The Orchestra Now
The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is a group of vibrant young musicians from across the globe who are making orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences by sharing their unique personal insights in a welcoming environment. Hand-picked from the world’s leading conservatories—including the Yale School of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Royal Academy of Music, and the Eastman School of Music—the members of TŌN are enlightening curious minds by giving on-stage introductions and demonstrations, writing concert notes from the musicians’ perspective, and having one-on-one discussions with patrons during intermissions.
Conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, whom The New York Times said “draws rich, expressive playing from the orchestra,” founded TŌN in 2015 as a graduate program at Bard College, where he is also president. TŌN offers both a three-year master’s degree in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies and a two-year advanced certificate in Orchestra Studies The orchestra’s home base is the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard, where it performs multiple concerts each season and takes part in the annual Bard Music Festival. It also performs regularly at the finest venues in New York, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others across NYC and beyond. HuffPost, who has called TŌN’s performances “dramatic and intense,” praises these concerts as “an opportunity to see talented musicians early in their careers.”
The orchestra has performed with many distinguished guest conductors and soloists, including Neeme Järvi, Vadim Repin, Fabio Luisi, Peter Serkin, Hans Graf, Gerard Schwarz, Tan Dun, Zuill Bailey, and JoAnn Falletta. Recordings featuring The Orchestra Now include two albums of piano concertos with Piers Lane on Hyperion Records, and a Sorel Classics concert recording of pianist Anna Shelest performing works by Anton Rubinstein with TŌN and conductor Neeme Järvi. Buried Alive with baritone Michael Nagy, released on Bridge Records in August 2020, includes the first recording in almost 60 years—and only the second recording ever—of Othmar Schoeck’s song-cycle Lebendig begraben. Upcoming releases include an album of piano concertos with Orion Weiss on Bridge Records. Recordings of TŌN’s live concerts from the Fisher Center can be heard on Classical WMHT-FM and WWFM The Classical Network, and are featured regularly on Performance Today, broadcast nationwide. In 2019, the orchestra’s performance with Vadim Repin was live-streamed on The Violin Channel.
Explore upcoming concerts, see what our musicians have to say, and more right here at theorchestranow.org. For more information on the academic program, visit bard.edu/theorchnow.
Music Director
Leon Botstein
Violin
Misty Drake
Linda Duan (on leave)
Jacques Gadway
Adam Jeffreys
Yi-Ting Kuo
Tin Yan Lee
Yada Lee
Xinran Li
Zhen Liu
Bram Margoles
Stuart McDonald
Yurie Mitsuhashi
Nicole Oswald
Shaina Pan
Sabrina Parry
Gaia Mariani Ramsdell
Dillon Robb
Esther Goldy Roestan
Gergő Krisztián Tóth
Weiqiao Wu
Yinglin Zhou
Viola
Celia Daggy
Batmyagmar Erdenebat
Sean Flynn
Lucas Goodman
Katelyn Hoag
Larissa Mapua
Hyunjung Song
Leonardo Vásquez Chacón
Cello
Lucas Button
Cameron Collins
Jordan Gunn
Kelly Knox
Sara Page
Eva Roebuck
Sarah Schoeffler
Pecos Singer
Bass
Joshua DePoint
Kaden Henderson
Mariya-Andoniya Henderson
Tristen Jarvis
Luke Stence
Flute
Brendan Dooley
Leanna Ginsburg
Rebecca Tutunick
Oboe
Shawn Hutchison
Jasper Igusa
JJ Silvey
Clarinet
Matthew Griffith
Ye Hu
Rodrigo Orviz Pevida
Viktor Tóth
Bassoon
Cheryl Fries
Philip McNaughton
Xiaoxiao Yuan
Horn
Emily Buehler
Steven Harmon
Ser Konvalin
Kwong Ho Hin
Zachary Travis
Trumpet
Samuel Exline
Guillermo García Cuesta
Anita Tóth
Maggie Tsan-Jung Wei
Trombone
David Kidd
Ian Striedter
Bass Trombone
Jack E. Noble
Tuba
Jarrod Briley
Timpani
Keith Hammer III
Percussion
Charles Gillette
Luis Herrera Albertazzi
Wanyuè Yè (on leave)
Harp
Taylor Ann Fleshman
Photo by David DeNee