Bard College Conservatory of Music Awarded $2.5 Million Grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The traditional conservatory model has remained largely unchanged for the past two hundred years, but the opportunities and demands of musical life have changed dramatically. Those who are most successful today are articulate, literate, curious, intellectually adventurous, and able to absorb new material quickly – precisely the qualities associated with a fine liberal arts education. “We believe that gifted young musicians both need and deserve a liberal arts education,” notes Melvin Chen, associate director of the Conservatory. Toward this end, Bard’s conservatory curriculum is built around a unique double-degree program that requires all students to undertake studies in music and an academic subject, culminating in both bachelor of music and bachelor of arts degrees.

“The Conservatory’s mission is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music,” Martin says. “The College and the Conservatory are committed to fostering a unified learning environment where the serious study of music is part of the education of the whole person.”

In Bard’s view, a liberal arts education is more than a few humanities courses offered to students in a conservatory setting. Conservatory students should have the experience of taking courses alongside students who are not fellow music students – with those who are passionate about history or literature or philosophy or physics. The ability to comprehend two very different worldviews is a core experience that Bard’s double-degree program offers.

While the double-degree requirement is at the core of Bard’s unique program, it is one of numerous curricular innovations. All students are required to study composition. Bard’s Conservatory Seminar integrates music theory with music history in a performance-based course. Mixed student-faculty chamber music performances are a regular part of each season. An orchestral studies course includes material on historical performance practices, readings of major works beyond those to be performed, and readings of student compositions. Concerto competition winners have the opportunity to perform as soloists with the American Symphony Orchestra. The graduate Vocal Arts Program includes lectures on the poetry and art history associated with each period of art song, as well as a career development workshop. The Piano Fellows program provides a two-year collaboration between competitively selected young pianists and instrumentalists and singers through master classes, lessons, and recitals. 

Bard’s Conservatory faculty has embraced the opportunities to continue to explore their own “double” areas of expertise. Violin faculty member Eugene Drucker, a member of the Emerson String Quartet who has also recently published a novel, will offer a mini-course at Bard in the coming semester on music and literature. Associate director and pianist Melvin Chen, who also holds a Harvard Ph.D. in chemistry, offers courses in the College on physical chemistry, computer graphics, and music and the brain. Director Robert Martin teaches a course on symbolic logic in the College; his philosophy classes regularly include Conservatory students.

Since its inception, the Bard College Conservatory of Music has enrolled 75 students and assembled a roster of 42 faculty who are renowned performing artists. Faculty musicians are on campus weekly to give lessons, coach chamber ensembles, offer master classes, and lead sectional rehearsals of the Conservatory orchestra. The faculty in music history, theory, and the liberal arts and sciences are in residence at Bard College. The Conservatory consists of the core undergraduate program and two graduate components: the Graduate Program in Vocal Arts, created and directed by Dawn Upshaw, and Conductors Institute, directed by Harold Farberman.

Within its first three years, students in the Conservatory have performed alongside faculty members at The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; at the Reading, Pennsylvania, Friends of Chamber Music; at the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society; and at the Bard Music Festival. A Bard student string quartet appeared as finalists in the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, California. Five Conservatory students have appeared as soloists with the American Symphony Orchestra – winners of the annual Concerto Competition. Conservatory students will perform as soloists this season with the Albany Symphony and Woodstock Chamber Orchestra. Bard Conservatory students have received scholarships for summer study at Tanglewood, the Aspen School and Festival, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, and Pacific Music Festival. Bard’s distinguished faculty, including Richard Goode, Peter Serkin, David Krakauer, Dawn Upshaw, Arnold Steinhard, and Ida Kavafian, to name a few, have expressed satisfaction and pleasure in working with their Bard students. 

Though still young, the Bard Conservatory of Music is clearly finding success, as well as widespread support, for its new approach to the conservatory experience. "With this wonderful gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the growing interest in our curriculum throughout the music community, we are confident and even more determined to achieve our goal of bringing about fundamental change in the way musicians are educated,” said Martin.

This event was last updated on 11-10-2008

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