COMMENCEMENT
Baccalaureate Service
Thursday the twenty-first of May two thousand twenty-six 4:00 p.m.
Sosnoff Theater
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
BACCALAUREATE SERVICE
The baccalaureate service celebrates the graduation of seniors in the spirit of the founding ethos of Bard College. The congregation is invited to participate according to conscience.
Leon Botstein President of the College
Leon Levy Professor in the Arts and Humanities
James Bagwell Director, Music Program
James Fitzwilliam Guest Organist
BARD COLLEGE CHAPLAINCY
The Rev. Mary Grace Williams, Chaplain of the College and Episcopal Chaplain
Rabbi Joshua Boettiger ’97, Jewish Chaplain
Osho Tatjana Myoko von Prittwitz und Gaffron CCS ’99, Buddhist Chaplain
The Rev. Jim Hess, Roman Catholic Chaplain
BACCALAUREATE BRASS QUINTET
Angel Ruiz Araujo ’27, trumpet
Eric Evans APS ’26, trumpet
Felix Johnson ’23 TŌN ’28, horn
Riley Lyons IAP ’26, tenor trombone
James Chou ’20 APS ’26, bass trombone
PROGRAM
Prelude Baccalaureate Brass Quintet
Contrapunctus I, III, and V
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 arr. Robert King
Processional Baccalaureate Brass Quintet
Triumphal March, from Aida Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) arr. Josip A. Betancourt
Invocation and Welcome
Mary Grace Williams
Hymn Baccalaureate Brass Quintet and Organ “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones”
Reading from the Hebrew Scriptures Leon Botstein Genesis 50:14–21 and Ecclesiastes 3:1–8
Faculty Speaker Miles Rodríguez
Reading from the Qur’an Wais Kakarr ’27
Surah Al-Alaq, verses 1–5
Surah Al-Inshirah, verse 5–6
Surah Al-Mujadilah, verse 11
Music Performance Bard Baroque Ensemble
Flute Sonata in C Major, BWV 1033
1. Andante
2. Allegro
Liliána Szokol ’28, flute Sebastian Sauder ’29, cello Sophia Cornicello ’26, harpsichord Robert Warner, director
Johann Sebastian Bach
Student Speaker Sierra Ford ’26
Musar Teaching Joshua Boettiger ’97 from Alei Shur, vol. 2 Shlomo Wolbe (1914–2004)
Choral Performance
Bard College Chamber Singers “Ave Verum Corpus” Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756–91)
Hail, true Body, born of Mary the Virgin; truly suffering, sacrificed on the cross for man; from whose pierced side flowed water and blood. Be to us a foretaste at death’s trial,
O sweet Jesus, O loving Jesus, O Jesus Son of Mary.
James Bagwell, director
James Fitzwilliam, piano
Speaker Introduction Dumaine Williams ’03
Speaker Raymond Peterson
Reading from the New Testament Robert Dupree ’26
Romans 12:9–21
Alumni/ae Speaker Elias Beltrán ’17
Music Performance
“I Send My Heart Up to Thee” Amy Beach (1867–1944) from Three Browning Songs
Michael Adams VAP ’26, soprano Nomin Samdan APS ’26, piano
Reading Tatjana Myoko von Prittwitz und Gaffron Avatamsaka Sutra: “The Ten Great Vows of a Bodhisattva”
Hymn Baccalaureate Brass Quintet and Organ “The Spacious Firmament”
Benediction Jim Hess
Recessional
Baccalaureate Brass Quintet
Sonata from Die Bänkelsängerlieder Anonymous arr. Robert King
Raymond Peterson
Raymond Peterson grew up on a farm in southwest Iowa, attended Simpson College, and completed graduate work in American studies at the University of Iowa. In 1998, he joined Bard College as director of the Institute for Writing and Thinking, and became founding principal of Bard’s first public High School Early College, in Manhattan in 2001. The close reading and exploratory writing the Institute used as the primary tools of intellectual inquiry became cornerstones of BHSEC’s curriculum. A decade later, Peterson started a Bard Early College in Newark, extending the Bard public tuition-free early college model to a wide and diverse student body. His legacy continues in the work of educators throughout Bard’s High School Early College network—now ten schools in six cities, and one in the Hudson Valley—who carry forward what he first put into practice.
Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones
Ye watchers and ye holy ones
Bright seraphs, cherubim, and thrones, Raise the glad strain, Alleluia!
Cry out, dominions, princedoms, powers, Virtues, archangels, angels’ choirs, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
O higher than the cherubim, More glorious than the seraphim, Lead their praises, Alleluia!
Thou Bearer of the eternal Word, Most gracious, magnify the Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Respond, ye souls in endless rest, Ye patriarchs and prophets blest, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Ye holy twelve, ye martyrs strong, All saints triumphant, raise the song, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
O friends, in gladness let us sing, Supernal anthems echoing, Alleluia, Alleluia!
To God the Father, God the Son, And God the Spirit, Three in One, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Words: John A. L. Riley (1858–1945)
Music: “Lasst uns erfreuen,” melody from Auserlesene Catholische Geistliche Kirchengesänge, Cologne, 1623; adaptation and harmony, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
The Spacious Firmament
The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. The unwearied sun from day to day Does his Creator’s power display; And publishes to every land The work of an almighty hand.
Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth:
Whilst all the stars that round her burn, And all the planets in their turn, Confirm the tidings, as they roll And spread the truth from pole to pole.
What though in solemn silence all Move round the dark terrestrial ball? What though no real voice nor sound Amid their radiant orbs be found? In reason’s ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice; Forever singing as they shine, “The hand that made us is divine.”
Words: Joseph Addison (1672–1719); based on Psalm 19 Music: Creation, Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)