SPRING 2023
FEB MAR
Takuya Kuroda
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11 | 7:30 PM
Ensemble Connect
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 | 7:30 PM
Miró Quartet
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24 | 7:30 PM
Skidmore Orchestra
SATURDAY, MARCH 4 | 7 PM
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: A Sondheim Cabaret
SUNDAY, MARCH 5 | 2 PM & 7 PM
Caroline Rose
FRIDAY, MARCH 31 | 8 PM
FIRST TUESDAY IN FEBRUARY - MAY | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
LADD LISTENING LOUNGE
Zankel Main Lobby, Casual and collaborative performances by Skidmore students, building community through music. All are invited to attend. Light refreshments served.
APR
Strings of Three Continents: Gao Hong, Leonard Jacome, & Kadialy Kouyaté
SATURDAY, APRIL 1 | 7:30 PM
Young Kim & Skidmore Pianists
SUNDAY, APRIL 2 | 4 PM
Tsou Music Scholar Lecture Series: Kofi Agawu
THURSDAY, APRIL 6 | 5:30 PM
Sterne Virtuoso Series: Jiayan Sun
FRIDAY, APRIL 7 | 7:30 PM
Speech and Expression on College
Campuses Symposium
APRIL 14 - APRIL 15
Bell Opera Workshop Premiere
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 | 7 PM
Elisabeth Luce Moore Chamber Music
Residency 2023 Skidmore String Festival
APRIL 22 - APRIL 23
The American String Quartet
SATURDAY, APRIL 22 | 7:30 PM
String Festival Ensembles w/ the American String Quartet
SUNDAY, APRIL 23 | 2 PM
ARTHUR ZANKEL MUSIC CENTER
Arthur Zankel Music Center at Skidmore College acknowledges that we work, learn, create, and reside on the lands of the Haudenosaunee, Muheconneok, Kanienkehaka, and Abenaki peoples. We thank the elders of these tribes for their past, present, and continued stewardship of these lands. We recognize that land acknowledgement is only a first, small step towards building ethical, reciprocal, and reparative relationships with the indigenous, Native, and First Nations peoples of this hemisphere and we strive to move beyond our words to reflect our intentions through our actions.
Zankel Music Center opened in 2010 as a hub of musical activity for the Skidmore College campus and surrounding communities, providing students, educators, and artists with 54,000 square feet of space to teach, practice, perform, and support music and the performing arts.
A gift in honor of Helen Filene Ladd, class of 1922, the center’s 600-seat, acoustically tuned Concert Hall showcases the talents of Skidmore’s Music students and faculty on its world-class stage and draws sold out crowds for performances by internationally renowned artists and scholars like Jon Batiste, Branford Marsalis, Emanuel Ax, Dave Brubeck, Ani Difranco, Havana Lyceum Orchestra, Indigo Girls, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Paul Simon, Aaron Dworkin, and Gloria Steinem. The 75-seat Elisabeth Luce Moore Hall bustles daily with lectures, rehearsals, and intimate recitals.
Zankel’s Spring 2023 events are supported in part by the Pia Scala-Zankel '92 and Jimmy Zankel '92 Residency in Performing Arts; the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation; the Judy Tsou '75 Music Scholar Lecture Series; the Sterne Virtuoso Series; the Elisabeth Luce Moore Chamber Music Residency; the Sterne Fund; and Elijah McCormack ’16 and are presented in partnership with the Department of Music; the Department of Black Studies; the Department of Asian Studies; the Office of Special Programs; the Arts Administration Program and Entrepreneurial Artist Initiative; the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum; and the Office of the President at Skidmore College.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11 | 7:30 PM
TAKUYA KURODA
Jazz trumpeter Takuya Kuroda is a forward-thinking musician with a bent toward mixing post-bop and adventurous soul-jazz. Born in Kobe, Japan, Kuroda followed his older trombonist brother into the local music scene, playing in big bands. Now ensconced in the vibrant NYC jazz scene, Kuroda performs with such artists as José James, Junior Mance, Greg Tardy, Andy Ezrin, Jiro Yoshida, Akoya Afrobeat, and others. Made possible with the generous support of Pia Scala-Zankel ’92 and Jimmy Zankel ’92.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 | 7:30 PM
ENSEMBLE CONNECT
Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect returns to Skidmore to perform Jennifer Higdon’s DarkWood, an ode to the bassoon; the unusual instrumentation of Mozart’s QuintetforPianoandWindsinE-flatMajor, K.452;Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet; and the world premiere of 7 Kinships, a newly commissioned work by composer and violinist Michi Wiancko. Made possible by the generous support of the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24 | 7:30 PM
MIRÓ QUARTET
This Austin TX-based string quartet has performed on many of the world's most prestigious concert stages for over 25 years. Inspired by the works of Spanish Surrealist Joan Miró, the Quartet will perform Microfictions,vol1., a piece written for them by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, commissioned in part by Carnegie Hall, in between Haydn’s StringQuartetinBflatmajor,Op.64,No.3and Dvořák’sStringQuartet inGmajor,Op.106.
SATURDAY, MARCH 4 | 7 PM
SKIDMORE ORCHESTRA
Directed by Glen Cortese, the Skidmore College Orchestra will perform an evening of popular classical music including Serge Koussevitzky’s ConcertoforDoubleBassandOrchestra, Op.3(soloist Noanddi Manigat ’26); Tchaikovsky’s best known–and only–concerto for violin (soloist Marlowe Jacques ’26); Edvard Grieg’s famous PianoConcerto,Op.16 (soloist Daniel Huh ’26); and, for a breathtaking finale, Firebird Suite1919by Igor Stravinsky.
— FREE
SUNDAY, MARCH 5 | 2 PM & 7 PM
YOU'REGONNA
LOVETOMORROW: A SONDHEIM CABARET
Celebrating the legacy of Stephen Sondheim as both composer and lyricist, this cabaret produced by Skidmore’s Musical Theater-Opera Workshop includes both beloved melodies and lesser-known gems. Performed in the intimate setting of the Surrey-Williamson Inn (950 N. Broadway), You'reGonnaLoveTomorrowis gonna move you.
Stage direction: Sylvia Stoner ‘94 & Johnny Mulcahy ‘24; Musical direction: Casey Gray & Nate Lucas ‘23; Carol Ann Elze, keyboards.
— FREE withlimitedseating
FRIDAY, MARCH 31 | 8 PM
CAROLINE ROSE
First seen at Falstaff’s in 2018, indie-rock singer, songwriter, and musician Caroline Rose returns to Skidmore to kick off her North American tour. Taking a marked departure from earlier releases, Rose’s new album TheArtofForgetting experiments with a palette of sonic textures–weaving together classical and avant-garde elements, low and high fidelity, constraint and catharsis–to produce a series of magnetic dipoles that entice and dismay.
SATURDAY, APRIL 1 | 7:30 PM
STRINGS OF THREE CONTINENTS:
GAO HONG, LEONARD JACOME, & KADIALY KOUYATÉ
Chinese composer and master of the pipa (pear-shaped lute) Gao Hong is joined by Venezuelan harpist Leonard Jacome and Kadialy Kouyaté, a Senegalese Griot and kora artist based in London, for an evening of new and improvised works featuring the strings of Asia, Africa, and South America.
SUNDAY, APRIL 2 | 4 PM
YOUNG KIM & SKIDMORE PIANISTS
Visiting Artist-in-Residence and Steinway Artist Young Kim and Skidmore piano students will perform the works of trailblazing women composers such as Clara Schumann, Cecile Chaminade, Amy Beach, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Chen Yi, Libby Larsen, and more.
— FREE
THURSDAY, APRIL 6 | 5:30 PM
TSOU MUSIC SCHOLAR LECTURE SERIES: KOFI AGAWU
Kofi Agawu (CUNY Graduate Center) was born in Ghana, where he received his initial education before studying composition and analysis in the UK and musicology in the US. His work focuses on analytical issues in selected repertoires of Western Europe and West Africa, which are not as widely known as Agawu believes they ought to be. In his talk, Composingin thePostcolony:APerspectiveonAfrican ArtMusic , Agawu will “lay bare some of art music’s enabling conditions, starting with its birth out of the twin forces of missionization and colonization.”
— FREE
STERNE VIRTUOSO SERIES: JIAYAN SUN
Described as “revelatory” (New York Times) and “flawless” (Toronto Star), Jiayan Sun’s command of the piano is a sight to behold. Sun will perform Franz Schubert’s MomentsMusicaux,op.94on an original Graf fortepiano and two of Ludwig van Beethoven’s sonatas, op. 27 on a Hester Walter fortepiano–demonstrating the range and intricacies of these marvelously crafted early pianos.
APRIL 14 - APRIL 15
SPEECH AND EXPRESSION ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES SYMPOSIUM
Through a series of talks and panels examining free speech and expression, faculty and students, along with distinguished guests Danielle Allen and David Brooks, will interrogate, discuss, and model how we can – and must – talk about and engage with difference on college campuses. Please monitor the Zankel website for further updates and details.
— FREE
FRIDAY, APRIL 14 | 5:30 PM
Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director, Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University
SATURDAY, APRIL 15 | 3:30 PM
David Brooks, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, Author, and Commentator
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 | 7 PM
BELL OPERA WORKSHOP PREMIERE
Bell explores inventor Alexander Graham Bell’s fascination with sound and his relationship with his deaf wife, Mabel Hubbard, which ultimately led to his passion to educate deaf persons. Composed by Richard Einhorn and librettist Kathryn Walat, Skidmore’s Musical Theater-Opera Workshop will collaborate with the renowned chamber ensemble Musicians of Ma’alwych to premiere this new work. Made possible with the generous support of Elijah McCormack ’16 and the Sterne Fund. — FREE
APRIL
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The 19th Skidmore College String Festival welcomes the world-renowned American String Quartet as artists-in-residence. Festival activities include individual and group coaching with the dynamic quartet and Skidmore faculty, and two public performances.
SATURDAY, APRIL 22 | 7:30 PM
THE AMERICAN STRING QUARTET
The American String Quartet has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous. This evening-length affair will include performances of Franz Schubert’s s StringQuartetinAminor (“Rosamunde”);Blueprint,composed by Caroline Shaw as a “harmonic reduction” of Beethoven’s StringQuartet,Op.18,No.6; Vivian Fung’s Pizzicato , a short work during which the players never use their bows; ending with Ludwig van Beethoven’s last quartet, through which he asks, “Mussessein?”
SUNDAY, APRIL 23 | 2 PM
STRING FESTIVAL ENSEMBLES WITH THE AMERICAN STRING QUARTET
SKIDMORE IN CONCERT SERIES
Free and open to the public, this series showcases the vibrance of our shared creative community. All events take place in Zankel's Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall unless otherwise noted.
SUNDAY, APRIL 2 | 7 PM
BRASS & WIND
CHAMBER ENSEMBLES
Coached by Patrice Malatestinic & Yvonne Hansbrough
SATURDAY, APRIL 15 | 5:30 PM
INDIAN ENSEMBLE
Coached by Veena Chandra ElisabethLuceMooreHall
FRIDAY, APRIL 21 | 7 PM
VOCAL SOUL COLLECTIVE
Directed by Floydd Ricketts FileneRecitalHall
SUNDAY, APRIL 23 | 5 PM
STRING ENSEMBLES
Coached by Michael Emery, Jameson Platte, and Stephani Emery
TUESDAY, APRIL 25 | 7 PM
ORCHESTRA
Directed by Glen Cortese
FRIDAY, APRIL 28 | 7 PM
WEST AFRICAN DRUMMING & DANCE
Coached by Koblavi Dogah
SUNDAY, APRIL 30 | 1 PM
CONCERT BAND
Coached by Milton Lee
SUNDAY, APRIL 30 | 7 PM
SMALL JAZZ ENSEMBLES
Coached by Bob Halek, Adam Hutcheson, and George Muscatello
MONDAY, MAY 1 | 7 PM
BIG BAND
Coached by Adam Hutcheson
TUESDAY, MAY 2 | 7 PM
GUITAR ENSEMBLE
Coached by Joel Brown and Brett Grigsby
THURSDAY, APRIL 27 | 7 PM
CHORUS
Directed by Floydd Ricketts