Music Department

Presented by members of the music department faculty: Gail Archer, organ, Trevor Babb, guitar, Anna Elashvili, violin, James Osborn, trumpet, and Thomas Sauer, piano.

Luis Perdomo, piano, is joined by Mimi Jones on bass, and Mark Whitfield, Jr. on drums.The Village Voice praises Venezuelan-born pianist Luis Perdomo as “a rather amazing improviser...making a name for himself by feverishly assaulting the progressive edge of mainstream.” Perdomo studied both classical and jazz piano and is featured on over 120 recordings. The concert will feature original compositions and jazz standards. A Barbara Woods Morgan Event.

Faculty member Dr. Christopher Brellochs presents original repertoire for the saxophone in solo and chamber configurations spanning 149 years. Featuring a virtuosic composition by former Vassar faculty member Clair Leonard (1933-47), Dr. Brellochs is joined by multiple Grammy® Nominated pianist, and longtime collaborator, Allison Brewster Franzetti, as well as the acclaimed New Hudson Saxophone Quartet which he joined in 2017.

Bach’s Goldberg Variations present a unique combination of virtuosity, lyricism, and compositional complexity.  Mr. Sauer will give a verbal introduction to this fascinating, universalizing work beginning at 8:00, followed by a performance of Bach’s Aria with 30 Variations.

With support from a member of the Class of '59 in honor of their 60th Reunion.

Join us to celebrate the remarkable life of Michael V. Pisani through music and stories.

Reception to follow in the Bridge Building. All are welcome to attend.

The trove of instrumental fare served up by baroque Venice and Naples, the north and south poles of Italian opera, embodied the characters of the two cities as much as their renowned opera seasons. From Naples, the witty Renaissance music of Andrea Falconieri, that pays homage to that kingdom’s ties to Spain, while Francesco Mancini’s and Alessandro Scarlatti’s quartets for recorder and strings epitomize a Neapolitan obsession with music as architecture. From Venice, Dario Castello ’s Sonate concertante translate the emotion-driven esthetic of Venetian opera into an instrumental idiom, a move furthered by Giovanni Legrenzi in his sonatas from La Cetra, and in the next century by Antonio Vivaldi with his reinvention of the concerto.

Through its engaging and thought-provoking programs, branded by The New York Times as “genuinely exciting” and “imaginative,” the Quartet has garnered critical acclaim for bringing “a technical bravado and emotional power” to bold new commissions, and for its “flawless” (San Diego Union-Tribune) performances of the great masterpieces of the past. This afternoon’s program features: Gabriella Smith’s Carrot Revolution which was written for the Aizuri Quartet in 2015, Haydn’s String Quartet in B Minor Op. 64 No. 2; Komitas’ Armenian Folk Songs, and Sibelius’ String Quartet in D Minor Op. 56, “Voces Intimae.”

A Jane Prouty Smith ‘32 Event.

Featuring Adagietto by Gustav Mahler and Symphony No. 8 in G minor Op. 88 by Antonin Dvorak.

Eduardo Navega, conductor.

Eduardo Navega, conductor.

Performing on clarinet, mandoline, and voice, Joseph Sferra performs as part of The Deep Roots Ensemble, a chamber music group that focuses on studying and performing Traditional American Music. Formed in 2015 by Taylor Ackley and Alison Rowe, their goal is bringing this rich tradition of music making into concert halls and academic settings.

With support from a member of the Class of '59 in honor of their 60th Reunion.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, this concert has been postponed. Tentative new date is March 1, 2020.

Courtenay Budd, soprano, Mary Nessinger, mezzo-soprano, and Miriam Charney, piano, present a recital of songs and duets exploring Spanish and Portuguese influences in song, from the  middle ages to the present, to be drawn from German Lieder, French Mélodies, Galician Cantigas, traditional Ladino songs, contemporary Spanish settings by American composers, Spanish Canciones, and Argentine tangos.

James Ruff, Tenor, Early Gaelic Harp Singer, and Historical Harper presents a collage of early music for harp and voice from Gaelic Scotland, recreating the 17th-century world of the historic harper-bards.  Rarely heard intimate chamber pieces from a Hebridean harp manuscript, stately formal laments commemorating great clan chieftains, poetic and musical invocations of the famed Keppoch murders, and more. The evocative sound of the early Gaelic wire harp couples brilliantly with the ancient beauty of Gaelic poetry.

With support from a member of the Class of '59 in honor of their 60th Reunion.

Original and arranged compositions for solo trombone through a six trombone ensemble featuring principal players from the New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera and Broadway. Faculty member Paul Bellino, tenor and alto trombone, Brad Ward, tenor and bass trombone, Jack Schatz, bass trombone, Brian Santero, tenor trombone, Nick Schwartz, bass and contrabass trombone, Tom Hutchinson, tenor and alto trombone.

With support from a member of the Class of '59 in honor of their 60th Reunion.

Songs of spiritual praise from early colonial to modern America, by Billings, Thompson, Dawson and others.  

Join us for our 20-30 minute lunchtime recital series by members of the Vassar College Chamber Music Program.

At the Bridge Café in the Bridge for Laboratory Sciences building.