Orchestra Calendars: please check your ASIMUT

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. Hsiao-Fang is the orchestra manager, Viktor is the librarian assistant, and Emanuel Cohen is the orchestra assistant. We are looking forward to getting to know and hearing you. We would like to tell you 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 Fall 2024. 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 (7pm, August 15 in Bito CPS), this will give you an idea of how to prepare the placement audition.

This coming semester there will indeed be auditions (on Sept 6, 7 and 8), but in certain sections where there are many known players who have already won principal spots the first concert will be assigned. The seatings can be found here as they are put up: (please use your bard account to access this link)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pykabVNly5X5kuQJOlieZUBtf27m2zSl4f7kkumM8qQ/edit?usp=sharing

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 a hold 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 here:

Fall 2024 Audition Repertoire (please use your Bard account to access the list)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kb2M3tP7jWdRWgD7rIXYDP9oc6BcY0wv?usp=share_link

*If you cannot access any google folder, you can use this link to access the audition folder:

https://pan.baidu.com/s/1hH6B2X89Gxx8mLiYKa4dxQ?pwd=6uxv (passcode: 6uxv)

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://blogs.bard.edu/conservatory-wiki/home/conservatory-calendars/

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

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

Here is the rep for Spring 2025

March 15

Leon Botstein

Brahms Variations on a theme by Haydn, op56A

Mozart Concerto in c minor , n 24 , K 491 with Tianxiang Ni

George Perle 6′ Bagatelles (1965)

Franck Symphony in d minor

May 10

Tan Dun

Ravel Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose suite)

Debussy Clarinet Rhapsody with Mohammad AbdNikfarjam

Ravel Boléro

Mussorgsky Pictures (Ravel’s orchestration)

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.

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

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