Cellist Rylan Gajek

(ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON, N.Y.) — The Orchestra Now, an innovative master’s degree program and training orchestra founded by Bard College, will launch its inaugural performance season at Bard College’s Fisher Center this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25, with a concert featuring works by Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg

Bard president and TON conductor Leon Botstein will lead the orchestra of 37 young graduate musicians from around the world in a program offering Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2; the U.S. premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Cello Concerto, featuring 22-year-old Canadian cellist Rylan Gajek; and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, containing many of the revolutionary melodies from Russia’s 1905 Bloody Sunday.

Under the leadership of conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, T?N aims to break down the barriers between modern audiences and great orchestral music of the past and present. Distinctively suited to that goal, Bard offers T?N participants an exceptional opportunity to receive graduate orchestral training within the intellectual atmosphere of a liberal arts college close to the most important classical music center in America.