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Steely Dan: Celebrating Bard’s Iconic Alumni
More than 50 years after Donald Fagen and Walter Becker first met at Bard College, the College’s elite musicians come together for a first-of-its-kind concert celebrating the music of Steely Dan. Featuring a full rhythm section, horns, and background singers, the band will perform a selection of Steely Dan’s high-fidelity hits in exacting detail. Streamed live from Olin Hall in 2023.
Music Program Events
- 9/08Tuesday6:30 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
An evening of Jazz with Marilyn Crispell and Angelica Sanchez.Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Marilyn Crispell and Angelica Sanchez, piano duo
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Jazz at Bard proudly presents an evening with two of the most distinctive voices in creative music: Marilyn Crispell and Bard College's own Angelica Sanchez.
This performance brings that acclaimed partnership to the stage, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience the artistry behind How to Turn the Moon live. Moving fluidly between composition and improvisation, Crispell and Sanchez create music of intimacy, intensity, and discovery, demonstrating the boundless expressive possibilities of the piano duo.
Join us after the concert for a wine and cheese reception.
Tickets for the evening performance and reception start at $60 per person. Proceeds benefit Jazz at Bard.
A centerpiece of this collaboration is their celebrated duo recording, How to Turn the Moon (Pyroclastic Records). Recognized in NPR's Critics Poll as one of the Top 50 Recordings of 2020, the album showcases an extraordinary musical dialogue between Crispell and Sanchez. Through expansive improvisations, subtle textures, and profound listening, the recording reveals the deep artistic connection shared by these two remarkable pianists.
An NEA Jazz Master, 2025 and 2026 Mellon Foundation Jazz Legacy Fellow, Marilyn Crispell has forged a singular musical language shaped by deep lyricism, fearless improvisation, and a lifelong commitment to artistic exploration. Her work with Anthony Braxton, Reggie Workman, Joe Lovano, Wadada Leo Smith, and many others has established her as one of the most influential pianists and composers in contemporary creative music. For more than four decades, Crispell has remained a pioneering force in avant-garde jazz, creating music that is both adventurous and deeply expressive.
Joining her is Bard's own Angelica Sanchez, an acclaimed composer, pianist, and educator whose music seamlessly integrates intricate compositional structures with the spontaneity of improvisation. A leading voice in modern creative music, Sanchez has collaborated with artists including Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Motian, Nicole Mitchell, Joe Lovano, Tim Berne, and Billy Hart. Her recordings have received widespread critical acclaim, with Sparkle Beings named one of The New York Times' Top Ten Jazz Recordings of 2022 and Nighttime Creatures selected among DownBeat's Best Recordings of 2023. - 9/08Tuesday6:30 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Marilyn Crispell and Angelica Sanchez: Piano Duo
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
An NEA Jazz Master, 2025 and 2026 Mellon Foundation Jazz Legacy Fellow, Marilyn Crispell has forged a singular musical language shaped by deep lyricism, fearless improvisation, and a lifelong commitment to artistic exploration. Her work with Anthony Braxton, Reggie Workman, Joe Lovano, Wadada Leo Smith, and many others has established her as one of the most influential pianists and composers in contemporary creative music. For more than four decades, Crispell has remained a pioneering force in avant-garde jazz, creating music that is both adventurous and deeply expressive.
Joining her is Bard's own Angelica Sanchez, an acclaimed composer, pianist, and educator whose music seamlessly integrates intricate compositional structures with the spontaneity of improvisation. A leading voice in modern creative music, Sanchez has collaborated with artists including Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Motian, Nicole Mitchell, Joe Lovano, Tim Berne, and Billy Hart. Her recordings have received widespread critical acclaim, with Sparkle Beings named one of The New York Times' Top Ten Jazz Recordings of 2022 and Nighttime Creatures selected among DownBeat's Best Recordings of 2023.
A centerpiece of this collaboration is their celebrated duo recording, How to Turn the Moon (Pyroclastic Records). Recognized in NPR's Critics Poll as one of the Top 50 Recordings of 2020, the album showcases an extraordinary musical dialogue between Crispell and Sanchez. Through expansive improvisations, subtle textures, and profound listening, the recording reveals the deep artistic connection shared by these two remarkable pianists.
This performance brings that acclaimed partnership to the stage, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience the artistry behind How to Turn the Moon live. Moving fluidly between composition and improvisation, Crispell and Sanchez create music of intimacy, intensity, and discovery, demonstrating the boundless expressive possibilities of the piano duo.
Tickets start at $60. To reserve your seat, visit bardian.bard.edu/register/eveningofjazz26.
Music Program Newsroom
Bard College Presents an Evening of Jazz with Marilyn Crispell and Angelica Sanchez on September 8
Jazz at Bard, by the Bard College music program, will present an evening with two of the most distinctive voices in creative music, Marilyn Crispell, jazz pianist and composer, and Angelica Sanchez, assistant professor of music at Bard. The performance will be held on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory building on Bard’s Annandale campus. A centerpiece of this collaboration is their celebrated duo recording, How to Turn the Moon.
Bard College Presents an Evening of Jazz with Marilyn Crispell and Angelica Sanchez on September 8
The performance will be held on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the László Z. Bitó ’60 Conservatory building on Bard’s Annandale campus. Tickets start at $60. The concert will be followed with a wine and cheese reception, and all proceeds will benefit Jazz at Bard. To purchase tickets, please visit here.
Crispell, an NEA Jazz Master and 2025 and 2026 Mellon Foundation Jazz Legacy Fellow, has forged a singular musical language shaped by deep lyricism, fearless improvisation, and a lifelong commitment to artistic exploration. Her work with Anthony Braxton, Reggie Workman, Joe Lovano, Wadada Leo Smith, and many others has established her as one of the most influential pianists and composers in contemporary creative music. For more than four decades, Crispell has remained a pioneering force in avant-garde jazz, creating music that is both adventurous and deeply expressive.
Sanchez is an acclaimed composer, pianist, and educator whose music seamlessly integrates intricate compositional structures with the spontaneity of improvisation. A leading voice in modern creative music, Sanchez has collaborated with artists including Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Motian, Nicole Mitchell, Joe Lovano, Tim Berne, and Billy Hart. Her recordings have received widespread critical acclaim, with Sparkle Beings named one of The New York Times' Top Ten Jazz Recordings of 2022 and Nighttime Creatures selected among DownBeat's Best Recordings of 2023.
A centerpiece of this collaboration is their celebrated duo recording, How to Turn the Moon (Pyroclastic Records). Recognized in NPR's Critics Poll as one of the Top 50 Recordings of 2020, the album showcases an extraordinary musical dialogue between Crispell and Sanchez. Through expansive improvisations, subtle textures, and profound listening, the recording reveals the deep artistic connection shared by these two remarkable pianists. This performance brings that acclaimed partnership to the stage, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience the artistry behind How to Turn the Moon live. Moving fluidly between composition and improvisation, Crispell and Sanchez create music of intimacy, intensity, and discovery, demonstrating the boundless expressive possibilities of the piano duo.
Post Date: 08-13-2026
Bard Faculty Member Gwen Laster Awarded a MacDowell Fellowship
Gwen Laster, visiting artist in residence in music at Bard College, has been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship to the MacDowell Residency Program in the Music Composition category for spring/summer 2026. While in residence, Laster will complete work on her project, “Is My Black Still Beautiful: Reflections on a Childhood in Detroit,” a mixed-media staged play with original music, storytelling, dance, and projected visuals.Bard Faculty Member Gwen Laster Awarded a MacDowell Fellowship
Laster’s project explores the global complexities of Colorism, a discriminatory practice within one’s own ethnic group based on a person’s complexion and skin tone, through the lens of a Black girl reared during the post–civil rights movement in Detroit. The music spans various genres from contemporary classical to Motown, blues, soul, R&B, and jazz—both free and traditional. “Is My Black Still Beautiful” will premiere in New York City on July 23 at Mabou Mines,and on September 26–27 at the Philipstown Depot Theater.
The Music Program, one of the largest programs on Bard’s campus, provides a wide range of musical concentrations, from classical composition and performance to jazz, electronic music, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory.
Post Date: 06-26-2026
Bard Musician Franz Nicolay Testifies in Congress
Franz Nicolay, visiting instructor of music at Bard College, spoke at a Congressional hearing about a Live Nation/Ticketmaster antitrust case, reported Chronogram. The case concerned the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster which has resulted in a monopoly on event ticket sales in the United States.Bard Musician Franz Nicolay Testifies in Congress
“We, as artists, simply don’t have the range of city-to-city, venue-to-venue choices that would constitute a healthy ecosystem,” Nicolay continued. “It’s a problem of affordability, in an economic climate which, through drastically increasing gas prices, airfare, postage and international shipping fees for merchandise, and hardening borders, is making the touring on which our livings depend increasingly unaffordable for musicians. And that increased overhead… has a corresponding effect on affordability and access for fans.”
The Music Program, one of the largest programs on Bard’s campus, provides a wide range of musical concentrations, from classical composition and performance to jazz, electronic music, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory.
Read more in Chronogram
Further Reading in Rural Intelligence
Post Date: 06-02-2026
More Music News
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Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli Profiled in the New York Times
Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli Profiled in the New York Times
Bard Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli was profiled in a New York Times article about the Luna Composition Lab, the mentorship program she founded with fellow composer Ellen Reid. They founded the lab after they realized they’d never experienced female mentorship in composing. “We took a good hard look at what we wished we had had,” said Mazzoli, and the two asked themselves, “What can we do to make this more diverse, more vital, more alive, more fun?” The Lab, which turns 10 this year, matches young and experienced composers who are female, nonbinary or gender nonconforming, and mentees receive eight months of mentorship and attend a music festival in New York. Now, Mazzoli and Reid are organizing musical events for LunaLab@10, an anniversary celebration of the program and its expanded reach. “We want the field to expand,” said Mazzoli, “and so bringing in gender diversity, racial diversity, economic income diversity, geographic diversity helps [the] field survive and thrive.”
Mazzoli is a Grammy-nominated composer and musician who has written operas including Lincoln in the Bardo and Proving Up that are based on contemporary literature. She teaches in the Bard College Conservatory of Music, which provides the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music.
Post Date: 05-28-2026
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James Bagwell Named Principal Conductor of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and Berkshire Bach Society
James Bagwell Named Principal Conductor of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and Berkshire Bach Society
Professor of Music James Bagwell, director of the music program at Bard College and director of performance studies in the Bard College Conservatory of Music, has been announced as the principal conductor of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, as well as principal conductor and director of choral music at the Berkshire Bach Society. Bagwell will assume a central artistic leadership role with Tulsa Symphony, helping shape programming and performances as the orchestra continues to expand its artistic vision and community impact. Bagwell was recognized by both organizations for the role he has played over the past two decades in creating a consistent record of excellence in choral performance. “These two appointments mark the culmination of a long artistic association with the Tulsa Symphony and Berkshire Bach,” said Bagwell. “I look forward to many more years of artistic collaborations with these two prestigious organizations.”
He has been a regular guest conductor for the Tulsa Symphony since 2007, leading it in performances of Mozart’s Requiem and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, returning in subsequent seasons to conduct Britten’s War Requiem, and Mahler’s First Symphony. “We are thrilled to welcome James Bagwell as principal conductor of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra,” said Morgan Walker, executive director of Tulsa. “His long-standing relationship with the orchestra, combined with his depth of experience and artistic leadership, makes him the ideal partner as we look ahead to an exciting new chapter.”
Bagwell, who additionally serves as codirector of the Bard Conservatory Graduate Program in conducting and is associate conductor of The Orchestra Now (TŌN), also frequently appears as a guest conductor for orchestras around the country and abroad, including the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Interlochen Music Festival, and the Jerusalem Symphony. “I’ve long admired James Bagwell’s work as a choral conductor,” said Eugene Drucker, artistic director of Berkshire Bach, “specifically in the Berkshire Bach Society vocal concerts for which I’ve had the pleasure of serving as his concertmaster, and more generally in his meticulous preparation of the chorus for opera productions at Bard College’s Summerscape and for oratorio performances with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.”
The Music Program, one of the largest programs on Bard’s campus, provides a wide range of musical concentrations, from classical composition and performance to jazz, electronic music, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory.
Post Date: 05-12-2026
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Professor Franz Nicolay Reviews Burning Down the House, A New Book About the Talking Heads, for the Wall Street Journal
Professor Franz Nicolay Reviews Burning Down the House, A New Book About the Talking Heads, for the Wall Street Journal
“To make a music scene you need four things,” writes Franz Nicolay, visiting instructor of music at Bard College: “cheap housing, recent art-school graduates, a stage where anyone can play, and a small clique of young critics eager to discover a new subculture.” The Talking Heads, the subject of Burning Down the House by Jonathan Gould, had all four. In a review of Gould’s book for the Wall Street Journal, Nicolay praises the work’s unwillingness to oversimplify, saying Gould is “especially interested in skewering the mythology of downtown.” While the book “remains a largely unflattering portrait of the band,” it tracks the “almost magical, barely explicable, transformation of a group” that, says Nicolay, “has to be a candidate in the perennial conversation about the greatest American rock band.”
The Music Program provides a wide range of musical concentrations, from classical composition and performance to jazz, electronic music, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory. The music faculty all maintain highly visible careers outside academia, nationally and internationally.
Post Date: 01-27-2026
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Bard Conservatory and Music Faculty and Alumni/ae Nominated for 2026 GRAMMY Awards
Bard Conservatory and Music Faculty and Alumni/ae Nominated for 2026 GRAMMY Awards
A Bard College Music Program faculty member and three Conservatory of Music alumni/ae have been nominated for the 2026 GRAMMY Awards. Gwen Laster, visiting artist in residence, is nominated in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for Lights on a Satellite recorded with Sun Ra Arkestra. Devony Smith VAP ’14, is nominated in the category of Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for her album In This Short Life with pianist Danny Zelibor. Julia Bullock VAP ’11, is also a featured artist on the album Schubert/Beatles, nominated in the same category. Eri Nakamura CPF ’15, a member of the Neave Trio, is nominated in the category of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their album, La Mer: French Piano Trios. The 2026 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 68th GRAMMY Awards, will take place on Sunday, February 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The Bard College campus is awash in music—by all accounts, one of the school’s most distinctive features. The Music Program, one of the largest programs on campus, provides a wide range of musical concentrations, and the Bard Conservatory aims to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music.
Post Date: 11-25-2025
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Two Bard College Faculty Awarded New York State Council on the Arts Grants
Two Bard College Faculty Awarded New York State Council on the Arts Grants
Two members of the Bard College undergraduate faculty, Tanya Marcuse, associate professor of photography, and Sarah Hennies, assistant professor of music, have been awarded 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships, a highly competitive program of the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Marcuse received a fellowship in the category of Photography for Portent, Part II of her larger project Book of Miracles, and Hennies received a fellowship in the category of Music/Sound for her ongoing work as a composer and percussionist exploring the intersections of sound, perception, and social identity. Marcuse is one of 24 Fellows in Photography, selected from 951 applicants; Hennies is one of 22 Fellows in Music/Sound, selected from 1,015 applicants.
In Portent, Marcuse visualizes phenomena that defy the laws of nature by staging fantastical scenes in swamps, rivers, and orchards near her home in the Hudson Valley. Conceived during the Covid-19 pandemic, her project reflects the instability of our world while expanding photography’s ability to navigate the ambiguous terrain between fact and fiction. She is currently preparing a book and several exhibitions of the project. In addition, Marcuse has been named one of five Joy of Giving Something (JGS) Fellows, which supports contributors to the photographic arts.
Throughout her fellowship, Hennies will continue to develop new pieces that challenge conventional boundaries between music, sound art, and lived experience. Her compositions often take the form of immersive, durational works that foreground subtle shifts in rhythm, resonance, and timbre. Her projects engage themes of queer and trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the politics of listening, inviting audiences into heightened awareness of time and embodiment. In a separate honor, Hennies has been named the 2025 Composer in Residence for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, taking place in Huddersfield, England in November.
Each year, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship provides a lens for contemporary artistic expression. The themes, ideas, and materials used by the 2025 Fellows reflect and respond to the larger social, political, and economic issues of today. Artists across categories are exploring topics including diasporic and immigrant identity; gender, race, and sexuality; environmental and disability justice; and civic engagement.
Post Date: 08-29-2025
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Bard Alumnus and Jazz Pianist Ran Blake ’60 Profiled in the Boston Globe
Bard Alumnus and Jazz Pianist Ran Blake ’60 Profiled in the Boston Globe
Jazz pianist and Bard College alumnus Ran Blake ’60 was interviewed by the Boston Globe for an article covering the artist’s career, which has spanned more than 60 years, and how he at 90 is preparing to perform a solo concert in Brookline, MA, this September. Blake, whose career has yielded over 40 recording credits on jazz albums, has also spent over 40 years teaching jazz at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where he cofounded and led the Department of Third Stream, now called the Department of Contemporary Improvisation. “Ran gave me the freedom to find myself in jazz standards,” said Portuguese singer Sara Serpa, who studied with Blake at NEC and collaborated on an album with him, adding that he “really gave me permission to find myself in the songs, to create my own stories.”Blake also spent years bringing music programming to the public as NEC’s community services director, telling the Globe, “It was very important to send music to where the people are and encourage them to play.”
Post Date: 08-27-2025