Orchestra Calendars: please check your ASIMUT

Orchestra Fall 2025 – Spring 2026 Seating

Welcome Letter from Director of Orchestra Studies Erica Kiesewetter

Dear Bard Conservatory Orchestra members (including pianists),

Welcome in advance to the Bard Conservatory Orchestra! I am the Director of Orchestral Studies. Nicolas Gomez Amin is our assistant conductor and orchestra assistant, Hsiao-Fang is the orchestra manager, and Viktor is the librarian assistant. We are looking forward to getting to know and hearing you. We would like to tell you a few things about the orchestra to help you to prepare for the rehearsals and concerts.

First of all, here is the list of things you should bring to Bard with you:

All black (long) dress or suit or Tuxedo (Please see below for concert dress code)
White shirt and Black shirt
Black dress shoes (no open toe)
Folding stands
Portable stand light
Tuner and Metronome
Musician earplugs (important!)
String players: mute that stays on instrument
String players: extra set of strings
String players: rehair your bow before you come
Bass players: your own bass stool

As always, we have an exciting season planned for the orchestra; you can see below the repertoire for this academic year. I did want to reach out especially to the freshmen and other new players to give you a heads up about the placement auditions. Usually they are held the first weekend of each semester. These are valuable in and of themselves, as you will be taking many auditions in your lives. This can get you more familiar with the process. I will give an audition prep class for first year students during L & T (date & time TBD), this will give you an idea of how to prepare for the placement audition.

This coming semester there will indeed be auditions (on Sept 5, 6, 7), except for percussion, which will be assigned. The seatings can be found in Orchestral Training and Rep F25-S26 google classroom as they are put up: (please use your bard account to access the google classroom)

https://classroom.google.com/c/NzY2MDEyNzA2OTMx?cjc=4enobb2d

*in case this class link is not working, you can use the class code (4enobb2d) to find our orchestra training google classroom.

Just some details: The auditions are behind a screen to reproduce a professional orchestral audition as much as possible, and to guarantee anonymity. These are heard by a small panel of judges from the faculty, and then those impressions are conveyed to your studio faculty, who confer about the final decision. You are encouraged to get ahold of their comments in the weeks after the audition. The repertoire varies from instrument to instrument; in the strings and harp we tend to have selections from the actual repertoire for the semester. In the winds, brass (and percussion) it may be a mixture or only standard repertoire. Some professors allow for a solo first, some not.

Please find the audition repertoire at the google classroom:

https://classroom.google.com/c/NzY2MDEyNzA2OTMx?cjc=4enobb2d

*If you cannot access any google links in your country, you can use this link to access the audition folder before you arrive on campus: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1QPFcCtzk1uMbNDPexqFoww?pwd=bcom (passcode: bcom)

The main point here is not to fret or worry about this, but to give yourself time to learn the music and do as well as you can. I strongly advise listening to the pieces and even looking at a score online. A good audition shows not only that you know the notes in the right tempo, etc, but that you are showing that you have heard the piece and know how your part fits in. It is more fun to practice that way, too!

In the orchestra, APS and Master degree players are here in a special pre-professional capacity and as such will be asked to play a number of projects besides the regular orchestra and chamber music concerts, and that information about this will be forthcoming.

We know there is a lot of information coming at you, and a lot of emails. You will be able to find lots of handy information, and our orchestra calendar here:

https://bcom.asimut.net/

*please note that all the conservatory schedules are on the asimut system, not google calendar. Please login to ASIMUT to view your daily Conservatory schedule.

Please feel free to email any of us with any questions, and see you soon!

Erica Kiesewetter, Director of Orchestra Studies <[email protected]>
Hsiao-Fang Lin, orchestra manager <[email protected]>
Viktor Toth, librarian assistant <[email protected]>
Nicolas Gomez Amin, assistant conductor and orchestra assistant <[email protected]>

Here is the rep for 2025-2026

October 25, 26

Fisher Center, Bard

October 29

Alice Tully Hall, NYC

Family Weekend Concert with Tan Dun & Leon Botstein

• Tan Dun The Nine

• Beethoven Symphony No. 9 d minor

Dec 13

Fisher Center, Bard

Concert with Leon Botstein

• Mendelssohn Die erste Walpurgisnacht, op. 60

• Copland Symphony 3

Mar 6, 8

Fisher Center, Bard

Opera performance with James Bagwell and Conservatory Vocal Arts Program

• Puccini Gianni Schicchi

• Menotti Amelia Goes To The Ball

April 25

Fisher Center, Bard

Concert with Leon Botstein

• Toru Takemitsu Quotation of Dream

• Debussy La Mer

• Mahler Symphony no 1. D major (Titan)

(optional)

May 9, 10

Fisher Center, Bard

May 12

Carnegie Hall, NYC

Side by Side concert with The Orchestra Now and Leon Botstein

• R. Strauss Alpine Symphony

Please check the seating assignments on google classroom: (it will be updated after the placement audition, please use your Bard email account to access the orchestra training google classroom)

https://classroom.google.com/c/NzY2MDEyNzA2OTMx?cjc=4enobb2d

THE ABSENCE REQUEST FORM

Absence Request Form is available online at:

Bard Conservatory Absence Request Form

https://blogs.bard.edu/conservatory-wiki/resources-and-guides/absence-request/

An Absence Request Form must be submitted and approved by the Conservatory in advance of accepting any outside commitments.

ABSENCES FOR PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Any absence for outside professional activities (even very brief periods of time, e.g., auditions, performances, etc.) will only be deemed an excused absence upon Conservatory approval, following submission of the completed Absence Request Form as stated above. We will do our very best to respond to requests as quickly as possible.

*Important: Students should not accept outside professional engagements that occur during the school year without first receiving permission from the conservatory.

Rehearsal Dress Code

no hats or sunglasses unless you have a doctor’s note or have had Disability Services contact Erica .

Concert Dress Code

Only black or clear water bottles are allowed on stage, no labels should be shown on the bottle.

Category A

Black tuxedo with dinner jacket, white shirt and black bow tie, black socks and polished black shoes.

Category B (this will also be opera performances dress code)

Must be Ankle length black dress (no sheath dress) with full skirt or black full palazzo pants, tailored leg long black pants, or long loose skirt (all black long dress or pants must be leg lengthening without any pattern/ other colors/ decorations) and blouse (sleeves past elbow, no decolletage, no sheer fabric), black hosiery, formal black shoes (no open toe).

Professional black suit without any pattern/other colors/decorations (black dress shirt and blazer, black trouser that are leg lengthening and slightly flared silhouette, black hosiery, formal black shoes (no open toe)

Wide elegant long black pants or long sleeved, wide-leg, black jumpsuit with a black blazer (all black long dress or pants must be leg lengthening without any pattern/other colors/decorations)

No Perfume or strong cologne

No sandals or sneakers

No skinny jeans, leggings, slit skirt