Music, like all art, engages the mind and the heart.
The mission of the Bard College Conservatory of Music is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music.
Bagwell was recognized by both organizations for the role he has played over the past two decades in creating a consistent record of excellence in choral performance.
The three-day program brought together renowned guzheng masters from China, musicians from across North America, and young student performers for a gathering of artistic exchange, collaboration, and performance.
Vocalist. B.A., M.A., The Juilliard School. Studied with Jennie Tourel, William Vennard, Daniel Ferro, Martial Singher, Frank Corsaro, Gerard Souzay, Elly Ameling, Jeanine Reiss, and pianist Dalton Baldwin, with whom she conducts annual master classes at Vermont Opera Theater’s “Foliage Art Song” festival. First American to be appointed to the voice faculty of the Paris Conservatory; has prepared singers for the Paris and Lyon Operas and regularly conducts summer master classes at Foundation Royaumont in Val d’Oise, Centre International de Formation Musicale in Nice, and summer vocal chamber music program at Les Azuriales Opera. Has served as juror for Young Concert Artists International competition, Paris Concours, and Marseille Concours. Teaches at Bard College Conservatory, Juilliard, and New England Conservatory.
Yan Chen
Erhu
Yan Chen
Chen Yan is a young professor of erhu in the Central Conservatory of Music’s Traditional Instruments Department. A performer in the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, she graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree, and received her master’s degree at the Central Conservatory of Music. Chen Yan has won many awards, such as the Silver Award of the Youth Group in National Erhu Competition; the Silver Award of the Youth Group in the Second CCTV National Instrumental Music Competition; Second Prize of the Youth Group in the “Wenhua Cup”; and the Excellent Professional Prize from Shanghai Art Talents. She has performed as an Erhu soloist in the Opening Ceremony of the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival many times. In 2009, she premiered a Carmen Fantasia adaptation arranged for Chen by Franz Waxman. In 2011, she premiered Zhang Chao’s concerto Tribute to the Sun at the Beijing Concert Hall, winning “Best New Artist Prize” of the Fourth Ethnic Art Exhibition and the “Best New Artist Performance Prize” of the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. In recent years she has visited the United States, Germany, and Australia on tour with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra.
Mariko Anraku
Harp
Mariko Anraku
Harpist Mariko Anraku is hailed as "a manifestation of grace and elegance" (Jerusalem Post) and has enchanted audiences through numerous appearances as soloist, as well as chamber and orchestral musician. The New York Times has hailed her as a "masterful artist of intelligence and wit".
Since 1995, she has held the position of Associate Principal Harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Since her debut as soloist with the Toronto Symphony led by Sir Andrew Davis, Ms. Anraku has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony, Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, among others. As a recitalist, she has performed in major concert halls on three continents, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Markin Concert Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Bing Theater at the LA County Museum, The Opera Comique in Paris, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, the Casals, Kioi and Oji Halls in Tokyo, The Shanghai Oriental Arts Center among many others.
Ms. Anraku's impressive list of awards include First Prize at the First Nippon Harp Competition, First Prize, the Channel Classics Recording Prize and the ITT Corporation Prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York, and the Pro Musicis Foundation International Award. She was also awarded Third Prize and the Pearl Chertok Prize for the best performance of the required Israeli composition at the 11th International Harp Contest in Israel.
Ms. Anraku's strong commitment to contemporary music and the expansion of boundaries of the harp repertoire has included an invitation to premiere works by T oshio Hosokawa at the Donaueschingen Musiktage in Germany, the Wien Modern in Austria, and festivals in Tubinger and Cologne, Germany, collaborating with traditional Japanese musicians and monks. Ms. Anraku also gave the USA premiere of Jean-Michel Damase's Concerto "Ballade" with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra at the American Harp Society Conference. She has also collaborated in a ''Tribute to Takemitsu" performance at Markin Concert Hall in New York.
An active chamber musician, Ms. Anraku has performed at the Spoleto, Tanglewood, Newport and Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festivals in the USA, The Banff Centre and the Festival of Sound in Canada, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and the Karuizawa and Takefu Music Festivals, among others in Japan. She has also performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Harvard Music Association, and Columbia University, and has collaborated with artists including clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and flutists Emmanuel Pahud, Carol Wincenc, Paula Robison, Emily Beynon, Michael Parloff, Marina Piccinini, Stefan Ragnar Hoskuldsson and Denis Bouriakov.
Ms. Anraku has recorded exclusively for EMI Classics, including three solo recordings and "Beau Soir" a collaboration with eminent flutist Emmanuel Pahud. "Music for Harp", a compilation from her solo CDs is also available.
Ms.Anraku is a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music, Bard Conservatory, and The Pacific Music Festival (PMF). She is a devoted teacher, deeply committed to the mentoring and development of young musicians and has given masterclasses at The Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, Peabody Institute, The Glenn Gould School, Conservatorium Maastricht, The Central Conservatory and China Institute of Music in Beijing, The Shanghai Conservatory of Music etc. She is often invited to be a jury member at local and international competitions.
She holds Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from The Juilliard School and is a recipient of an Artist's Diploma from The Glenn Gould School in Toronto. Her teachers have included Judy Loman, Nancy Allen, Lanalee deKant and her aunt Kumiko Inoue. Ms. Anraku also studied Oriental Art History at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, and enjoys playing community service concerts at hospitals, drug rehabilitation centers, prisons and other venues.
Hugo Valverde
Horn
Hugo Valverde
Hugo Valverde carries a professional orchestral and solo career in the United States and his native Costa Rica as a French horn player, currently holding the full-time and tenured position of Second Horn with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2017.
As an orchestral player he has performed with the Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra, the Classical Tahoe Festival Orchestra in Incline Village, Nevada, The Strings Music Festival Brass Ensemble in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, The Orchestra of the Americas on their Eastern Canada Tour, The Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, The New York City Ballet and The Philadelphia Orchestra.
In his role as a soloist he performed Richard Strauss’ Concerto No. 1 with the Lynn Philharmonia Orchestra under Guillermo Figueroa and he premiered the piece “Tributo al Ciudadano Pablo” by Marvin Camacho -who is a well renowned Costa Rican composer and pioneer in new contemporary music- with the “Heredia Symphony Orchestra” of Costa Rica under Josué Jiménez. The piece is written and dedicated to him by the composer and it reflects Hugo Valverde’s commitment to Latin American repertoire, having performed and premiered pieces by Manuel Matarrita -Costa Rican pianist and composer-, and other Latin American composers. He often performs chamber music concerts with his colleagues of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at the Carnegie Hall Concert Series at Weill Recital Hall and also with the woodwind quintet “Quinteto de Luz” in Costa Rica at the National Music Institute, Teatro Espressivo and the National Theatre of Costa Rica.
A dedicated educator, Mr. Valverde has been involved in pedagogical programs in the United States and Latin America, giving masterclasses for the Orchestra of the Americas, Yale University School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, New York University, Bard College Conservatory of Music, National Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, The Blackburn Music Academy in Napa Valley, San Jose State University, Austin Peay University, New World School of the Arts, University of Panama School of Music and the University of Costa Rica, among others. During the pandemic he created the project “Lockdown Warmups”, which offered 40+ free masterclasses and professional online coaching from renown musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestras, The Cleveland and The Philadelphia Orchestras, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Bavarian Radio, Frankfurt Radio, Hamburg, West Germany Radio Symphonies, and other remarkable ones, for young Latin American horn players. He currently teaches at the Precollege Division at Manhattan School of Music.
As a recording studio musician, Mr. Valverde has been part of two soundtracks for movies called “The Woman in the Window”, produced by Fox 2000 Pictures, released by Netflix and 20th Century Studios and music composed by Danny Elfman; and the other one is “Don’t Worry Darling”, produced by New Line Cinema, and music by John Powell. He was also part of the recording of Sir Paul McCartney’s song “My Valentine” with Michael Bublé in the solo voice and Mr. McCartney himself in the live recording session at the Manhattan Center Studios. The song was released in February 2022 in various music and video streaming platforms like YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, etc.
The live recording and broadcast made in 2019 of George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” was chosen as the recipient of the “Best Opera Recording” award in the “63rd Grammy Award Ceremony”. In March 14th, 2021, The Metropolitan Opera Company won the “The Recording Academy” Grammy, and Mr. Valverde was part of this broadcast and recording, who was also given a certificate of participation as a member of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in recognition of his effort put into the project.
Mr. Valverde studied at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas, Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida and the National Music Institute in San José, Costa Rica. His main teachers are Daniel León, Luis Murillo, Gregory Miller and William VerMeulen.
In his spare time, Hugo enjoys road biking around Central Park, New York City area, New Jersey and his native Costa Rica, and is an avid coffee aficionado, given the fact that Costa Rica is known worldwide for the top-quality coffee they produce.