Brent Lewis '09

Brent Lewis, a talented and dedicated cellist, had a difficult decision to make when he was in high school: should he attend a music conservatory or a liberal arts college? He decided to enroll at Bard College rather than a conservatory, because he realized that he wanted “to keep my options open. I also wanted to keep music for myself, as something I love, rather than pursuing it as a career.” Lewis, who plans to go to medical school after he graduates from Bard, is majoring in music, studying under the renowned cellist Luis Garcia-Renart, and performing as often as possible with many different musicians on campus. “Proximity to the Bard Conservatory is one of the main reasons I chose Bard,” Lewis says. “I’ve been able to use its resources, and I play with Conservatory students all the time—in fact, right now a group of us is working on Pierrot Lunaire, a chamber piece that Arnold Schoenberg wrote for piano, violin, flute, clarinet, cello, and voice. The singer is a grad student in the Bard Vocal Arts Program, and everyone else in the group is a Conservatory student except me.”

Lewis’s lifelong interest in medicine was piqued again when he began volunteering with Bard EMS, the emergency medical service on campus. After undergoing training in basic life support, he became the EMS equipment manager and quality-assurance officer. He soon realized he wanted more experience, though—“There really wasn’t much to do as an EMS volunteer. After all, 18- to 22-year-olds don’t get sick that often”—so he took an off-campus job, at Northern Dutchess Paramedics. He assists the paramedics and travels with them all over the region. “Along with the up-close medical experiences, one of the things I really like about it is the fact that I’ve become very familiar with the surrounding area.” Next summer Lewis hopes to be part of a clinical internship program at a medical center in New Jersey, where he will be paired with an orthopedic surgeon—a career that he may be heading toward himself.