Bard’s extraordinary faculty are dedicated to the philosophy of teaching. Today and throughout Bard’s history, members of the faculty have effected change in medicine, the arts and letters, international affairs, journalism, scientific research, and education, among other endeavors. These distinguished scholars are advisers as well as instructors: Bard has no graduate teaching assistants. And the average class size of 16 in the Lower College and 12 in the Upper College allows for intimate discussions and one-on-one interaction.
David Bloom ’13 MM ’15. Photo by Bruce Kung
“What brought me to Bard, in a word, was the faculty.”
“To work with Joan Tower, George Tsontakis, and James Bagwell was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. I had long followed and admired their work, and then I found out that each of them taught here. It’s easy for musicians to focus only on music, whereas I wanted to have a broader education that would prepare me for a world that requires a more well-rounded base of knowledge and experience.”
—David Bloom ’13 MM ’15
—David Bloom ’13 MM ’15
Faculty News
Jonathan Becker Discusses the Midterm Elections on Radio Kingston
“This was not an inconsequential election,” Becker said. “In spite of challenges to voting, so many people got to participate.”
Jonathan Becker Discusses the Midterm Elections on Radio Kingston
Acting President Jonathan Becker.
On Election Day this year, more than 400 voters turned up to vote at Bard’s Campus Center polling site. Election@Bard, a student-run initiative that helps students register to vote and provides information about candidates, held nonpartisan get-out-the-vote efforts including early voter vans, “dorm-storming” with peer counselors who delivered election information to residents, and tabling.
Post Date: 11-13-2026
Professor Franco Baldasso Organizes Exhibition in Sicily of Painter Corrado Cagli
The exhibition followed painter Corrado Cagli’s journey through Rome, New York, and Sicily.
Professor Franco Baldasso Organizes Exhibition in Sicily of Painter Corrado Cagli
Artist Corrado Cagli, who's travels were traced in an exhibition organized by Franco Baldasso.
The exhibition focused on Cagli’s return to Italy and the international ties he maintained with such figures as Igor Stravinsky and George Balanchine. At the center of the show was Tempo D'amore, a 1946 drawing Cagli originally gifted to Stravinsky, and which later landed in the collection of the American Academy in Rome. Baldasso facilitated its inclusion in the presentation. “This exhibition was born out of many conversations, in the true spirit of Corrado Cagli," said Baldasso, "who throughout his career passionately engaged in collaborative works with artists, poets, and musicians, crossing disciplines and boundaries."
Post Date: 11-11-2026
More News
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Ellison Center Director Nicholas Lewis Interviewed on Radio Kingston
Ellison Center Director Nicholas Lewis Interviewed on Radio Kingston
Associate Vice President for Academic Initiatives and Associate Dean of Bard College Nicholas Lewis, who also directs the Ralph Ellison Center, appeared on Evenings with JMX on Radio Kingston. Lewis discussed the newly launched Ellison Center and its history, initiatives, and pedagogical underpinnings. The conversation covered Ellison’s work and the material remnants of his creative life, in particular his history and acculturation in New York City and elsewhere, as well as Bard, which was the first place that Ellison taught following his National Book Award-winning novel, Invisible Man. Lewis also explored Ellison’s early work in the field of composition and hinted that several scores of Ellison’s are set to be recorded and released.Director of the Ralph Ellison Center Nicholas Lewis
Ellison’s multidisciplinary, heterodox engagement with creative culture and academia are upheld by Lewis and the Center as an example of leading a life of meaning. “He really is in a way like the prototypical Bard scholar, the students who come who want to explore widely and wildly, who have many different varied interests and passions and proclivities, and he is a sort of model for how one can find coherence in a life.”
Post Date: 11-11-2026
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Shuttered Independent Russian Newspaper Preserved in Digital Archive Cofounded by Bard
Shuttered Independent Russian Newspaper Preserved in Digital Archive Cofounded by Bard
The shuttered independent Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, is being preserved as part of an initiative led by Bard College and PEN America. As detailed in Columbia Journalism Review, the Kronika project has worked since 2022 to digitally preserve the work of independent journalists facing censorship and persecution. Kronika has preserved the entire archive of Novaya Gazeta, first launched in 1993, and recently shut down by the Russian government after decades of repression, including having its website blocked, its newsroom raided, and its editors arrested. “In September, the designation of Novaya Gazeta as a ‘foreign agent’ imposed new and crippling restrictions,” writes CJR. “Last week, Novaya Gazeta was ousted from its offices and announced it would permanently shut down on November 9.”Distinguished Visiting Writer M. Gessen
The Novaya Gazeta archive includes the newspaper's print editions, its websites and YouTube channel, as well as the archive of its St. Petersburg office and other regional offices, a digital weekly titled That Same Novaya Gazeta, a weekly PDF edition started in 2023 after the paper’s print license was revoked. Inspired by Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bard and PEN America trustee M. Gessen, Kronika is host to the Russian Independent Media Archive, or RIMA, which is where the Novaya Gazeta archive is situated. Kronika also hosts a related initiative, CAIMA, which undertakes similar work in Central America. A goal shared by both initiatives is to make it harder for authoritarian leaders to rewrite history. “Without this archive, Russia would have lost not only independent journalism but also core historical memory,” writes CJR, “We would not know how dictatorships take shape.”
Post Date: 11-11-2026
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Composer and Longy School of Music Instructor Niloufar Nourbakhsh Interviewed in San Francisco Classical Voice
Composer and Longy School of Music Instructor Niloufar Nourbakhsh Interviewed in San Francisco Classical Voice
Composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh, who teaches theory and composition at Bard College’s Longy School of Music, was interviewed by the San Francisco Classical Voice. The interview took place before the premiere of Nourbakhsh’s new production The Innocence of Life, a 20-minute piece commissioned by the ensemble Camerata Pacifica. Nourbakhsh describes the piece as a cycle through loss, death, and rebirth, inspired by the passing of her mother and the birth of her daughter. “I became a mom six months ago, and that has radically shifted my ideas about life in many ways,” said Nourbakhsh, “so the third movement is the act of birth [that] made me understand how privileged I am to give birth in security.”Composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh. Photo courtesy Niloufar Nourbakhsh
Nourbakhsh is a founder of the Iranian Female Composers Association, and winner of the 2022 Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation competition as well as a 2023 Chamber Music America Commissioning Grant. The Innocence of Life premiered from November 8 to 13 at four Los Angeles venues.
The Longy School of Music of Bard College is a degree-granting Conservatory and school of Preparatory and Continuing Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Longy provides a distinguished faculty that promotes profound musical understanding and technical mastery, encourages growth of imagination, and fosters inquiry about the role of the musician in the larger world.
Post Date: 11-11-2026
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Acting President Jonathan Becker Appears as a Panelist on WAMC’s The Roundtable
Acting President Jonathan Becker Appears as a Panelist on WAMC’s The Roundtable
Acting President of Bard Jonathan Becker appeared as part of a panel on WAMC’s The Roundtable. The panel discussed student voting and elections in Michigan and Alaska, and answered audience questions. Becker, who was introduced as “the voting guy”, also spoke about the challenges Bard faced while advocating for a polling place on campus in 2020. “It is tough for young voters to vote,” Becker said. “If the history of American higher education is about the link between higher education, democracy, and engaged citizenship … what we have today is an administration which will seek out any folk that they consider to be a potential pool of opposition, [and] that's happening with college students today.”Bard Acting President Jonathan Becker. Photo by Rachel L Crittenden
Becker coedited Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses, which won the American Association of Colleges and Universities 2026 Frederic W. Ness Book Award. Scholar in Residence Yael Bromberg, Becker’s coeditor, was interviewed in October about student voting and how residency determinations are made. "In the case of a student who may not know where she might live after graduation, that determination of domicile is highly personal and an individualized assessment,” Bromberg told NPR.
Post Date: 11-04-2026
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Missy Mazzoli’s Lincoln in the Bardo Praised in the New Yorker
Missy Mazzoli’s Lincoln in the Bardo Praised in the New Yorker
Bard Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli’s opera Lincoln in the Bardo had its premier at the Metropolitan Opera on October 19. The New Yorker wrote a profile of Lincoln in the Bardo, which is an adaptation of a novel by George Saunders, assessing the musical, literary, and performance aspects of the opera and placing the work in the context of Mazzoli’s broader career. “Mazzoli, once best known for her indie-electro band, Victoire, has emerged as one of our leading dramatic composers, and the opera,” wrote Nathan Heller. “Lincoln in the Bardo, written with her longtime librettist, Royce Vavrek, is both her first Met commission and the company’s first première by a woman.” The premier was previously covered by Opera News.Bard composer in residence Missy Mazzoli
Lincoln in the Bardo finds the former American president in a cemetery at the end of the Civil War, where he is grieving the death of his 11-year-old son, and encounters a variety of lingering ghosts. Artistic director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program, Stephanie Blythe, is also featured in the opera. “Mazzoli, who has trained as a death doula, is known for burrowing deep into specific worlds,” writes Heller. “In Lincoln in the Bardo, she has produced a rich twenty-first-century score with musical shadows of both the Civil War era and the Halloween graveyard.”
Mazzoli is faculty member in the Bard Music Program and the Bard College Conservatory of Music, whose mission is to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music. She teaches classes on composition and new music, as well as giving private studio instruction for composition majors at Bard.
Post Date: 11-04-2026
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Bard College Announces 16th President, Marvin Krislov, JD
Bard College Announces 16th President, Marvin Krislov, JD
The Bard College Board of Trustees, after an extensive and careful search, announced the appointment of Marvin Krislov as the College’s 16th President. In a unanimous vote, the Board of Trustees elected Krislov to become the next leader of Bard, one of the most innovative and distinctive private liberal arts colleges in our nation. Krislov will take office on July 1, 2027 for a three-year term, succeeding Jonathan Becker, who continues to serve as Acting President through the end of the current academic year.Marvin Krislov, Bard College’s President-Elect.
President-Elect Marvin Krislov comes to Bard College from Pace University, where he has been President since 2017. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1988. Among other honors, he is a Rhodes Scholar and studied modern history at Oxford University, receiving a master’s degree and second bachelor’s degree. He graduated from Yale College, summa cum laude, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Krislov began his career in public service, practicing law in the US Department of Justice, Office of Counsel to the President under President Bill Clinton, and US Department of Labor, before becoming Vice President and General Counsel at the University of Michigan in 1998 until 2007. From 2007 to 2017, Krislov was President of Oberlin College. He has taught undergraduate courses in law and political science at Pace University, Oberlin College, the University of Michigan, and George Washington University. In 2009, he was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to the National Council on the Humanities, where he served a 10-year tenure until 2019.
“Marvin Krislov is the ideal leader to guide the College forward at a pivotal moment in the institution’s 166-year history. Building upon Bard’s legacy of innovation and excellence, Krislov is committed to honoring and advancing the institution’s mission as a private college serving the public good,” said Chairman of the Bard College Board of Trustees, Brandon Weber ’97. “His deep experience and many accomplishments within higher education; his thoughtful and collaborative approach to leadership; as well as his unwavering dedication to educational equity, accessibility, and the arts encompass the qualities of leadership we sought for Bard’s next president. The Board of Trustees is excited about the future of Bard under his stewardship and confident he will deepen the College’s impact on higher education for future generations of students.”
“I am honored and humbled by this opportunity to lead this extraordinary institution,” said Marvin Krislov, Bard College’s President-Elect. “Bard’s commitment to students and communities across this country and around the world sets a standard of excellence for all of higher education. I am inspired by Bard’s intellectual rigor, openness, concern for civic engagement, and its unwavering conviction that music and the arts belong with the natural and human sciences in the educational experience. I look forward with optimism to working with the Board, faculty, staff, and students in advancing our mission to provide world-class education for individual fulfillment and in the public interest.”
Since joining Pace University as its President in 2017, Krislov has overseen the institution during a period of progress and transformation. At Pace, he secured record levels of public and private funding, increased student enrollment and graduation rates, launched the Sands College of Performing Arts, and reimagined its New York City campus through landmark investments, including the opening of 15 Beekman and the renovation of One Pace Plaza East. He led the university through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic with steadiness and resolve, while emerging as a leading advocate for student mental health and well-being. His nearly 10-year tenure at Pace reflects his enduring commitment to expanding opportunity, strengthening the student experience, and positioning that institution for a vibrant and successful future.
From 2007 to 2017, Krislov served as President of Oberlin College, one of the few liberal arts institutions that, like Bard, is home to a fully integrated conservatory of music within its undergraduate college. At Oberlin, he successfully led a comprehensive $318 million fundraising campaign (the largest in the college’s history) and launched Oberlin Access Initiative to support low-income students for whom a liberal arts education would not otherwise be accessible.
As the University of Michigan’s Vice President and General Counsel from 1998 to 2007, Krislov spearheaded the legal, political, and public education strategy for the landmark 2003 Supreme Court cases Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. He has throughout his career steadfastly advocated for diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education.
“Over the many years that I have known and worked with Marvin Krislov, I have witnessed firsthand that he is a distinguished scholar and a collaborative leader who understands the importance of the arts and civic engagement in preparing students to soar to the heights of their possibilities. I applaud the selection of Marvin Krislov as the 16th President of Bard College,” said Johnnetta Betsch Cole, President Emerita of Spelman College and Bennett College.
“Marvin Krislov is an experienced higher education leader and an excellent choice for Bard College. Always attuned to student concerns, institutional integrity, and financial stability, Marvin will chart an exciting new course for the College during a challenging era for higher education in our country. Marvin knows the Northeast, the Midwest, liberal arts colleges, the arts, the law, and professional education. He is the perfect fit,” said Mary Sue Coleman, President Emerita of the University of Michigan.
“I've known Marvin for many years, back when he was President of my alma mater Oberlin. He's a special person, a humble guy, and also the type of person who can go 360 degrees when it comes to dealing with all types of people. Marvin can sit down with a plumber or a PhD and have a thrilling, engaged conversation about any manner of subjects. My favorite Marvin Krislov story is when he was serving as President of Pace and came to a kids’ concert at my church in the Red Hook Housing Projects in Brooklyn. About 15 kids from the projects banged away at instruments for an hour or two. I looked up during the concert and who did I see in one of the pews but Marvin! Afterwards, he was approached by one of the locals, a colorful dude with a net worth of about 25 cents who fancies himself an expert on the stock market, among other things. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but when I looked over, I saw the two of them laughing,” said author, musician, and screenwriter James McBride, Distinguished Journalist in Residence, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, NYU. “He's a perfect fit for Bard, a wonderful institution. He understands the complexities that face us in these difficult times. In terms of creativity and the importance of a liberal arts education, music, art, science, research, he checks all the important boxes. And most importantly, he has given his life over to the betterment of humanity. He lives it. It's a loss for Pace and the NYC creative community, and a real gain for Bard.”
As Bard’s next President, Krislov will take leadership of one of the world’s most innovative and distinctive institutions of higher education. Bard stands out for its belief in the inextricable link between education and democracy, its emphasis on civic engagement, its commitment to radically expanding access to liberal education, and as a champion of the arts, music, and intellectual freedom. More than just a small liberal arts college, Bard’s expansive educational networks—including the Bard Prison Initiative, Bard Early Colleges, Bard College Berlin, Bard Graduate Center, Bard Global Degree, and dual-degree programs in Palestine and Kyrgyzstan—provide rigorous liberal arts education to a diverse population of over 6,500 students enrolled in AA, BA, Masters, and PhD programs worldwide as well as academic refuge for threatened students and scholars. Bard offers transformational degree opportunities to underserved communities as it pioneers new models of educational collaboration globally. On Bard’s home campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, its world-renowned faculty, academic excellence, and rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum — from the arts to the experimental sciences — stand out in today’s higher education landscape.
Following the transformative 51-year tenure of Leon Botstein, Krislov’s appointment comes at a pivotal moment of growth and expansion at Bard College. “During Leon Botstein’s more than half a century of inspired leadership, Bard grew into an institution that brought the transformative power of education to students of all backgrounds at—and beyond—its home campus. I am thrilled that under its new leadership, Bard will continue to advance education, so important for our democracy, in the public interest,” said Phil Murphy, former Governor of New Jersey and parent of Bard College alum Joshua Murphy ’20.
The campus has recently opened a new energy-efficient Passive House–designed residential complex, which features a light-filled campus center, and houses more than 400 students across five distinct buildings. A superb 25,000-square-foot Maya Lin–designed performing arts studio building for the Fisher Center at Bard completed construction this year. Recently launched initiatives including the Chang Chavkin Center for Liberal Education and Civic Life, which seeks to foster liberal education nationwide, and the newly established Ralph Ellison Center, which serves as a central hub to writers, artists, and scholars, build upon Bard’s commitment to interdisciplinary learning and the connection between education and democracy. At a challenging time for higher education, Bard has raised $1 billion in the past five years to secure a transformational endowment and continues to experience steady increase in undergraduate admissions and enrollment numbers.
Post Date: 10-29-2026
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