Bard Conservatory of Music News Archive

Internationally renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw—Charles Franklin Kellogg and Grace E. Ramsey Kellogg Professor of the Arts and Humanities and artistic director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at the Bard Conservatory of Music—has been a member of the Bard College faculty since 2004.

A four-time Grammy Award winner, Upshaw is featured on more than 50 recordings, including the million-selling Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Gorecki. Her discography also includes full-length opera recordings of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro; Messiaen’s St. Francois d’Assise; Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; John Adams’s El Niño; two volumes of Canteloube’s “Songs of the Auvergne”; and a dozen recital recordings. Upshaw made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1984 and has since achieved worldwide celebrity. She is known for singing the great Mozart roles (Pamina, Ilia, Susanna, Despina) as well as works by Bach, Bartók, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Messiaen, Debussy, and John Adams. She has performed with James Levine, Sir Simon Rattle, Gilbert Kalish, Kronos Quartet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Cleveland, Chicago, and Philadelphia Symphony Orchestras, among others. She was the first singer to be named a “Perspectives” Artist by Carnegie Hall, and was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007. She earned her B.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University and M.A. from the Manhattan School of Music; she holds honorary doctorate degrees from Yale, the Manhattan School of Music, Allegheny College, and Illinois Wesleyan University. She is also a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center.

Since 1972, Joan Tower has taught at Bard College, where she is Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts. She is regarded as one of the most important living American composers. During a career spanning more than 50 years, Tower has made lasting contributions as composer, performer, conductor, and educator.

She has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Houston Symphonies, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center Chamber Society, among many other major ensembles, soloists, and orchestras. She was the first composer chosen for a Ford Made in America consortium commission for 65 orchestras. Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony recorded her composition Made in America in 2008; the album collected three Grammy awards. In 1990, she became the first woman to win the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Silver Ladders. Other accolades include an honorary degree from the New England Conservatory (2006), the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Composer of the Year (2010–11), and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Guggenheim Foundation, and New York State Council on the Arts. She received her B.A. at Bennington College and her M.A. and D.M.A. at Columbia University. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004) and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998).