A Year in Review
Happy New Year from Bard Music West!
As the year comes to a close, we'd like to take a moment to reflect on our season and share some milestones with you. It's certainly been a very busy year for us!
In 2019 we:
Presented 31 artists
Featured 3 living composers in person
Commissioned a new piece of music
Launched our new concert series, Bard Music West Plays
Performed 40 pieces of music, HALF of which were composed by women!
Bard Music West Plays
In March, we launched our emerging composers series, Bard Music West Plays, created so you can get to know the most exciting voices of our time. You got to join in the music-making and heard chamber music, toy piano, and improvisation games all in the same concert. Our composers Gabriella Smith and Danny Clay loved meeting you. And we heard from so many of you that it was one of the most entertaining and interesting concerts you’ve been to.
The World of Grażyna Bacewicz
““Discovering and performing Polish repertoire through Bard Music West is a highlight not just of my 2019, but of my greater experience unearthing art songs. I have fallen in love with an entirely new world of music.”
— Sara LeMesh, soprano”
In October, we made history with the first festival in the United States devoted to the great composer, Grażyna Bacewicz. And, let’s be honest, it was one of very few festivals devoted entirely to a female composer anywhere. With a film screening, amazing chamber, solo, and choral music performances, storytelling, and more, Bacewicz became a new favorite composer for many people who had never before heard of her.
“Working with Bard Music West is like creating a magical spider web: you meet a special artist at each crossing point and your collaboration opens infinite new paths. I will be forever grateful for the gift of trust and support I received as composer. What a joy to have been part of such a boldly creative festival!”
- Mélanie Clapiès
We also commissioned a wonderful Bay Area composer and violinist, Mélanie Clapiès. Her trio for violin, viola and cello was a big hit at our second program, From War to Warsaw Autumn.
The Bacewicz Festival received rave reviews and was recently named a highlight of Bay Area 2019 classical and new music events by San Francisco Chronicle’s music critic, Joshua Kosman.
“We were delighted to be invited to perform two Bacewicz quartets at Bard Music West this year. We immediately fell in love with the music at our first rehearsal, and the Bacewicz festival was a wonderful opportunity for us to dive deep into her musical world. We were eager to program the quartets on other concerts this season as well and look forward to playing more of her music in the future.”
- Tesla Quartet
Meet Our Growing Team
This season, we were thrilled to add two new members to the Bard Music West team: Advisory Board member, Scot Moore and Artistic Coordinator, Mika Nakamura.
Scot Moore has performed and taught as both a violinist and violist, working in a variety of musical genres and with such artists as Natalie Merchant, Dawn Upshaw, Aki Takahashi, Amanda Palmer, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Joan Tower and Ian Flanigan, among others. He has appeared worldwide in venues such as the Mariinsky Theater, Berlin Konzerthaus, Prague Rudolfinum, NCPA Beijing, Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Library of Congress, Greek Theater, Santa Barbara Bowl, and Chicago Theater, among numerous others. Scot can be found on records and sound tracks released by PBS, Albany Records, Navona Records, Nonesuch Records, Recorded and Freed, Mantralogy, and numerous self releases from independent artists. He has premiered new music in collaboration with Contemporaneous, Bang On a Can All-Stars, Shattered Glass, Stereo Hideout and works as both production coordinator and personnel manager for Darcy James Argue's Secret Society and Tyshawn Sorey.
Scot earned his BA, BM, MA, and Performance Certificate from Bard College and held the co-principle position of The Orchestra Now from 2015-2018. He currently works in account management at Touch of Modern, a men’s lifestyle startup in San Francisco.
Mika Nakamura is a freelance musician and production coordinator in the Bay Area. Born and raised in southern California, she began studying percussion at age eighteen. An avid orchestral and chamber performer, she has collaborated with various artists and organizations including the Magik*Magik Orchestra, Switchboard Music, Bard Music West, One Found Sound Chamber Orchestra, eighth blackbird, yMusic, Yarn/Wire and Sō Percussion in venues throughout the US, including Davies Symphony Hall.
In 2019, she directed the 10th Annual Hot Air Music Festival, an all-day new music marathon celebrating contemporary classical repertoire written within the last fifty years. The season included over 80 artists from across the country and held one of the Festival's most successful fundraising campaigns to headline the program with Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, which featured an ensemble of SFCM students, staff and alumni led by Nakamura.
Mika is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her mentors include Mitchell Peters, Raynor Carroll, Theresa Dimond, Jacob Nissly, Trey Wyatt, Jack Van Geem and Ed Stephan.
In her spare time, Mika also enjoys cooking, baking and running.
“Bard Music West is redefining the concert experience. Listeners aren’t just encouraged to listen, they are challenged to engage.”
— James Haber, audience member”
Thank you again for making all that we do possible. Wishing everyone a healthy, restful holiday season and new year, and we look forward to seeing you at our next show! If you haven’t made a donation this year and would like to, please consider supporting us at our new donation page.
Warmly,
Allegra and Laura