Summerscape at the Fisher Center – An Upstate NY Arts Tradition

This summer marks the 34th Bard Music Festival at Bard College’s Fisher Center, a Frank Gehry-designed performance venue housing two theaters and several dance and theater rehearsal spaces. It is nestled among the trees of the north side of the campus at Bard College, in the small village of Annandale-on Hudson, less than a two-hour drive or commute from New York City. 

The festival predates the opening of the new Fisher Center in 2003, and continues to draw audiences from upstate New York, western Massachusetts, and even New York City.  Every year at Summerscape, there are many different events offered. These include mainstage operas, plays, new musicals being developed, dance pieces, and classical works for orchestra and chorus. Following tradition, there is always a composer selected as the centerpiece of the summer, this year being Hector Berlioz, and many of the works chosen to be performed are all related in a manner to that composer.

My first time working at the Bard Music Festival was in 2005, the year of Aaron Copland. The Fisher Center was new, and many of my fellow choristers were still adjusting to the shock of being in a proper concert hall, having spent the years prior to the Frank Gehry building in a tent outside… braving the elements as it were. One of the works that we performed was Copland’s “In the Beginning,” sung superbly by Marietta Simpson. This a cappella piece was written for solo voice and four-part chorus with a text from the Book of Genesis. It is a hauntingly beautiful piece, and was my introduction to the artistic world of Summerscape.

This year’s operatic performance is Le Prophete, by Giacomo Meyerbeer, and in typical grand opera fashion, the plot involves a peasant revolt against tyrannical leaders, love, vengeance, and even suicide. Performances run from July 26 to August 4. You can also catch the well-known company Elevator Repair Service in their production of Ulysses, based on the landmark work by James Joyce, running until July 14. As always there are several orchestral and choral works by the main composer of the summer, Berlioz, in addition to works by his teachers and contemporaries.

Helmed by conductor and President of Bard College, Leon Botstein, each Summerscape season is carefully researched and planned to not only entertain, but educate its audience on the chosen composer’s life, influences and legacy. It’s no small task to program such a summer season from both an educational and logistics perspective. Musicians, actors, dancers, writers, directors, visual artists are assembled with great care to perform the works selected for each season. Having been part of Bard Music Festival concerts and operas over the course of almost 20 years has had a giant impact on my life as an artist and teacher. 

What I find to be particularly meaningful and important to consider is that at a time when there is so much chaos in the world wrought by politics, war, climate change, and humanitarian crises, there is still a desire to support and develop the arts. The arts are often the first part of a curriculum to get cut from schools when budgets are tight and certainly in economic downturns many people have no choice but to cut back on such things. 

When artistic traditions are preserved, remembered, and brought into the light by institutions like Summerscape, society has a much better chance at moving through the world with understanding, compassion, and grace.

For more information about upcoming performances, please visit https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/summerscape/