LEON BOTSTEIN CONDUCTS THE CONSERVATORY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA IN CONCERT ON FEBRUARY 16 AT THE FISHER CENTER

Free Program in the Acoustically Superb Fisher Center Features Soloists
Violinist Erica Kiesewetter, Cellist Robert Martin, and Pianist Blair McMillen

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Leon Botstein leads the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra in a concert in the acoustically superb Sosnoff Theater of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, February 16, at 8:00 p.m. The program is free and open to the public and is presented by The Bard College Conservatory of Music in conjunction with the two-and-a-half-day reunion of Hungarian freedom fighters and the conference, “The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and After: Impact and Contributions.”

The program features Ludwig van Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Op. 84, is considered a symbolic anthem for the Hungarian’s struggle for freedom during the Revolution of 1956; Bohuslav Martinu’s Piano Trio and String Orchestra Concertino with violinist Erica Kiesewetter, cellist Robert Martin, and pianist Blair McMillen; Antonín Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8; and Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2.

“The superb performance of these musicians with their fabulous technique and music-making from the heart made one think that the past is now yielding to a new fresh beauty of its own,” says John Paul Keeler, writing of an earlier performance of the Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. “I believe Beethoven himself would applaud their performance.”