 Grant Announcement: Erica Lindsay, composing for the Alchemy Sound Project, is the recipient of the Chamber Music of America 2017 New Jazz Works Commission, made possible with the generous support of the Doris Duke Foundation
Erica Lindsay is Recipient of the Composer Now 2017 Creative Residencies, in partnership with The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Asian Cultural Council.
Erica Lindsay will be collaborating with Tibetan choreographer/dance artist Wangjia Zhaxi in a weeklong residency to take place this November.
Thurman Barker is currently working on a composition for Jazz quintet and orchestra called South Side Suite.
We mark the passing of pianist Cecil Taylor March 15, 1929 – April 5, 2018, a longtime collaborator with percussionist and Bard faculty member Thurman Barker.
Choreographer/ Bard faculty member Peter Kyle premiered his piece Travelers with new music by Bard faculty member John Esposito at the Bard Dance Faculty Concert
Fri April 13 7:30 pm, Saturday April 14 4pm & 7:30 pm, Sunday April 15 4pmWednesday, May 2 John Esposito was interviewed by DJ Rita Ryan at WVKR Vassar College Radio featuring music from his Sunjump Records label. Wvkr.org
Luma Theater, Fisher Center
John Esposito’s Sunjump Records announces new release: Lyra SJCD0016, featuring:
Greg Glassman – trumpetJohn Esposito’s Sunjump Records announces new release: Music Is Love: The Manhattan Sessions SJCD0017, featuring:
Stacey Dillard – tenor & soprano sax
John Esposito – piano
Ira Coleman – bass
Peter O’Brien – drums
Recorded, mixed & mastered 2014 by Scott Petito at NRS, Catskill, NY.
Executive Producer – John Esposito
Interior cover art – Lyra Esposito Steele
Package design – Laura Steele
Sangeeta Michael Berardi – guitarJohn Esposito has a new website for his Sunjump Records label. www.sunjumprecords.com
Joe Diorio – guitar
Vea Williams – vocals
Eddie Gomez – bass
Rashied Ali – drums
Geoffrey Gordon – tabla/percussion
Rahiim Taalib – percussion
Edited & mastered by Scott Petito 2017 at NRS, Catskill, NY
Executive Producer – John Esposito
Cover art – Sangeeta Michael Berardi
Package design – Laura Steele