Longy School of Music Becomes a Part of Bard College

Cambridge, MA—Bard President Leon Botstein and Longy School of Music President Karen Zorn announced today that the Longy School of Music has become a part of Bard College and will now be known as the Longy School of Music of Bard College. The Longy School will remain in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and retain its own operating budget. It will be accredited by The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

“Longy has found an ideal partner in mission and institutional direction in Bard College,” Zorn said. “Bard is a bold leader in liberal arts education, with a history of socially-based programming that perfectly embodies Longy’s spirit of educational entrepreneurship and innovation. We are already seeing this partnership open new doors for our growing community of musicians and education advocates across the country.”

"We’re thrilled to have this opportunity to join with our colleagues at Longy to strengthen the tradition of the conservatory education, and to innovate the ways in which the traditions of music education contribute to public life," said Bard College President Leon Botstein.

For their first joint venture in the area of public education reform, Longy and Bard recently partnered with the Los Angeles Philharmonic to launch Take a Stand, a national music education initiative to advance the work of El Sistema in the United States. The project will include a Los Angeles-based Master of Arts in Teaching in Music program—modeled after the original BardMAT Program on the college’s New York State campus—that is expected to launch within the year (pending final accreditation approval). Longy also operates an El Sistema-inspired music program at Bard’s Paramount Bard Academy, a charter school in California’s Central Valley.

Longy’s partnership with Bard will allow it to focus on expanding masters programs for aspiring musician-performers in other parts of the country.

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. 

Longy School of Music of Bard College was founded in 1915 as Longy School of Music 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.

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This event was last updated on 04-09-2012

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