Shawn Moore '11

Shawn Moore is a second-year student at The Bard College Conservatory of Music. He is studying violin and liberal arts, since the Conservatory’s unique five-year program mandates that students receive separate bachelor’s degrees in music and in another field. “I appreciate the fact that I am getting two degrees,” says Moore, a Chicago native. “It’s the primary reason I’m here. Other places offer another degree, but this is the only place I know that actually requires it. Life in one’s instrument is not a sure thing, so another degree gives me both enrichment and a backup.” He’s deciding whether to concentrate in mathematics or Asian studies (he is taking Mandarin Chinese classes, and instructing his many Chinese friends in the Conservatory to “be merciless about my accent”).

Following two courses of study doesn’t leave Moore much time for extracurricular activity, especially when one takes into account the practices and rehearsals that are compulsory for Conservatory students. Moore plays violin and viola in two chamber music groups (he once even played both instruments in the same composition), practices solo pieces, and is in the Conservatory orchestra, where he already has been concertmaster on several occasions. He won the honor of soloist in last fall’s final weekend of the 2007 Bard Music Festival, playing with the American Symphony Orchestra in Charles Villiers Stanford’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 74. The performance was enthusiastically received by audience and orchestra alike, and by a beaming Leon Botstein, conductor and Bard president, at his side.

Both of Moore’s parents are classically trained singers, and his mother home-schooled him and his siblings until high school. She instilled in him a love of books as well as music; when he has time, Moore likes to read, hike, and ride his bicycle to nearby Poets Walk park. “I like the fact that Bard is in the woods,” he says. “It gives me space to reflect.”