Frank Corliss with Yi-Wen Jiang: Saturday, April 25 at 2:00 p.m.

Frank Corliss is the director of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Prior to coming to Bard he was for many years a staff pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and the director of music at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts. He was a frequent performer on the Boston Symphony Prelude Concert series and he has also performed throughout the United States as a chamber musician and collaborative pianist. Corliss has worked as a musical assistant for Yo-Yo Ma and has assisted Ma in the musical preparation of many new works for performance and recording, including concertos by Elliot Carter, Richard Danielpour, Tan Dun, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Peter Lieberson, Christopher Rouse, and John Williams. 

A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he received his Master of Music from SUNY at Stony Brook, where he studied with Gilbert Kalish.  While at Oberlin he received the Rudolf Serkin Award for Outstanding Pianist and was a member of the Music from Oberlin Ensemble, which toured throughout the U.S.  He has also studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and the Cracow Academy of Music in Cracow, Poland.  Mr. Corliss has participated in several summer festivals, including the Tanglewood Music Festival and the Taos Chamber Music Festival and the Aspen Music Festival.  

He was appointed as an Artistic Ambassador for the United States Information Agency and in that capacity went on a three-week concert tour of Eastern Europe. He was also the recipient of a Rockefeller grant from the Cultural Contact US-Mexico Fund for Culture to commission works for flute and piano by American and Mexican composers and premiered in Boston and in Mexico City. 

Mr. Corliss can be heard in recording on Yo Yo Ma’s Grammy-winning SONY disc “Soul of the Tango”, as well as the Koch International disc of music by Elliot Carter for chorus and piano with the John Oliver Chorale.

Violinist Yi-Wen Jiang was born in Beijing to a family with a strong musical background, his father having spent over 35 years as a Concertmaster and his mother as a soprano soloist. Jiang's destiny was revealed at three years old when he listened to Beethoven's violin concerto, instilling in him the desire to become a professional violinist.

Jiang gave his concerto debut in Beijing at 17. He secured the top prize at the inaugural China Youth Violin Competition, enabling him to study with Professor Han Li at the Central Conservatory of Music. Subsequently, he received a full scholarship from McDonnell-Douglas at the St. Louis Conservatory and relocated to the U.S. in 1985 to study with Taras Gabora and Michael Tree. Following his tenure in St. Louis, he enrolled in Rutgers University's graduate program, where he studied for four years with Arnold Steinhardt. Jiang credits Steinhardt with having the most profound influence on his playing, followed

by highly influential master classes with Pinchas Zukerman. In the wake of his prize-winning performance at the Montreal International Competition, he appeared as a soloist with the Victoria Symphony and Montreal Symphony, and was featured at numerous international music festivals by the age of 22.

Jiang's 26-year tenure with the Shanghai Quartet, which began in 1994, encompassed over 3,000 concerts in 37 countries. The ensemble's collaborations with distinguished artists were extensive, including performances with the Tokyo, Juilliard, and Guarneri Quartets, cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell, pianists Roth Laredo, Menahem Pressler, Peter Serkin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Yuja Wang, many of whom developed into lasting friendships. The ensemble was a regular performer at many of Europe's and North America's most prestigious music festivals.

As a composer, Jiang has developed a distinctive style, arranging dozens of pieces for violin-piano and string quartet that blend Eastern and Western influences. His arrangement of Chinese folk songs, ChinaSong, is particularly notable, drawing on his childhood experiences during the Cultural Revolution in China. The Shanghai Quartet, joined by Eugenia Zukerman, recorded this collection of 24 pieces, which was released on the Delos International label in 2002. In 2018, Flower City Publisher in Guangzhou published 38 of these arrangements. 

Jiang holds a position as a founding faculty member at The Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Michael Boriskin with Helena Baillie: Saturday, May 9 at 2:00 p.m.

“A pianist with the Midas touch” —The New York Times

“A pianist of the highest rank” —Die Welt [Berlin]

“One of the most skilled and versatile pianists of his generation” —American Record Guide

One of Musical America’s “Top 30 Professionals of the Year” (2023), pianist Michael Boriskin has been involved in every aspect of the music world, as an internationally-acclaimed piano soloist and chamber music collaborator, curator, producer, radio host, and program advisor. He has performed in over 30 countries and traveled across four centuries of music, appearing on many of the world’s foremost concert stages, from Toronto and Tokyo to Mexico City and Munich. He has been a guest artist at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals, Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, BBC in London, Smithsonian Institution, Berlin Radio, Theatre des Champs-Elysees (Paris), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Arnold Schoenberg Center (Vienna), and many other preeminent venues. He has recorded extensively for Naxos, SONY Classical, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Bridge, and other labels, and appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, Sirius, and Euro-Radio. Hailed by Fanfare magazine as “a brilliant pianist who has done as much as anyone for contemporary music,” he has been Music Director of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s fabled White Oak Dance Project, hosted his own NPR broadcast series, heard on over 200 stations coast-to-coast, written articles for the Library of Congress, Schirmer Books, and numerous other North American publications, and served as project advisor for the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, U.S. State Department, Lincoln Center, and other major institutions. As longtime Artistic and Executive Director of Copland House, he has led that unique creative center for American music and the arts based at legendary composer Aaron Copland’s National Historic Landmark home in the Lower Hudson Valley to worldwide prominence.

London-born Helena Baillie was hailed by The Strad magazine for her ”brilliance and poignance,” and stands apart for a rare ease on both violin and viola.  American Record Guide praised her ‘gorgeous singing tone’ in an album that ‘from the opening flourish will be a special recital.’ She enjoys a multifaceted career as a performer and violin and viola faculty member at the Bard College Music Program.

A prizewinner in international competitions including Munich ARD, Banff and Tertis, Helena has performed throughout Europe and the United States, with broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and Performance Today for American Public Radio. She has collaborated in chamber music with Pinchas Zukerman, Midori, the Tokyo String Quartet and the Beaux Arts Trio. Her love of chamber music has taken her to the La Jolla Summerfest, Tucson Winter Chamber Festival, and the Kronberg Academy Festival in Frankfurt, among others.

Helena was honored by a Bard Fellowship from 2010-2015. While a fellow, her projects included Bach Among Us at Bard’s renowned Fisher Center, which Helena produced and performed in collaboration with dancers of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. In an unconventional staging that reconsiders the traditional divisions between artist and audience, Helena invited audience members to share the stage with performers, creating an intimate and immersive concert experience.

In her continued commitment to outreach and education, Helena has traveled across the globe to engage new audiences under the auspices of Midori’s Music Sharing Foundation. She performs regularly at prisons and appears for New-York based Music Kitchen, a program that brings top musicians together to share the inspirational, therapeutic and uplifting power of music with disenfranchised New Yorkers.

Helena graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied violin with Arnold Steinhardt and viola with Roberto Diaz. Isaac Stern, Felix Galimir, and Leon Fleisher guided Helena in chamber music. At Yale University, Helena studied violin with Peter Oundjian, and she spent a year in Berlin studying with the eminent violist Wilfried Strehle.

Helena plays a 2012 violin made by Collin Gallahue in association with the studio of Brooklyn-based luthier Sam Zygmuntowicz. Her viola is a 2009 Sam Zygmuntowicz.

Ayane Nakajima: Saturday, June 20 at 2:00 p.m.

Program

Maurice Ravel Sonatine 
I. Modéré
II. Mouvement de menuet
III. Animé

Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 31 Op. 110
I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo 
II. Allegro molto 

About Ayane Nakajima: Praised for her “emotional warmth and celestial lyricism” (Elena Vorotko, Keyboard Charitable Trust), pianist Ayane Nakajima enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, collaborator, and chamber musician. Active across the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany, she has appeared in major venues including Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the New World Center.

Ayane’s concert highlights include performances at Klavier Festival Bayreuth, the Minnesota Orchestra’s Summer at Orchestra Hall, Lake District Summer Music, and the London Song Festival. Her 2026 season features a recital debut in Los Angeles, radio debuts across Europe, and a summer spent as a 2026 Marlboro Music Festival Artist.

Deeply committed to championing the voices of living composers, Ayane is passionate about bringing contemporary works into dialogue with the classical canon. She has premiered works both as a répétiteur and soloist for composers including Daniel Zlatkin, Thordur Magnusson, and Eunike Tanzil, among others.

She is a prizewinner in competitions including Pianale, YoungArts, the International Keyboard Odyssiad, and Young Texas Artists. Additional accolades include her nomination as a 2019 U.S. Presidential Scholar, the 2023 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts from Rice University, and First Prize in the 2024 Royal College of Music Concerto Competition. She has also participated in masterclasses with distinguished artists such as Jeremy Denk, Dina Yoffe, Akiko Ebi, Uta Weyand, Ronan O’Hora, Caroline Hong, Elena Levit, and Marina Lomazov.

A devoted song pianist and chamber musician, she has won top prizes at the Young Musicians’ Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Competition, as well as pianist prizes at the AESS Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition and the RCM Brooks Van der Pump Competition. She is the pianist of the recently formed Trio Auri (with violinist Mee-Hyun Esther Park and cellist Lily Dai) and is a frequent recital partner of mezzo-soprano Lily Mo Browne.

Growing up in New York City, Ayane began her piano studies at the age of three with Chaim Freiberg at the Kaufman Music Center. From ages six to seventeen, she studied with Dr. Hiromi Fukuda and graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. She earned her Bachelor of Music from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music under the guidance of Dr. Jon Kimura Parker and later graduated with distinction from her postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music, where she studied with Danny Driver.

She is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Ronan O’Hora, Charles Owen, and Bretton Brown. Through her artistry, Ayane strives to bring people together by curating meaningful and colorful performances. In addition to her classical work, she enjoys collaborating in musical theatre, jazz, and film music.