The Bard College Conservatory of Music is part of
Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...
in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Founded in 2005, the program is unique among
music conservatories in the United States in that all undergraduate students are required to participate in a five-year dual-degree program, in which both a B.M. in music and a B.A. in a subject other than music are obtained. Many of the Conservatory's faculty also teach at other conservatories such as the
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...
and the
Curtis Institute.
Undergraduate faculty teach the standard orchestral/chamber music instruments and composition. The Conservatory also offers two graduate programs: the Graduate Vocal Arts Program and the Graduate Conducting Program, and a Post-graduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship in addition to a Preparatory Division.
Facilities
The László Z. Bitó Conservatory Building
The construction of the László Z. Bitó Conservatory Building began in October 2011 and was completed in January 2012. Made possible by a $9.2 million gift from Bard alumnus
László Z. Bitó, class of 1960, this teaching and performance facility was designed by
Deborah Berke & Partners Architects.
Conservatory Programs
The Bard College Conservatory of Music offers a five-year undergraduate program in which each student pursues two degrees concurrently: a
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...
degree and a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree in a field other than music. At the graduate level, the Conservatory offers two two-year programs in conducting and voice leading to a
Master of Music. In addition, the conservatory offers a certificate-granting Advanced Performance Studies Program for instrumentalists who have already received a Bachelor's degree.
The Undergraduate Double Degree Program
All Conservatory undergraduates pursue a five-year program leading to two degrees: the bachelor of music and the bachelor of arts in a field other than music. The pursuit of these two degrees at Bard is thoroughly integrated. Conservatory students live, eat, and attend most classes with non-Conservatory students, and are fully part of the academic and social life of the College. Each Conservatory student has two academic advisers, one from the Conservatory and one from a field that the student is considering as a major for the B.A. degree. In the bachelor of music program all performance majors study composition, and the Conservatory Seminar integrates music theory and music history with special emphasis on their relation to performance.
The Graduate Vocal Arts Program
The vocal arts curriculum is divided into three main components: Core Seminars, private instruction, and workshops.
The program's curriculum centers on the Core Seminar, which meets for three hours each week. Each semester the seminar focuses on a topic that addresses different aspects of the singing life: poetry and text, international musical influences, building and sustaining a musical career, and opera.
*Core Seminar I: Dickinson, Goethe, and Verlaine
*Core Seminar II: First Songs
*Core Seminar III: Creating Unique Performance Opportunities
*Core Seminar IV: The Singer and the Stage
Private instruction includes voice lessons, vocal coachings, and
Alexander Technique. In addition to the Core Seminars and private instruction, students participate in Acting Explorations, Diction and Phonetics, Language Translation for Singers, Movement Improvisation, Opera, Professional Development, Recital Class, Singer's Form, Vocal Chamber Music, and Vocal Ensembles Workshops.
The Graduate Conducting Program
Co-directed by Leon Botstein, James Bagwell, The Graduate Conducting Program of The Bard College Conservatory of Music is two-year graduate curriculum that culminates in the
Master of Music (M.M.) degree. The Graduate Conducting Program offers both choral and orchestral conducting tracks.
The Post-Graduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship
The Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship is a two-year fellowship designed to give professional experience to pianists who have a strong interest in becoming collaborative artists, with the ultimate aim of easing the transition between school and the working world of a collaborative pianist. The fellowship is open to both students who have already completed a degree in collaborative piano and those students who have completed a bachelor's degree in piano performance and have a strong interest in further study in collaborative piano.
Advanced Performance Studies Program
The Advanced Performance Studies Program is a nondegree-granting, four semester program for exceptionally gifted performers who wish to continue their study of music through concentrated study. Applicants must have completed at least the bachelor of music degree or its equivalent and must demonstrate a high level of ability and potential through the admission process.
Notable faculty
Tan Dun
Tan Dun (, ; born 18 August 1957) is a Chinese-born American composer and conductor. A leading figure of contemporary classical music, he draws from a variety of Western and Chinese influences, a dichotomy which has shaped much of his life and ...
(Dean of the Conservatory)
*Piano
[Unless otherwise indicated this faculty list is sourced from ]
**
Jeremy Denk
Jeremy Denk (born May 16, 1970 in Durham, North Carolina) is an American classical pianist.
Early life
Denk did not come from a musical family. After several years in New Jersey, his family settled in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he grew up. He ...
(master classes)
**
Richard Goode
Richard Goode (born June 1, 1943) is an American classical pianist who is especially known for his interpretations of Mozart and Beethoven.
Early life
Goode was born in the East Bronx, New York. He studied piano with Elvira Szigeti, Claude Fra ...
(master classes)
**
Peter Serkin
Peter Adolf Serkin (July 24, 1947 – February 1, 2020) was an American classical pianist. He won the Grammy Award for Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist in 1966, and he performed globally, known for not only "technically pristine" pl ...
** Benjamin Hochman
*Violin
**
Shmuel Ashkenasi
Shmuel Ashkenasi ( he, שמואל אשכנזי; born January 11, 1941) is an Israeli violinist and teacher.
Biography
Born in Tel Aviv on January 11, 1941, he began his musical training at the Musical Academy of Tel-Aviv studying with legendary p ...
**
Gil Shaham
Gil Shaham (Hebrew: גיל שחם; born February 19, 1971) is an American violinist of Israeli Jewish descent.
Biography
Gil Shaham was born in Urbana, Illinois, while his Israeli parents were on an academic fellowship at the University of Illino ...
**Yiwen Jiang
**
Ani Kavafian
Ani Kavafian ( hy, Անի Գավաֆեան, born May 10, 1948, Istanbul) is a classical violinist and professor at the Yale School of Music.
Early life and education
Born in Istanbul of Armenian heritage, Ani Kavafian began piano lessons at t ...
(master classes)
**Weigang Li
**Daniel Phillips
**Todd Phillips
**
Arnold Steinhardt (master classes)
*Percussion
**
Eric Beach
**Jason Haaheim
**Jason Treuting
*Cello
**
Peter Wiley
Peter Wiley (born 1955) is a cellist and cello teacher. He entered the Curtis Institute of Music at 13 years of age, where he studied with David Soyer. He was then appointed principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony at age 20, after one year ...
*Flute
**Tara Helen O'Connor
*Oboe
**
Elaine Douvas
Elaine Douvas (born 1952) has been Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City since 1977. She is also Instructor of Oboe and Chairman of the Woodwind Department at The Juilliard School. She also serves on the faculty of Man ...
**Alexandra Knoll
**Ryan Roberts
*Clarinet
**
David Krakauer
**
Anthony McGill
Anthony McGill (born 5 February 1991) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He is a practice partner of retired snooker player Alan McManus.
McGill turned professional in 2010, after finishing fourth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He wo ...
*Bassoon
**
Marc Goldberg
*Horn
**
Julie Landsman (master classes)
**Barbara Jostlein Currie
**Jeffrey Lang
**Julia Pilant
*Composition
**
Joan Tower
Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938)http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_2872=1605 Biography on Schirmer is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by ''The New York ...
**
George Tsontakis
George Tsontakis (born Astoria, Queens, New York City, October 24, 1951) is an American composer and conductor.
Early life and education
He was born in New York City, and is of Greek descent.
Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and ...
**
Da Capo Chamber Players (Artists in residence)
*Performance Studies
**
Luis Garcia-Renart
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
*Vocal Arts
**
Stephanie Blythe (Artistic Director)
**Kayo Iwama (Associate Director)
*Conducting
**
James Bagwell (Co-director)
**
Leon Botstein
Leon Botstein (born December 14, 1946 in Zürich, Switzerland) is a Swiss-American conducting, conductor, educator, and scholar serving as the President of Bard College.
Biography 1946–1975: Early life, education, and career
Botstein was ...
(Co-director)
See also
*
Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
*
Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera
*
Shanghai Quartet The Shanghai Quartet is a string quartet that formed in 1983. The quartet is made up of: first violinist Weigang Li, second violinist Angelo Xiang Yu, violist Honggang Li, and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras. On November 20, 2020 the ensemble announ ...
*
Orion String Quartet
The Orion String Quartet is a string quartet formed in 1987. It is the quartet-in-residence of New York's Mannes College The New School for Music. The members are Todd and Daniel Phillips, brothers who alternate on first and second violin, viol ...
*
Kneisel Hall Kneisel Hall is an annual chamber music festival and school located in Blue Hill, Maine. The season runs for seven weeks each summer from late June until mid-August. A small faculty works with approximately fifty young artists of collegiate and grad ...
*
Bard Prison Initiative
The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) is a program of Bard College that provides college education to people in prison. Currently operating in six prisons across New York State, BPI's academic programs engage students in the full breadth of liberal stud ...
*
Longy School of Music of Bard College
Longy School of Music of Bard College is a private music school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915 as the Longy School of Music, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New En ...
*
Tan Dun
Tan Dun (, ; born 18 August 1957) is a Chinese-born American composer and conductor. A leading figure of contemporary classical music, he draws from a variety of Western and Chinese influences, a dichotomy which has shaped much of his life and ...
References
External links
Official website So Percussion at the Bard College Conservatory of Music
{{Bard college
Bard College
Music schools in New York (state)
Educational institutions established in 2005
2005 establishments in New York (state)