THE BARD COLLEGE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC FALL 2008 & LECTURES

THE BARD CONSERVATORY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Guillermo Figueroa, conductor with , Laurie Smukler,

PROGRAM

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872 - 1958)

Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra in A minor, Op. 102 Allegro (1833 – 1897) Andante Vivace non troppo Laurie Smukler, violin Joel Krosnick, cello

Intermission

Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60 Adagio; Allegro vivace (1770 –1827) Adagio Menuetto: Allegro Vivace – Trio: Un poco meno allegro Allegro ma non troppo

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2008 3:00 P.M. RICHARD B. FISHER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS SOSNOFF THEATER About the artists

In his sixth season as Music Director of the New Mexico Symphony, Music Director of the Puerto Rico Symphony, Guillermo Figueroa's intense, passionate musicianship and elegant and precise technique have earned him critical acclaim and international recognition, and elevated both organizations to the higher ranks of American orchestras. The American Record Guide praises Figueroa's first recording of works by Berlioz, Ravel and Tchaikovsky with the NMSO: "The NMSO does not concede anything in terms of polish, precision and overall beauty of tone... This is the kind of sound big-name record companies aim for and often miss... one of those surprising little gems that is all the more gratifying because it substantial merit was unexpected." Critical acclaim also followed the debuts of the Puerto Rico Symphony, under Figueroa's baton, at Carnegie Hall in 2003, the Kennedy Center in 2004 and in 2005. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of New Jersey, Memphis, Phoenix, Iceland, Colorado, El Salvador, Xalapa (Mexico), Tucson, Santa Fe, and the , as well as giving many performances conducting the Ballet at . Mr. Figueroa has collaborated with many of the leading artists of our time, including , YoYo Ma, Hilary Hahn, Placido Domingo, Olga Kern, Janos Starker, James Galway, Midori, Horacio Gutierrez, Ben Hepner, Rachel Barton Pine, Pepe Romero, Elmar Oliveira, Ruth Laredo, Gary Graffman, Vladimir Feltsman, Barry Douglas, Jennifer Larmore, Michelle De Young and Salvatore Licitra. A Berlioz specialist, he created the most comprehensive Berlioz Festival in the US in 2003 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of that . Also a renowned violinist, Figueroa is a founding member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. With this group he has been concertmaster and soloist in performances throughout the US, and Asia, and made over fifty recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. In 1995 he gave the world premiere at Carnegie Hall of Concertino for Violin and Orchestra by , written for him and Orpheus. For ten years he was Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet, appearing in over a hundred performances of violin concerti by Barber, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Berg, Adams, Glass, Bach and Brahms. In the 2006-2007 season he will perform with the American Symphony at Lincoln Center, in the world premiere of a violin also written especially for him by composer Harold Farberman. He has appeared at the Santa Fe Festival and the El Paso Pro Musica Chamber Festival. Mr. Figueroa and his violinist wife Valerie Turner are the founders and artistic directors of the highly acclaimed Festival de Musica Rondena chamber series in Albuquerque. As part of Puerto Rico's most distinguished musical family, he has appeared with the Figueroa Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the Kennedy Center. Mr. Figueroa has recorded the Three Violin Sonatas by Bartok for the Eroica Classical label, with Robert Koenig, and an album of virtuoso violin music by Wieniawski, Sarasate and Kreisler for the NMSO label, with pianist Ivonne Figueroa. Mr. Figueroa studied with his father and uncle at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. At the Juilliard School his teachers were Oscar Shumsky and Felix Galimir. His conducting studies were with Harold Farberman in New York.

Laurie Smukler, a member of the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, earned a B.Music degree at the Juilliard School, where she studied with Ivan Galamian. She is an active soloist and recitalist and has established a reputation as one of the finest chamber musicians in the country. In New York, she appears regularly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with the Festival Chamber Music Society and the Bard Music Festival, and in the "Collection in " series, which she codirects, at the Pierpont Morgan Library. Dedicated to teaching as well as performing, she is also professor of violin and head of the string area at the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase, where she is also artistic director of the "Faculty and Friends" concert series. Smukler's wide musical interests include contemporary music, and she has premiered works by many , including , Morton Subotnik, Steven Paulus, , and Bruce Adolphe. She was a founding member of the Mendelssohn String , with which she recorded works by Dvorák, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schoenberg, Weber, and Ran. She has also recorded Dvorák's Terzetto and the Kodaly Serenade with Ira Weller and Krista Bennion-Feeney. She teaches and performs at Kneisel Hall Festival in Blue Hill, Maine, and has been an invited guest at many summer festivals, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Bard Music Festival, Mostly Mozart, the Skaneateles Festival, and the Acadia Festival.

For more than 35 years, cellist Joel Krosnick has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician all over the world. As a member of the Juilliard since 1974, he has performed the great quartet literature throughout , Europe, Asia, and Australia. He has recorded the complete of Beethoven, Bartók, Schoenberg, Janacek, Hindemith, and Brahms, as well as the last 10 Quartets of Mozart, four quartets of , and works of Haydn, Debussy, Ravel, Dutilleux, Berg, Smetana, Franck, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, Verdi, Sibelius, Bach, , , and . In 2008, also as a member of the , Mr. Krosnick was awarded the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award by Chamber Music America. With his sonata partner of over 30 years, pianist , Mr. Krosnick has performed recitals throughout the and Europe. Since 1976, they have given annual series of recitals in New York City at such venues as Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, 's Miller Theatre, and the Juilliard School's Peter Jay Sharp Theater and Paul Recital Hall. In 1987, the Krosnick/Kalish Duo presented a six-concert retrospective of for cello and at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater and at the in Washington, D.C. In the 2005-06 concert season the duo performed the complete Sonatas and Variations for cello and piano by Beethoven; and in 2007-08, Mr. Krosnick and Mr. Kalish presented American Milestones of the last 100 Years, including works of , , Elliott Carter, , , Donald Martino, and Robert Stern. Both presentations were in pairs of recitals at the Juilliard School's Paul Recital Hall. Mr. Krosnick has recorded with Mr. Kalish the complete Sonatas and Variations of Beethoven and the Sonatas of Brahms, as well as works of Poulenc, Prokofiev, Carter, Hindemith, Debussy, Janacek, and Cowell for the Arabesque label. Especially noteworthy is their collaboration on a disc devoted to the cello and piano music of Ralph Shapey. Yet to be released is a CD of Forgotten Americans, featuring music of Ernst Bacon, Hall Overton, Ben Weber, and . Joel Krosnick was born in Connecticut to a family of enthusiastic amateur musicians; his mother was a pianist and his father was a violinist/doctor. His brother, Aaron Krosnick, is a professional violinist — a long time faculty member at Jacksonville University in Florida. Joel Krosnick's principal teachers were William D'Amato, Luigi Silva, Jens Nygaard, and Claus Adam, whom he succeeded in the Juilliard String Quartet. Mr. Krosnick completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia College, where he began his lifelong commitment to contemporary music. While studying at the College, he became involved with living composers and new music, and eventually became a founding member of the Group for Contemporary Music. He has performed and premiered a large number of new works including Donald Martino's Cello Concerto in Cincinnati and in New York (with the Juilliard Orchestra); Ralph Shapey's Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra (with violinist and the composer conducting the Juilliard Orchestra); and Shapey's Concerto for Cello, Piano, and Double String Orchestra (with pianist Gilbert Kalish, and with the composer conducting the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra). In October 1999, Mr. Krosnick premiered Richard Wernick's Cello Concerto No. 2, with Robert Mann conducting the Juilliard Orchestra. In January 2001, he played the Concerto by Sir Donald Francis Tovey in three New York performances with the Jupiter Symphony under the baton of Jens Nygaard. Joel Krosnick's recording of the Sonata for Solo Cello by appears on the CP2 label; and his CD of Roger Sessions' Six Pieces for Solo Cello is presented by Koch Classics. Mr. Krosnick has taught the cello and chamber music since his earliest professional life. He has held professorships at the Universities of Iowa and Massachusetts, and was artist-in-residence at the California Institute of the Arts. Since 1974, he has been on the faculty of the Juilliard School, where, since 1994, he has served as chairman of the cello department. Mr. Krosnick has been associated with the Aspen, Marlboro, Tanglewood, and Yellow Barn Festivals; and he is currently on the faculty of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival. In 2005 he appeared for the third time as a member of the artist faculty of the Piatigorsky Seminar at the University of Southern California. Mr. Krosnick is a recipient of the Chevalier du Violoncelle Award from the Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center at the Indiana University School of Music. He holds honorary doctoral degrees from Michigan State University, Jacksonville University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As a member of the Juilliard String Quartet, he has received numerous Grammy nominations, twice winning the Grammy Award (for the complete Schoenberg Quartets and the Late Quartets of Beethoven). His discs, In the Shadow of World War I and In the Shadow of World War II , with his sonata partner Gilbert Kalish won Indie Awards. The duo's recording of the Brahms Sonatas won the Classical Recording Foundation Award. Joel Krosnick has recorded for the Sony Classical, Nonesuch, Orion, CRI, New World, Koch International, CP2, and Arabesque Labels.