Name: Program Six • I live with God ever before me: Mozart’s Religion
Start: 2026-08-13T19:00:00
Location: Church of the Messiah Epscpl

Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College

A thrilling new opera based on Tennessee Williams’s fever-dream of a play about a family secret, and a mother’s desperate attempt to silence the truth.

Suddenly Last Summer

Fisher Center at Bard

Lucinda Childs, a defining force in American dance, returns to Bard SummerScape with a one-of-a-kind program of new and iconic works.

Lucinda Childs: Momentary Reprise

Andy Monk of Queer Conspiracy hosts and co-curates this year’s After Hours series, with a DJ lineup featuring fresh faces and returning favorites.

After Hours 2026

Underground System is a shape-shifting, larger-than-life force in New York City’s dance music scene, fusing Afrobeat, punk, and disco into a sound that’s as unpredictable as it is infectious. The band’s debut LP, What Are You, earned cult status for its “David Byrne meets Soulwax” (KCRW) energy and propelled them onto global stages like Eurockéennes and Fusion Festival. Led by Domenica—returning to Bard SummerScape after playing flute for Illinoise in 2023—Underground System launches the Spiegeltent season with an unforgettable night of “exuberant dance music that blooms out into countless directions” (Rolling Stone).

Underground System

Pastoral is the latest world premiere from Fisher Center LAB Choreographer in Residence Pam Tanowitz at Bard SummerScape, in a major new collaboration with composer Caroline Shaw and visual artist Sarah Crowner.

Pastoral

Comedian and actor James Austin Johnson makes his Spiegeltent debut with a stand-up set showcasing the sharp wit and chameleonic impression skills that have made him one of today’s most exciting comedians. Named “one of SNL’s most versatile celebrity impressionists” by The New York Times, Johnson is widely recognized for his uncanny portrayal of Donald Trump, and is currently in his fourth season as a cast member on the show. Fresh off appearances in film (A Complete Unknown, Inside Out 2), television (Barry, Better Call Saul), and podcasting, Johnson brings a bold, unpredictable night of comedy to the Spiegeltent.

James Austin Johnson

The Fretliners are a band defined by their songwriting—stories carried by powerful harmonies, dynamic arrangements, and a sound that feels both timeless and new. Their music leans into the tradition of acoustic string instruments but reaches well beyond genre, resonating with listeners through honesty and craft.

The Fretliners

The Tray Wellington Band returns to the Spiegeltent with a forward-looking, high-energy performance that pushes the boundaries of acoustic music. Led by virtuosic banjo player Tray Wellington—winner of the Steve Martin Banjo Award and an International Bluegrass Music Association Award—the ensemble brings his compositions to life through rich instrumentation and inventive arrangements. Highly original and unconcerned with tradition, the Tray Wellington Band seamlessly fuses folk, bluegrass, jazz, and contemporary roots music into a thrilling, singular experience.

Tray Wellington Band

Artist, composer, vocalist, and Spiegeltent favorite Martha Redbone returns to Bard SummerScape with a musical celebration of the words and legacy of bell hooks. In this developmental work-in-process, Redbone and longtime musical collaborator Aaron Whitby embark on a multidisciplinary musical exploration of bell hooks’s landmark poetry collection, Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place. Known for their powerful and award-winning settings of poets Ntozake Shange in for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (2019 Drama Desk Award; 2022 Broadway revival) and William Blake on the album, The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake, Redbone and Whitby channel bell hooks’s meditative, confessional, and political lyricism into a genre-defying soundscape that echoes the spirit of her Kentucky roots and heritage she shares with Redbone.

Martha Redbone

The musical legacy of John Hartford has found a new chapter with The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project. Mandolinist Sharon Gilchrist, fiddle player Rachel Baiman, and banjo/guitarist Ella Korth bring newly discovered Hartford tunes to old-time and bluegrass fans everywhere. These compositions, found handwritten in 60 notebooks after John’s death, were compiled in The John Hartford Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes, and recorded on the Grammy-nominated album, The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Vol. 1, and Vol. 2: Julia Belle (co-produced by Gilchrist and released in February 2025). The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project is passionate about sharing these tunes far and wide so that they can become part of the roots music canon for future musicians to love and enjoy.

The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project

Composer, pianist, vocalist, and activist Samora Pinderhughes makes his Spiegeltent debut with a unique and powerful evening of song. Known for striking intimacy and carefully crafted, radically honest lyrics alongside high-level musicianship, Pinderhughes has been named “one of the most affecting singer-songwriters today, in any genre” by The New York Times. He is the first-ever Art for Justice + Soros Justice Fellow, a United States Artist Fellow, a recipient of Chamber Music America’s Visionary Award, the 2025 Adobe Creative Residency at The Museum of Modern Art, and has received awards from Creative Capital and Sundance.

Samora Pinderhughes

Jazz at Lincoln Center has gathered the most advanced high school jazz instrumentalists and vocalists from around the United States to present the very best of big band, small group, and vocal jazz.