Tyme Khleifi '12

Tyme Khleifi came to Bard from Ramallah, in the West Bank of Palestine. What drew her to The Bard College Conservatory of Music was its five-year dual-degree program. “I had always wanted to do music—and do something else,” says Khleifi, who has studied violin since she was seven. “Bard gives me the whole package. The Conservatory offers a great opportunity to learn with excellent, professional musicians. The campus is beautiful and the college is small enough so you don’t feel lost; if you need help with something, you can always find someone who will help you.” First-year Conservatory students take the two-semester First-Year Seminar required of all Bard students, a two-semester Conservatory seminar (music history and theory), instrument lessons, and one elective each semester: Khleifi took History of Film in the fall and West European Politics and Society in the spring. In addition, she plays with the Bard Conservatory Orchestra and in several chamber ensembles.

As a dual-degree student, Khleifi will earn a bachelor of music and a bachelor of arts in a field other than music. She has not yet decided what that second field will be, but she’s considering German studies or economics. In the meantime, she says, “I can do so many things here that will help me in both my music and my liberal arts education.” For example, she played in the Bard Conservatory Orchestra as it accompanied singers from the Conservatory’s Graduate Program in Vocal Arts in A Bird in Your Ear, an opera by David Bruce that was commissioned by the Conservatory for a world premiere at Bard. In addition to such performance opportunities, Khleifi appreciates “the high level of study offered at Bard—what the professors expect of us and what they teach us, as liberal arts students and as musicians.”