Jonathan E Bagg

Office Hours:

Afternoons by appointment.

Education

• MM; Academic Honors, Distinction in Performance, New England Conservatory of Music, 1984
• BA; Cum Laude in Music, Yale University, 1982

Research Interests

Jonathan Bagg is Professor of the Practice, a member of the Ciompi String Quartet, and Artistic Director of the Monadnock Music festival, located in New Hampshire. His career with the Ciompi spans 25 years and includes hundreds of concerts across the U.S. and abroad, in Europe, China, Israel, and South America, as well as over a dozen recordings. Musicians he has performed with include pianists Bella Davidovich, Menahem Pressler and James Tocco, cellist Ronald Leonard, The Tokyo Quartet, clarinetist David Shifrin, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon. His work outside the Ciompi Quartet as a solo violist and chamber musician is distinguished by his interest in bringing new and unfamiliar works to life, including many pieces written for him. In reviews of his solo playing, The Washington Post has noted his “total confidence, rock-solid technique and a deep sensitivity,” while American Record Guide hailed him as “an excellent violist who approaches the music with intelligence, passion, and clarity.”

Solo concerts have brought him to places such as the Phillips Gallery in Washington DC, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Manchester, New Hamphsire’s Currier Gallery. Concerto appearances include the Pioneer Valley Symphony in Massachusetts, the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the Monadnock Music Festival Orchestra. He has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Highlands Chamber Music Festival, and the Mohawk Trail and Castle Hill festivals. Bagg’s two solo CDs contain music for viola and piano by Robert and Clara Schumann and by Robert Fuchs (1847-1927), on the Centaur label. Contemporary solo works by Malcolm Peyton, Donald Wheelock and Arthur Levering are on Centaur and Gasparo, and Bridge Records. Bagg directs the chamber music program and teaches viola at Duke University, where he has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Music. Before moving to Duke he performed with many of New England’s most prominent musical organizations, appearing often with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, and serving as principal viola for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra. He graduated with honors from both Yale University (BA) and the New England Conservatory (MM), where he was a student of Walter Trampler.

Typical Courses Taught:

• Music 106, Chamber music

• Music 179, Adv st mus performance

• Music 81, Strings

• Music 91, Strings

Selected Professional Work:

    Recordings

• Ciompi Quartet. String Quartets of Paul Schoenfield. Winter, 2008 .  [abs]
• J.E. Bagg. Music of Robert and Clara Schumann.  Centaur (CRC 2581), 2002 . (R. Schumann: Märchenbilder, op 113, Fantasiesücke op. 73, Adagio and Allegro op. 70, Fairy Tales; C. Schumann: Three Romances, op. 22. Liner notes by Jonathan Bagg)

   Solo Performances:

• Solo Performances, 2009/11/27
  
  Sunday, January 18: Faculty Recital, Nelson Music Room, Duke Friday,
  
  November 20: Rare Music: Lecture-recital at Rare Book Room, Perkins Library
• Solo Performances, January 01, 2008 - December 31, 2008
  January 20, 2008 Recital with joseph Robinson, Oboe, jane Hawkins, piano
  

• Master Classes, 2009/11/27
  Saturday, March 14: Master Class at Belgrade Conservatory
• Master Classes, 2008/12/08
  

  December 5, 2008: Master class for viola students at the Boston Conservatory

  June 24, 2008: Master classes at North Carolina School of the Arts for chamber music students.
  

• Artistic Direction, Monadnock Music Festival, Peterborough, NH, January, 2006 - October 2011
  
  This past season was my last as co-Artistic Director of the Monadnock Music festival. In October its new Executive Director opted, in a controversial decision, to restructure the organization so that it functioned with a locally-based Artisic Director. 
   Since it began in 1966 Monadnock Music’s mission was to bring music of the highest quality into the towns of New Hampshire’s rural Monadnock region. During my tenure as co-Artistic Director, I strove to keep this and its other unique characteristics flourishing. With nearly three dozen concerts each summer, over half of them free—chamber music, orchestra performances, and vocal music, combining the classic with the contemporary, the festival brought a great deal of music to area in its short, six week season. The founders’ goal of combining excellence and community service remained central. Depth and breadth of repertoire and making music accessible to all were top priorities. Monadnock Music is well known for having a viewpoint distinct from the commercial mainstream. Its advocacy of interesting and important music and musicians has earned the support of thousands of audience members, of the press, and of numerous foundations. 
Between 2007 and 2011, I was directly responsible for bringing in over $250,000 in grants from organizations such as the NEA, Getty, Goelet, Arogsy, and several smaller foundations. Musicians from leading American and European orchestras as well as highly respected solo performers come, in some cases year after year, eager to work together in an environment that is artistically challenging and satisfying.