Overview

BCOM Overview Intro


Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts

Music, like all art, engages the mind and the heart. It redefines boundaries and questions limits in order to make a meaningful statement about the human condition. The education of the mind is, therefore, as important as the education of the fingers. The greatest musicians not only have the technical mastery to communicate effectively, but also are deeply curious and equally adept at analytical and emotional modes of thought.

The mission of The Bard College Conservatory of Music is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music.

Blending a beautiful setting along the Hudson River, a world class faculty, a student body of the highest artistic level, an innovative and intellectually rigorous liberal arts college, and a warm and supportive learning environment, the Bard College Conservatory of Music is an exceptional place in which to further one's artistic and intellectual aspirations.

Outstanding Faculty 

The Bard Conservatory’s faculty members are renowned performing musicians whose artistry has been featured in the world’s great concert halls. They are on campus weekly to give lessons, coach chamber ensembles, offer master classes, and lead sectional rehearsals of the orchestra. On occasion, students travel to New York City or elsewhere in the Hudson Valley for lessons. The curricular resources of the Bard College Music Program are also available to Conservatory students. 

Unrivaled Performance Opportunities

The Bard Conservatory Orchestra performs at least four times each year in The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. Students perform in chamber music concerts and special contemporary music concerts throughout the year and, with permission of their teachers, in shared or full-length solo recitals. Each year, as many as three winners of a concerto competition perform as soloists with the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, in the orchestra’s Fisher Center series. Conservatory students have also been engaged as soloists with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, and other professional ensembles.

In recent years, students and faculty have performed together in professional engagements in Beijing and Shanghai, China; at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society; Music Mountain in Falls Village, Connecticut; Bard Music Festival; and in Vero Beach, Florida; Budapest, Hungary; New York City; and throughout the Hudson Valley. The Conservatory Orchestra recently made its New York City debut at Alice Tully Hall in a concert of Elgar, George Perle, and Mahler, conducted by Leon Botstein and featuring faculty Melvin Chen and Dawn Upshaw as soloists. The orchestra also performs regularly at the Eastern Correctional Facility as part of the Bard Prison Initiative.

Composition majors are offered extensive performance opportunities through readings by the Da Capo Chamber Players and Conservatory Orchestra, and performances by fellow students as part of the series Music Alive!

Outstanding Facilities

The Conservatory office, classrooms, teaching studios, and practice rooms are located in the Blum Institute, the music wing of the Milton Avery Center for Arts on the Bard campus. Blum also contains a state-of-the-art recording studio and several large rehearsal and performance spaces, including Blum Hall. 

The Conservatory orchestra rehearses and peforms in the beautiful Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts designed by noted architect Frank Gehry. Additional performance venues on campus are Olin Auditorium, Bard Hall, and the Chapel of the Holy Innocents. The Graduate Vocal Arts Program has its home in Manor Gatehouse and uses Olin Auditorium for its weekly seminars.

Practice rooms in addition to those in Blum are located throughout the campus--in several residence halls, Manor Gatehouse, and in Olin Hall. In addition, academic classrooms are available for practice during evening hours. The music collection is housed in the Stevenson Library.

Planning is underway for expanded Conservatory facilities, including general-use classrooms, faculty offices, teaching studios, a 150-seat recital hall, and space for the archives of composer John Cage and several other major 20th-century composers.

Additional Resources 

Distinct from the Conservatory of Music, the Music Program of Bard College offers a full curriculum leading to a B.A. degree that includes courses in music history, music theory, composition, electronic music, jazz studies, ethnomusicology, and a variety of workshops and ensembles, all of which are open to Conservatory students. In addition to courses, the Conservatory and Music Program share classroom, performance, and practice spaces and work together on a variety of projects.

A Record of Success

Since its inception, undergraduate students of the Bard Conservatory have distinguished themselves through

Graduate School Acceptances: Music Performance
  • Boston University
  • The Colburn School
  • Indiana University
  • The Juilliard School
  • Manhattan School of Music
  • Mannes College The New School for Music
  • New England Conservatory
  • Northwestern University
  • Rice University
  • SUNY Stony Brook
  • University of Southern California
Other Graduate and Professional School Acceptances
  • California Institute of Technology
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Music Festival Acceptances
  • Aspen Music Festival and School
  • Atlantic Music Festival
  • Banff Summer Arts Festival
  • Bowdoin International Music Festival
  • Castleton Festival
  • Colorado Music Festival
  • European American Musical Alliance Summer Composition Program
  • Kent/Blossom Music and Arts Festival
  • Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival
  • Manchester Music Festival
  • Music Academy of the West Summer Festival
  • New York String Orchestra Seminar
  • Pacific Rim Music Festival
  • Pierre Monteux School
  • Quartet Program
  • Round Top Festival Institute
  • Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival
  • Tanglewood Music Center
  • Verbier Festival
  • West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
  • Yellow Barn Music School and Festival
Distinctions earned by alumni of the Vocal Arts Program include:
  • Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions
  • Winner of Astral Artists National Auditions
  • Prizewinners at the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition
  • Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers
  • Los Angeles Opera-Thornton Domingo Young Artist Program
  • Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera
  • Utah Opera Apprentice Artists Program
  • Appearances with the Phoenix Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, and Portland Baroque Orchestra, and in the Cincinnati May Festival and Bard SummerScape
Distinctions earned by alumni of the Graduate Conducting Program include:
  • Assistant Conductor, Boston Symphony Orchestra
  • Orchestra Conductor, Interlochen Arts Academy
  • Music Director, Erato Chamber Orchestra
  • Assistant Conductor, Spoleto Festival (SC)
  • Appearances at the Aspen, Cabrillo, and Bard Music Festivals
  • A stipend from the Wagner Stiftung to attend Bayreuth

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