BARD COLLEGE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC Undergraduate Double Degree Graduate Vocal Arts Program Graduate Conducting Program THE BARD CONSERVATORY IS, ABOVE ALL, FEARLESS AND ADVENTUROUS. WE HONOR TRADITION BY LOOKING TO REINVENT IT. WE HONOR OUR STUDENTS BY TREATING THEM AS WHOLE PERSONS, CAPABLE OF MORE THAN THEY IMAGINED. WE BELIEVE IN EXCELLENCE, CURIOSITY, INQUIRY, RISK TAKING, AND COMMUNITY. THE MISSION OF THE BARD COLLEGE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC IS TO PROVIDE THE BEST POSSIBLE PREPARATION FOR A PERSON DEDICATED TO A LIFE IMMERSED IN THE CREATION AND PERFORMANCE OF MUSIC. Grand Hall, Liszt Academy, Budapest UNDERGRADUATE Overview The unique undergraduate curriculum of the Bard College Conservatory of Music is guided by the principle that musicians DOUBLE DEGREE should be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences to achieve their greatest potential. The five-year, double-degree program combines rigorous Conservatory training with a challenging and comprehensive liberal arts program. All Conservatory students pursue a double degree in a thoroughly integrated program and supportive educational community. Graduating students receive a bachelor of music (B.Mus.) and a bachelor of arts in a field other than music (B.A.). At the Bard Conservatory the serious study of music goes hand in hand with the education of the whole person. 2 UNDERGRADUATE DOUBLE DEGREE bard.edu/conservatory/undergraduate 3 Outstanding Faculty The strength of the Conservatory is in its outstanding faculty— renowned performing musicians whose artistry is featured in the world’s great concert halls and in the teaching studio. They are deeply committed to the individual growth of their students through on-campus weekly lessons, chamber music coachings, and studio classes. 4 UNDERGRADUATE DOUBLE DEGREE Joan Tower (left), composition faculty bard.edu/conservatory/undergraduate 5 Curriculum The innovative Conservatory curriculum helps students by developing their musical and intellectual capabilities. In addition to weekly private lessons, chamber music, and orchestra, the bachelor of music program includes courses in aural skills, music history, and a four-semester Conservatory core sequence, which integrates music theory, composition, and music history in order to place students’ music making in a larger social, historical, and expressive context. 6 UNDERGRADUATE DOUBLE DEGREE Peter Wiley (right), cello faculty bard.edu/conservatory/undergraduate 7 Performance Opportunities The Bard Conservatory offers unparalleled performance opportunities for its students in solo, chamber music, and orchestral settings. In addition to numerous opportunities on campus, students perform throughout the Hudson Valley, in New York City, and through chamber music and orchestral tours around the world. Past performance venues have included Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, Brown University, and the major halls of Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, Prague, and Budapest. 8 UNDERGRADUATE DOUBLE DEGREE David Krakauer (right), clarinet faculty bard.edu/conservatory/undergraduate 9 “After a while, ideas from classes begin to cross-pollinate. Connections never before imagined become possible. I’ve found that my computer science class helps me analyze four-part harmony; my idea about a phrase in a Bach sonata helps me conceptualize Plato’s Allegory of the Cave; and the logic of a mathematical proof helps me play a musical phrase convincingly, and bring a sense of organization to my practicing.” —Avery Morris, B.Mus. ’18, violin 10 UNDERGRADUATE DOUBLE DEGREE bard.edu/conservatory/undergraduate 11 “For the curious, the musical, the intellectual, it’s a great choice, as the message here—both by intent and example—is that there are no boundaries between art and academics, and that the study of both may bring the fullest potential to each.” —Marc Goldberg, bassoon faculty 12 BARD CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC bard.edu/conservatory/undergraduate 13 GRADUATE Overview The Graduate Vocal Arts Program (VAP) at the Bard College Conservatory of Music is a unique two-year master of music VOCAL ARTS program in the vocal arts. Conceived and led by renowned American soprano Dawn Upshaw, the program aims to inspire and prepare PROGRAM the young singer in the pursuit of a rewarding professional life in music in the 21st century. Each class consists of a select group of students. Each singer receives the individual attention that can help to uncover and nurture his or her unique artistic voice. 14 GRADUATE VOCAL ARTS PROGRAM Dawn Upshaw (left) and students in Winter Songfest bard.edu/conservatory/vap 15 Outstanding Faculty A group of master voice teachers, coaches, instructors in Alexander Technique, and experts in acting, movement, and diction are supplemented by guest artists drawn from the professional music world. 16 GRADUATE VOCAL ARTS PROGRAM Dawn Upshaw (right), VAP artistic director bard.edu/conservatory/vap 17 Curriculum The vocal arts curriculum is divided into three main components: core seminars, private instruction, and workshops. The core seminars focus on topics that address different aspects of the singing life such as poetry and text, the creation of new performance opportunities, contemporary music, and opera. Students receive weekly private instruction in voice, vocal coaching, and Alexander Technique. Additional course work includes weekly workshops in opera, acting, diction and phonetics, movement, language translation, vocal chamber music, and professional development. Performance Opportunities Performing is the central means of artistic self-discovery in the VAP classes. Most of the classes require weekly in-class participation at a performance level and culminate in public concerts. Throughout the course of the program, each singer is offered opportunities to perform works drawn from the song, oratorio, and operatic repertoires. Singers work in collaboration with pianists, instrumentalists, and orchestra—in recital, oratorio, and fully- staged operatic productions. The VAP curriculum connects the young singer with a larger artistic world through frequent performances in the surrounding area and New York City. 18 GRADUATE VOCAL ARTS PROGRAM Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw bard.edu/conservatory/vap 19 GRADUATE Overview The Graduate Conducting Program (GCP), orchestral and choral, balances a respect for established traditions with the flexibility CONDUCTING and curiosity needed to keep abreast of evolving musical ideas. The program equips its graduates with the broad-based skills PROGRAM and experience necessary to meet the special opportunities and challenges of a conducting career in the 21st century. ORCHESTRAL AND CHORAL 20 GRADUATE CONDUCTING PROGRAMS James Bagwell (right), choral conducting faculty bard.edu/conservatory/gcp 21 Outstanding Faculty The program is led by faculty members with broad experience in the professional music world who are deeply committed to the development of young conductors. It is codirected by Harold Farberman, founder and director of the Conductors Institute at Bard; James Bagwell, principal guest conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and academic director and associate conductor for The Orchestra Now; and Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and music director of the American Symphony Orchestra, The Orchestra Now, and the Bard Conservatory Orchestra. Additional classroom and studio faculty are drawn from the Bard Conservatory, the Bard Music Program, and the greater professional world. 22 GRADUATE CONDUCTING PROGRAMS Harold Farberman (center), orchestral conducting faculty bard.edu/conservatory/gop 23 Curriculum Common Curriculum The curriculum centers on instruction in conducting with generous podium time. Common curriculum is shared by both the orchestral and choral tracks, and includes instruction in music history, ear training, score reading, composition, foreign language study, and career workshops. Choral In addition to a four-semester core seminar in choral conducting, students on the choral track take classes in diction, voice lessons, vocal pedagogy, and choral repertoire. Orchestral Students on the orchestral track take the four-semester core seminar in orchestral conducting and private instrumental lessons. Orchestral conducting students also participate in two summers of the Conductors Institute; in the final summer they present their thesis concert with full orchestra. Conducting Opportunities The opportunity for substantial podium time is integral to the growth and education of young conductors. The orchestral conductors have weekly sessions both with piano and with the Orchestral Conducting Ensemble, an ensemble of players drawn from the Conservatory Orchestra and The Orchestra Now. There are additional regular opportunities to conduct the full complement of the Bard Conservatory Orchestra. Choral students regularly lead the Bard Chamber Singers and Bard Symphonic Chorus. In addition, they work with the Bard Conductors Chorus, a professional ensemble in New York, three times each semester. 24 GRADUATE CONDUCTING PROGRAMS bard.edu/conservatory/gcp 25 Collaborative piano fellow and VAP student Carl Albach (right), trumpet faculty COLLABORATIVE ADVANCED PIANO PERFORMANCE FELLOWS STUDIES The Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship is a two-year fellowship designed to The Advanced Performance Studies Program is a four-semester certificate program ease the transition of a collaborative pianist between school and the working world.