Bard Conservatory of Music News Archive

The Bard College Conservatory Orchestra recently performed at Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch, New York, in a concert conducted by Bard College President Leon Botstein. The event featured compositions by Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Ludwig van Beethoven, and was enthusiastically received by an audience of several hundred inmates, as well as Bard College faculty and supporters. Officials of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision also attended, including Acting Deputy Commissioner for Correctional Facilities James O’Gorman and Assistant Commissioner Linda Hollmen. Bard College has a regular presence at Eastern through the Bard Prison Initiative, which enrolls incarcerated students in two- and four-year degree programs.

The Bard College Conservatory of Music will teach an undergraduate program in Chinese musical instrument performance starting next fall.

President Botstein "drew rich, expressive playing" from The Orchestra Now at the Met, and Professor Dawn Upshaw sang "compellingly" with the Brentano String Quartet at the 92nd Street Y.