News and Events
November and December concerts and recitals will feature orchestral, choral, and chamber performances
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—The Vassar Music Department will present a wide array of choral, orchestral, and chamber music programs during the months of November and December, culminating with the annual “A Service of Lessons and Carols,” on December 7 in the Chapel.
Unless otherwise noted, the concerts will take place in the Skinner Hall of Music at Vassar College. All the programs are free and open to the public, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis.
November 1-2, 2008
The month of November will open with a recital by the acclaimed Colorado Quartet, who will perform music of Beethoven, Ginastera, and Brahms. “This is a first-class ensemble that rises with panache to meet every challenge in the music,” noted the Washington Post. Violinists Julie Rosenfeld and D. Lydia Redding; violist Marka Gustavsson; and cellist Diane Chaplin form the Quartet that is recognized on four continents as one of the finest string quartets on the international scene. Winners of both the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, their performances are noted for their musical integrity, impassioned playing and lyrical finesse. In addition to the concert on Saturday, November 1, at 8:00 pm, the Colorado Quartet will also present a master class featuring students of the Music Department on Sunday, November 2, at 11:00 am.
The Vassar Camerata, conducted by Mary E. Alexander ‘09 and Emily Bookwalter ’10, will present a program on Sunday, November 2, at 3:00 pm. The Camerata, founded in 2004, is the college’s only student-run Baroque ensemble and performs all types of early music from before 1800. The ensemble includes approximately forty-five instrumentalists and singers, who rehearse and perform using eighteenth-century performance practices.
November 8-9, 2008
The following weekend on Saturday, November 8, at 1:30 pm, there will be a Senior Recital with Bradley Klein, piano. He will perform the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Scriabin. The Vassar College Women’s Chorus, conducted by Christine Howlett, will perform Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest by Conrad Susa at 8:00 pm. The program will feature members of the music faculty: Frank Cassara, marimba; Terry Champlin, guitar; and Bridget Kibbey, harp. The Women’s Chorus is an auditioned ensemble that was formed in the fall of 1997, which revived a tradition from Vassar’s past in the context of Vassar’s present co-educational mission. Presenting concerts on and off-campus, the Women’s Chorus recently toured Puerto Rico and Turkey, and performed opera choruses with the Vassar College Orchestra and recording a live CD of their final concert.
The Vassar Mahagonny Ensemble, conducted by Mark Van Hare ‘10 and Ashley Alter ‘10, will perform works by Ives and Weill on Sunday, November 9, at 3:00 pm. Founded in 2000 with a performance of the Kurt Weill operetta, Mahagonny Songspiel, the ensemble is a completely student-run and dedicated to promoting the creativity of instrumentalists, singers, and composers interested in performing and writing contemporary classical music. The ensemble’s goal is to give a voice to unique works from the last 100 years that may otherwise not be heard at Vassar.
November 15-16, 2008
Members of REBEL Ensemble for Baroque Music, will return to campus following their September performance to present a master class, featuring students of the Music Department on Saturday, November 15, at 12:00 pm. That evening at 8:00 pm in the Vassar Chapel, the Vassar College Choir, conducted by Christine Howlett, will perform Fauré’s Requiem, Op. 48, as well music by Poulenc, Debussy, and Lauridsen. The Botticelli Chamber Players will join the Choir as special guest ensemble. The Vassar College Choir is an auditioned mixed choral ensemble of approximately fifty singers that performs on and off campus and recently toured in Italy and Germany. The members of the Botticelli Chamber Players live and perform in the Hudson Valley and are members of several orchestras, including the Hudson Valley Philharmonic.
Lively, energetic pieces written by popular composers will highlight the program of the Vassar College and Community Wind Ensemble, conducted by James Osborn, on Sunday, November 16, at 3:00 pm. The ensemble will perform Franz von Suppe’s “Poet and Peasant Overture; Tchaikovsky’s “Cossak Dance,” from The Slippers; Howard Hanson’s “Triumphal Ode”; and Frank Ticheli’s “Blue Shades.” Founded in 2001, the ensemble is comprised of 50 student and community musicians.
November 22-23, 2008
A Senior Recital by Nicholas Herbert, tenor, will feature music of Mozart, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich. The program by Herbert, assisted by Gregg Michalak, piano, will begin at 4:00 pm on Saturday, November 22. On Saturday evening at 8:00 pm, the Vassar College Orchestra, conducted by Eduardo Navega, will perform the overture to Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga’s Los Esclavos Felices; Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, Op. 50; Claude Debussy’s Dances Sacrée et Profane, featuring harpist Bridget Kibbey, an adjunct artist of the music faculty; and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120. A full symphony orchestra of about 60 students, the Vassar College Orchestra performs two or three concerts per semester of master works of the symphonic repertoire, which are selected to focus on the technical and musical development of the students.
On Sunday, November 23, at 3:00 pm, the Vassar College Madrigal Singers, directed by Drew Minter, will perform The Berlin Mass by Arvo Pärt, as well as works by Pärt, Britten, and Josquin des Près. Gail Archer and Darren Motise, organists, will be featured. The ensemble includes singers whose musical and vocal skills are already significantly developed.
December 4-7, 2008
The Vassar College Music Colloquium will present a lecture by former music producer at the BBC, Misha Donat, on Thursday, December 4, at 5:00 pm in Thekla Hall. Donat will speak on the “Notions of Time in the Music of Elliott Carter.”
The Vassar College Jazz Ensemble, conducted by James Osborn, will perform on Friday, December 5, at 8:00 pm. Founded in 1984 by its conductor James Osborn, it is a 22 piece ensemble of student musicians playing saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano, double bass, guitar, and drums.
Arielle Guterman, soprano, and Sasha Steinberg, baritone, will be featured in a Senior Recital on Saturday, December 6, at 4:00 pm. Richard Mogavero, piano, will assist Guterman and Steinberg.
The concluding concert in the 2008 series will be on Sunday, December 7, at 7:00 pm, in the Vassar Chapel with the annual A Service of Lessons and Carols. Advent and Christmas readings will be given by students, faculty, administration, and staff of Vassar College. The service will include performances by the Vassar College Choir, Women’s Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and Capella Festiva Chamber and Treble Choir; Christine Howlett, Drew Minter, and Susan Bialek, conductors.
December 13, 2008
The final senior recital offered in the 2008 series will be on Saturday, December 13, at 1:30 pm. Soprano Allison Ross, assisted by Miriam Charney, will perform works by Purcell, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, and Donizetti.
For additional information and details on all Vassar College Department of Music concerts, please call (845) 437-7294 or visit the website http://music.vassar.edu/concerts. The Skinner Hall of Music at Vassar College is wheelchair-accessible. People with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact the Office of Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370. Free parking is available at Skinner Hall, and the campus’s adjoining south parking lot. Directions to the Vassar campus are available at www.vassar.edu/directions.
Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.
Concert Schedule:
Please note that all programs are subject to change.
Saturday, November 1, at 8:00 pm
Colorado Quartet
Music of Beethoven, Ginastera, and Brahms
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Sunday, November 2, at 11:00 am
Master Class with members of the Colorado Quartet
Featuring students of the Music Department
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Sunday, November 2, at 3:00 pm
Vassar Camerata
Mary E. Alexander ‘09 and Emily Bookwalter ’10, conductors
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Saturday, November 8, at 1:30 pm
Senior Recital: Bradley Klein, piano
Music of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Scriabin
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Saturday, November 8, at 8:00 pm
Vassar College Women’s Chorus
Christine Howlett, conductor
Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest by Conrad Susa, featuring members of the music faculty: Frank Cassara, marimba; Terry Champlin, guitar; and Bridget Kibbey, harp.
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Sunday, November 9, at 3:00 pm
Vassar Mahagonny Ensemble
Mark Van Hare ‘10 and Ashley Alter ‘10, conductors
Music of Ives and Weill
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Saturday, November 15, at 12:00 pm
Master Class with members of the ensemble REBEL
Featuring students of the Music Department
Chapel, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Saturday, November 15, at 8:00 pm
Vassar College Choir
Christine Howlett, conductor
Fauré’s Requiem, Op. 48, with music by Poulenc, Debussy, and Lauridsen. With guest ensemble, The Botticelli Chamber Players
Chapel, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Sunday, November 16, at 3:00 pm
Vassar College and Community Wind Ensemble
James Osborn, conductor
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Saturday, November 22, at 4:00 pm
Senior Recital: Nicholas Herbert, tenor
Assisted by Gregg Michalak, piano
Music of Mozart, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Saturday, November 22, at 8:00 pm
Vassar College Orchestra
Eduardo Navega, conductor
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Sunday, November 23, at 3:00 pm
Vassar College Madrigal Singers
Drew Minter, director
The Berlin Mass by Arvo Pärt, with other works by Pärt, Britten, and Josquin des Près. With Gail Archer and Darren Motise, organists.
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Thursday, December 4, at 5:00 pm
Vassar College Music Colloquium
“Notions of Time in the Music of Elliott Carter”
Misha Donat, lecturer
Thekla Hall
Friday, December 5, at 8:00 pm
Vassar College Jazz Ensemble
James Osborn, conductor
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Saturday, December 6, at 4:00 pm
Senior Recital: Arielle Guterman, soprano, and Sasha Steinberg, baritone
Assisted by Richard Mogavero, piano
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Sunday, December 7, at 7:00 pm
A Service of Lessons and Carols
Vassar College Choir, Women’s Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and Capella Festiva Chamber and Treble Choir
Christine Howlett, Drew Minter, Susan Bialek, conductors
Chapel, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Saturday, December 13, at 1:30 pm
Senior Recital: Allison Ross, soprano.
Assisted by Miriam Charney.
Music of Purcell, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, and Donizetti.
Skinner Hall of Music, Vassar College
845-437-7294 or music.vassar.edu/concerts
Posted by College Relations Wednesday, December 31, 1969
About the Arts
Powerhouse Theater
The Powerhouse Theater is a collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College. It is dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film. During an intense eight-week summer residency on the Vassar campus, up to twenty different projects are publicly presented, typically engaging more than 200 professional artists and theater students. Plays, musicals, and screenplays are presented in a variety of forms: readings, workshops, and fully staged productions. Since the first Powerhouse Theater season in 1985, New York Stage and Film and Vassar have served more than 2,000 artists and over 175,000 audience members through the development and production of artistically exceptional and affordably priced performances.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Located just inside Vassar's Main Gate, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center houses the college's permanent collection, over 18,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares, charting the history of art from antiquity to the present. The Permanent Collection Galleries feature 350 works, ranging from the sculpted Head of Viceroy Merymose from His Outer Sarcophagus (Egyptian, c 1375 BCE) in the Antiquities Gallery to Marsden Hartley's oil on canvas Indian Composition (1914-15) in the Twentieth Century Gallery. For information on current and upcoming special exhibitions, self-guided and curriculum-based tours, and group visits, please visit the website. The art center is open to the public, and admission is free.
James W. Palmer Gallery
Located in the College Center in Main Building, the James W. Palmer III '90 Gallery presents eight shows annually, including exhibitions by renowned artists and photographers, studio art faculty and students, and local arts organizations. Recent highlights included Andrea Baldeck’s black-and-white photo exhibit, Touching the Mekong: A Southeast Asian Sojourn, organized by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Vassar Haiti Project’s annual exhibition and auction of imported arts and handcrafts; and Design Inside, showcasing the work of Vassar’s College Relations design team. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. For information on upcoming exhibitions, visit the website or call (845) 437-5370.
Music Department
Located in the Belle Skinner Hall of Music, the Martel Recital Hall is wonderfully suited, both acoustically and aesthetically, to music performance. With seating for 500, the Martel is home to the Vassar College Orchestra, Choir, Women's Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and numerous chamber groups and ensembles. The Martel concert schedule routinely includes distinguished guest artists, faculty recitals, senior recitals, and special musical events, such as last year's series of organ recitals celebrating the installation and dedication of the college's superb pipe organ, designed by masterbuilder Paul Fritts. For information on upcoming concerts and events (which are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted), please visit the website.
Dance Department
The Department of Dance sponsors several public performances each year. Among those, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) has a series of Works in Progress showings in the fall, a winter Modfest performance in conjunction with the The Department of Music, winter galas at the 1869 Bardavon Opera House, and two All Parents Weekend performances in the spring. The department's Master Class program annually invites at least one ballet and one modern expert to campus in addition to two people in other areas of dance. Public performances and lectures are often associated with these renowned visitors. Guest artists in the past have included: Irina Kolpokova, Arthur Mitchell, Helene Alexopoulos, Gregory Hines, Anna Kisselgoff, Donald Byrd, Edward Villella, Ronald K. Brown, Irene Dowd, Allegra Kent, Gelsey Kirkland, Pilobolus w/Adam Battlestein, Suzanne Farrell, Mummenschantz, Eldar Aliev, Deborah Jowitt, Bill T. Jones, Pascal Rioult, Clinton Luckett of ABT, Bill Irwin, and Donald McKayle. Many of the department's dance performances are in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, located in Kenyon Hall.