SPOTLIGHT Ming Aldrich-Gan ’10: From Bard to Broadway The story of how Ming Aldrich-Gan ’10 landed a gig with the biggest hit on Broadway exemplifies, he says, a maxim attributed to Seneca: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” The preparation was certainly there, with bachelor’s degrees in piano performance (at the Bard College Conservatory of Music), computer science, and mathematics, after winning major prizes and giving concert tours in his native Malaysia. Indeed, having previously conducted Aldrich-Gan in his debut with the American Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Leon Botstein introduced him at the 2016 Bard Music Festival Gala by saying, “There is no style of music he will not play.” The opportunity came when Aldrich-Gan, who has an abiding passion for musical theater, attended a master class with Alex Lacamoire, music director and orchestrator for Hamilton, which ran away with 11 Tony Awards, including best musical. Asked to demonstrate a groove, Aldrich-Gan played the “dance break from the big act 2 opening number of The Bandstand, a new musical that had just opened at Paper Mill Playhouse the previous night, for which I worked as a music assistant and rehearsal pianist,” he says. Following the master class, “I e-mailed Alex to thank him, and he replied, ‘Would you be willing to play some Hamilton stuff for me if I gave you some tunes to shed [practice]?’ Of course, one does not turn down a personal invitation from Alex Lacamoire to audition for the hottest show on Broadway!” Since then, as a substitute keyboard player, he’s had regular work as a rehearsal player with the show, playing in more than 30 Hamilton performances in four months. In fact, he’s getting to be quite a familiar face on Broadway, having also subbed for such hit shows as An American in Paris, The Book of Mormon, and Aladdin. He picked up his first Broadway Playbill credit—a milestone for any musical theater performer—as a rehearsal pianist for the revival of Cats.
Ming Aldrich-Gan ’10 and Margaret Aldrich-Gan ’09 with daughter Matilda photo Leslie Kowarsky
As a proud alumnus of the first graduating class of the Bard Conservatory’s double-degree program, Aldrich-Gan is especially thankful for the guidance of John Halle, director of studies in music theory and practice, who encouraged him to apply for the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, through which he has subsequently made several connections crucial to his career. “John Halle had previously also taught Bobby Lopez—of Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, and Frozen fame—at Yale, and while I have yet to meet Bobby, it’s cool knowing I share that educational lineage,” he says. And, oh, yes, the newly sworn-in American citizen has one more thing to thank Bard for: his wife, Margaret Aldrich-Gan ’09. —Mikhail Horowitz
Bard Graduate Center Exhibition Charles Percier: Revolutions in Architecture and Design, on view in Bard Graduate Center’s (BGC) main gallery from November 18 to February 5, is the first large-scale exhibition to survey the magnificent range of projects undertaken by the French architect and interior designer from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century. Organized by BGC, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux de France, and the Château de Fontainebleau, the show was curated by Jean-Philippe Garric, professor of architecture at the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. The work of Percier (1764–1838) significantly influenced decorative arts and architecture during a turbulent and rapidly changing period in French history. Featuring nearly 150 objects from France’s principal museums and cultural institutions, as well as key works from public and private American collections, the exhibition includes Percier’s designs for furniture, porcelain, metalwork, and a large-scale drawing of the rue de Rivoli—the construction of which transformed the center of Paris. Rare drawings and spectacular examples of early 19th-century cabinets, candelabras, and tureens are also displayed. Integrating his most famous and seminal works, such as sketches for the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the interior designs for Joséphine Bonaparte’s Château de Malmaison, and magnificent books dedicated to Roman palaces and interior decoration, the exhibition demonstrates the diverse creations of an artist whose designs illuminated a path to modernity. Andiron with Psyche, by Pierre-Phillippe Thomire, after a design by Charles Percier, 1809. Chased and gilt bronze. Château de Fontainebleau.
30 on and off campus