Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner to highlight “Modfest”, Vassar College’s fifth annual showcase of contemporary music, dance, and art. January 26 - February 4, 2007

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner, the chamber music group Cygnus Ensemble, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theater, French pianist Marc Ponthus, as well as student music ensembles, poets, and artists, will highlight Vassar College's fifth annual "Modfest," on two successive weekends beginning Friday, January 26, and continuing through Sunday February 4. Modfest will once again bring a music, dance, poetry, and art of the past hundred years – much of it created during the past decade – to the Vassar campus, incorporating performances, workshops, exhibits, and artist conversations. All programs are free and open to the public, and for more information call (845) 437-7294 and go to http://music.vassar.edu/concerts.html.

Featured Artists

Modfest 2007 will pay special attention to the music of YEHUDI WYNER, the 2006 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music Composition for his piano concerto "Chiavi in Mano", which was premiered by Robert Levin and the Boston Symphony. Wyner is a long-time professor at Brandeis University, and will be on the Vassar campus both weekends of Modfest coaching student groups in performances of his works. He will also appear as pianist in a January 26 program.

[Left: Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner (photo: Mike Levitt)] Wyner is also widely respected for his compositions for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo voice, and solo instruments, as well as for his theatrical music and arrangements for Jewish services. Four separate Modfest programs will explore Wyner's work: an opening night recital featuring pieces by several contemporary composers (1/26, 8:00 p.m.); a master class with the Vassar student contemporary Mahagonny Ensemble, exploring Wyner's 1983 work "Passage" (1/27, 10:00 a.m.); a performance by the Cygnus Ensemble featuring the works of Wyner, Vassar composer, pianist, and professor of music Richard Wilson, and composer Harold Meltzer (1/27, 8:00 p.m.); and a closing night performance by the Vassar College Choir, Wind Ensemble and Mahagonny Ensemble, featuring works by Wyner, Leonard Bernstein, and others (2/4, 3:00 p.m.).

The CYGNUS ENSEMBLE's instrumentation – two guitars, cello, violin, oboe, and flute – was inspired by the Elizabethan 'broken consort,' and the New York Times has praised Cygnus as an "enterprising and supple group." The ensemble presents a series of three concerts every year at various halls in New York City, and has toured extensively in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. A sampling of the Cygnus Ensemble's extensive repertoire can be heard on its 2000 recording "Broken Consort" (CRi). In 2001, the group became Ensemble in Residence at the City University of New York's Graduate Center, under composer David Olan, and in 2002, Cygnus also established a residency at Sarah Lawrence College, under its music department chairman Chester Biscardi.

Pianist MARC PONTHUS has championed some of the most significant works of recent generations, including the complete piano works by Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Pierre Boulez. The New York Times has said "Mr. Ponthus' virtuosity is hair-raising," and of his 2004 recording of Xenakis's complete piano music (NEUMA), New Music Connoisseur said, "Ponthus is definitely the right pianist for Xenakis. He tries to re-invent and freshen the piano recital experience just as Xenakis invented and explored an entirely new sound world. A recipient of the Tanne Award for achievement in the arts, Ponthus is also founder-director of IFCP, the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance at Mannes College of Music, in New York. Ponthus was the Director of ProjectWebern at the Morgan Library, including its concert, symposium, and exhibit of manuscripts programs, as well as conducting the ProjectWebern Ensemble. As the conductor and artistic director of the Lower Eastside Ensemble, a twentieth century music group, Ponthus also created stagings and was stage director.

Modfest Summary

Modfest's first weekend opens the evening of Friday, January 26 with Vassar piano professors Todd Crow and Anton Vishio, and guest violinist Rolf Schulte performing works by Yehudi Wyner, Mario Davidovsky (featured artist in the 2006 Modfest), Ernst Krenek, and Donald Martino. The first weekend will also include Wyner's master class, a Saturday afternoon joint presentation by Vassar student musicians, poets, and visual artists, a Saturday evening performance by the Cygnus Ensemble, and a Sunday evening performance by the celebrated French pianist Marc Ponthus, with commentary by Vassar music professor Anton Vishio.

[Left: Vassar College Orchestra, directed by professor Eduardo Navega (photo: Yancey Hughes)] A performance by the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) will open Modfest's second weekend on Friday, February 2, at 8:00 p.m., at the college's new Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater. Later that afternoon at the college's Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, a reception for the new exhibit "For the People: American Mural Drawings of the 1930's and 1940's" will feature poetry by Vassar English department students, immediately followed by University of Minnesota art historian Karal Ann Marling's exhibition talk.

Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon concerts showcasing top Vassar music department student ensembles, including the Vassar College Orchestra, Women's Chorus, Madrigal Singers, Mahagonny Choir, Wind Ensemble, College Choir, and Mahagonny Ensemble will round out the 2007 Modfest.

Above: Vassar College Orchestra, directed by professor Eduardo Navega (photo: Yancey Hughes)

Modfest Calendar Listings

All Modfest programs will be held at the college's Skinner Hall of Music,
unless otherwise indicated:

Concert
Friday, January 26, 8:00 p.m.
Todd Crow and Anton Vishio, piano, and Rolf Schulte, violin
Works by 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner Yehudi Wyner, Ernst Krenek, Mario Davidovsky, and Donald Martino.

Master Class
Saturday, January 27, 10:00 a.m.
2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner will coach the Mahagonny Ensemble, a student contemporary music ensemble, in Wyner's work "Passage" (1983).

Concert-Reading
Saturday, January 27, 2:30 p.m.
Villard Room, College Center
Presentations and performances by students of the art, music, and English departments of Vassar College, hosted by Dean of Students JJ Jackson.

Concert
Saturday, January 27, 8:00 p.m.
The Cygnus Ensemble (William Anderson and Oren Fader, guitar, Susannah Chapman, cello, Calvin Wiersma, violin, Robert Ingliss, oboe, Tara Helen O'Connor, flute) will perform the works of Yehudi Wyner, Richard Wilson, and Harold Meltzer.

Concert
Sunday, January 28, 8:00 p.m.
French pianist Marc Ponthus will perform "Piano Sonata No. 2″ by Pierre Boulez, with commentary by Vassar College music theory professor Anton Vishio.

Dance Recital
Friday, February 2, 8:00 p.m.
Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, Kenyon Hall.
As part of its 25th season, the student dance troupe Vassar Dance Repertory Theatre (VRDT) will perform excerpts of works from its 2006-2007 repertoire, to preview VRDT's March 3-4 weekend of gala performances at the Bardavon Opera House.

Reading-Reception
Saturday, February 3, 4:00 p.m., in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. A reception for the art exhibition "For the People: American Mural Drawings of the 1930's and 1940's" will feature poetry by Vassar English department students.

Lecture
Saturday, February 3, 5:00 p.m., in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center.
University of Minnesota art professor Karal Ann Marling will discuss "New Deal Art Revisited: The Splendid Muralists of Dutchess and Ulster Counties and 'What They Told Me.'"

Concert
Saturday, February 3, 8:00 p.m.
Vassar College Orchestra, Women's Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and Mahagonny Choir perform the works of Gabriel Jackson, Michael Berkeley, Stephen Hatfield, and Diana Hill '07.

Concert
Sunday, February 4, 3:00 p.m.
Vassar College Choir, Wind Ensemble and Mahagonny Ensemble perform the works of Yehudi Wyner, Leonard Bernstein, Eric Whitacre, and others.

All "Modfest" programs are free admission and open to the public. For further information contact Karen Murley, concert administrator for the Department of Music, at (845) 437-7294 and go to http://music.vassar.edu/concerts.html.

Skinner Hall of Music is wheelchair-accessible, and people with disabilities requiring accommodations should call the Office of Campus Activities (845-437-5370). Free parking is available at Skinner Hall, and the campus's adjoining south parking lot. Directions to the Vassar College campus in the Town of Poughkeepsie are available at www.vassar.edu/directions

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.

This article was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006.