Collaboration between Marcus Roberts, Modern Jazz Generation, and American Symphony Orchestra Listed as “10 Classical Concerts to Stream in December” by New York Times
Premiering December 9, the new film United We Play features three world premieres of works for strings, jazz instrumentals, and piano composed by Marcus Roberts, distinguished visiting professor of music at Bard College, and commissioned by the American Symphony Orchestra. It includes commentary by the composer and ASO Music Director and Bard College President Leon Botstein. “The chance to hear Mr. Roberts’s orchestral language, not yet represented on recordings, is a welcome development,” writes Seth Colter Walls.
Collaboration between Marcus Roberts, Modern Jazz Generation, and American Symphony Orchestra Listed as “10 Classical Concerts to Stream in December” by New York Times
Post Date: 11-29-2020
Bard College Appoints Renowned Pianist and Composer Marcus Roberts as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music
Bard College announces the appointment of award-winning pianist and composer Marcus Roberts as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music for the 2020–21 academic year. A highly acclaimed modern jazz pianist, composer, and educator, Roberts is known throughout the world for his development of an entirely new approach to jazz trio performance as well as for his remarkable ability to blend the jazz and classical idioms.Bard College Appoints Renowned Pianist and Composer Marcus Roberts as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music
Pianist/composer Marcus Roberts has been hailed “the genius of the modern piano”. His life and career have been featured on an episode of the CBS News television show, 60 Minutes, called “The Virtuoso.” The show traced his life from his early roots in Jacksonville and at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind to his remarkable career as a modern jazz pianist, composer, and educator. Roberts grew up in Jacksonville, FL where his mother's gospel singing and the music of the local church left a lasting impact on his own musical style. While he began playing piano at age five after losing his sight, he did not have his first formal lesson until age 12. Despite that late start, he progressed quickly and at age 18, went on to study classical piano at Florida State University with the great Leonidas Lipovetsky. Roberts has won numerous awards and competitions over the years, but the one that is most personally meaningful to him is the Helen Keller Award for Personal Achievement.
Roberts is known throughout the world for his development of an entirely new approach to jazz trio performance as well as for his remarkable ability to blend the jazz and classical idioms to create something wholly new. His critically acclaimed legacy of recorded music reflects this tremendous artistic versatility with recordings ranging from solo piano, duets, and trio to large ensembles and symphony orchestra. His popular DVD recording with the Berlin Philharmonic showcases his groundbreaking arrangement of Gershwin's “Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra”. One of Roberts’ more recent musical projects is the founding of a new band called The Modern Jazz Generation. This multigenerational ensemble is the realization of Roberts’ long-standing dedication to training and mentoring younger jazz musicians. Roberts is also an associate professor of music at the School of Music at Florida State University and he holds an honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Juilliard School.
In addition to his renown as a performer, Roberts is also an accomplished composer who has received numerous commissioning awards from such places as Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, ASCAP, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Savannah Music Festival, Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra (who commissioned him to write his second piano concerto, “Rhapsody in D for Piano and Orchestra”), and most recently, the American Symphony Orchestra.
Post Date: 10-13-2020
Ran Blake ’60 Named a Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association
Pianist and composer Ran Blake ’60 is the 2020 recipient of the Boston Jazz Hero award from the Jazz Journalists Association. Blake is one of 27 jazz heroes in 23 cities across the country chosen as “activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz.”Ran Blake ’60 Named a Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association
Post Date: 05-20-2020
Jazz Program Events
Musical Traditions in Difficult Times
News + Notes
Department News
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 annandaleonline.org/MarxAward, 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 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’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