ANNANDALE-ON-HUDON, N.Y. – Bard College's Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts has joined High 5 Tickets to the Arts to create High 5 Hudson Valley, designed to offer its world-class performing arts programs at deep discounts to Hudson Valley-area students. Under the program, any student under the age of 25 with a valid full-time student ID can purchase tickets for Fisher Center performances for only $5.00. The discount allows for the purchase of up to two (2) performance tickets for $5 each, with up to one (1) ticket allowed for use with an accompanying adult. All High 5 Hudson Valley tickets are subject to availability for select performances.

To purchase tickets, students and/or parents can visit www.hudsonvalley.highfivetix.org, or call the High5 Hotline at 212.445.8587. Upon purchasing tickets through High 5, students will receive a voucher to be redeemed at the Fisher Center box office the day of the event. Students must present a valid ID at the Box Office when picking up tickets. All High 5 tickets must be picked up at the box office no later than one half hour prior to curtain or tickets are subject to release.

"High 5 is excited about extending its boundaries to the Hudson Valley," said Ada Ciniglio, executive director of High 5 Tickets to the Arts. "The Hudson Valley region is extraordinarily rich in art and, with Bard at its center, we think this program will be a great success."

Throughout the year, Bard's Fisher Center presents a wide range of world-class performing arts productions, including music, opera, dance, drama, and theater. During Bard SummerScape, the Center's summer-long performing arts festival, all of these genres are represented in myriad productions running from the end of June to the end of August. High Five Tickets to the Arts will apply throughout the season.

According to Tambra Dillon, director of the Fisher Center, "This is an exciting partnership for the Fisher Center. We are committed to becoming a performing arts institution for all residents of the Hudson Valley region, and making our programming more accessible to young people is an integral part of achieving that goal."

Among the many performances available through this program during the 2007 Bard SummerScape Festival are Doug Varone and Dancers, including the world premiere of Victorious; two one-act operas by Alexander von Zemlinsky based on the work of Oscar Wilde, A Florentine Tragedy and The Dwarf; AandBC's new production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan; a new dance commission by choreographer Susan Marshall for the Spiegeltent, Carl Hancock Rux's music-theater piece The Blackamoor Angel; several concerts within the Bard Music Festival programming and much more.

Founded in 1995, High 5 Tickets to the Arts is dedicated to encouraging and inspiring young people to experience the arts by offering educational programming and reduced-price tickets for cultural events. More than 300 of New York City's visual and performing arts organizations have donated tickets to High 5, offering their work to the city's diverse teen community.

Each year thousands of tickets to performances and exhibitions are offered and to date more than 120,000 seats have been filled through the efforts of this unique organization. Through High 5, students have attended performances at world-class institutions such as Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Students have seen the best of Broadway and the work of New York's internationally renowned downtown theaters, all at a discounted price. In addition to its ticketing program, High 5 offers after-school workshop courses that teach literacy skills through engagement in the arts. Students in the Teen Reviews and Critics Program (TRaC) attend performances and write reviews about their experiences, which are shared with their peers through High 5's much visited website (www.high5tix.org). High 5's TRaC affiliations with Dance Theater Workshop, Carnegie Hall, The Public Theater, and ArtTable give students access to a network of professionals in a variety of disciplines.

Working on the High 5 model, cities around the country have instituted similar programs. High 5's has worked to setup affiliate programs in Seattle; Columbus, Ohio; and Long Island, and has inspired programs in Toronto, Miami and Auckland, New Zealand.

For more information about Fisher Center performance programs call the Fisher Center box office at 845-758-7900 or visit fishercenter.bard.edu