News: June 2000

Yaddo Artists Colony in Saratoga Springs, New York CREDIT

Yaddo Celebrates A Century Of Creativity In America

In celebration of its 100th anniversary, the Yaddo Artists Colony in Saratoga Springs, NY is presenting a festival in New York City and the Saratoga region from May to August 2000.

David Del Tredici Photo by Robin Holland courtesy Boosey & Hawkes

The festival will consist of concerts, readings, art exhibitions, symposia, open studios, and other notable public events featuring works by artists who have been to Yaddo. Events will take place with participating institutions in New York City including Art in General, The New York Public Library, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Poets House, Symphony Space, and Thread Waxing Space.

The inaugural event, a recital by acclaimed young pianist Stephen Hough, took place on May 4 at Alice Tully Hall and included premieres of works written for the occasion by David Del Tredici and Lowell Liebermann, along with Piano Variations by Aaron Copland and Ghost Variations by George Tsontakis, both composed largely at Yaddo.

Lowell Liebermann Photo by Linda Harris

Four new works were premiered in a three-concert series offered by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra May 7, 11, and 13, including Daron Hagen's "Angels", an orchestral piece scored for 17 solo string players that was partially written at Yaddo during the summer of 1999.

In The Bartos Forum of The New York Public Library, a panel about creativity at Yaddo featured such Yaddo artists as Allan Gurganus, Ann Lauterbach, Martin Puryear, Ned Rorem, and Robert Storr. An exhibition at Art in General featured works by artists who have visited in the past decade paired with illuminating comments about them by writers who have also been to Yaddo.

Daron Hagen

A highlight in Saratoga Springs will be the premiere of a violin concerto by Richard Danielpour, another Yaddo composer, commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to honor the centennials of both Yaddo and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Other participating institutions in the region include The Hyde Collection, The Saratoga County Arts Council, and Skidmore College.

Yaddo was founded in 1900 by the financier Spencer Trask and his wife Katrina, a poet. The festival in 2000 honors their generosity and vision, the work of the artists it has nourished, and the creative vigor of the arts in America today.

Over the last 100 years, artists who have held residcencies at Yaddo include Sylvia Plath, Clyfford Still, William Carlos Williams, Leonard Bernstein, and Virgil Thomson.