Bard College and the Longy School of Music to Merge

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Longy School of Music President Karen Zorn and Bard College President Leon Botstein announced today that their institutions plan to merge. 

“The Longy School of Music of Bard College is excited about this compelling moment in the institution’s history. Longy had been looking for a partner for several years and found an ideal match in mission and institutional direction in Bard College,” Zorn said. “Bard is a bold leader in liberal arts education with a rich and broad curriculum, enhanced by an active and forward thinking community. Being part of the Bard family enables Longy to open our house to a wider community of musicians, scholars and world leaders.”

“Longy’s commitment to rigorous music education programs and preparing musicians to make a difference in the world is to be applauded,” said Botstein. “It is Bard’s firm belief that training artists to perfect their craft is only the first step. We must reach beyond mechanics and teach students how their art can positively impact communities. As individual institutions, Longy and Bard have done that. As merged institutions, our impact will be expansive. The intellectual and musical exchange will result in opportunities to boldly change the direction of music education in this country.”

Since its founding in 1915, Longy has been a leading degree-granting conservatory and school of continuing and preparatory studies for nearly a century. Within the last several years, Longy graduates have gone directly into the ranks of major performing organizations, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, San Francisco Orchestra and the Zurich Opera House Orchestra.

Bard College is internationally renowned as a highly selective independent coeducation college of the liberal arts and sciences dedicated to promoting a rigorous education through innovative programs and high academic standards. The College, founded in 1860 and located 90 miles north of New York City, offers undergraduate degrees in the arts, languages and literature, social studies, and natural sciences and mathematics, as well as graduate degrees in the studio and performing arts, environmental policy, curatorial studies, and the decorative arts and material culture.

Bard College is a private, highly selective independent coeducation college of the liberal arts and sciences dedicated to promoting a rigorous education through innovative programs and high academic standards.  The College, founded in 1860 and located 90 miles north of New York City, offers undergraduate degrees in the arts, languages and literature, social studies, and natural sciences and mathematics, as well as graduate degrees in the studio and performing arts, environmental policy, curatorial studies, and the decorative arts and material culture. Bard College is also home to such research institutions as the Levy Economics Institute, the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, and the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum. The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, designed by Frank O. Gehry, opened in 2002, presents performing arts programs year-round, including the highly acclaimed Bard SummerScape and Bard Music Festivals. It is also home to Bard's theater and dance programs.

The Longy School of Music was founded in 1915 by renowned oboist Georges Longy. A degree-granting Conservatory and school of Preparatory and Continuing Studies, Longy is located in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Longy is led by Karen Zorn, who became the School's 10th President in 2007. The school serves 225 undergraduate and graduate students from 37 states and 21 countries, and nearly 1,000 children and adults from the Greater Boston area. For all students, Longy provides a distinguished faculty that promotes profound musical understanding and technical mastery, encourages growth of imagination, and fosters inquiry about the role of music and the musician in the larger world. With a curriculum rooted in the traditions of Western music, Longy’s mission is to prepare musicians to make a difference in the world. It is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and the National Association of Schools of Music.

For media inquiries please contact:

Kimberlee Labonte
[email protected]
617.876.0956 ext. 1618

Mark Primoff
[email protected]
845.758.7412                                                           

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June 13, 2011

This event was last updated on 10-18-2011

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