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Music, like all art, engages the mind and the heart.

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.

More About Us
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    Interested in visiting Bard for a campus tour or performance? 
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A singer in front of an orchestra in Olin Hall
Photo by Karl Rabe

Offering Unique Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

  • Undergraduate Double Degree in Liberal Arts and Music Performance (BA and BM)
  • Graduate Degree in Vocal Arts (MM)
  • Graduate Degree in Conducting (MM)
  • Graduate Degree in Instrumental Studies (MM)
  • Master of Arts in Chinese Music and Culture (MA)
  • Advanced Performance Studies 
  • Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship
Learn More
The Bard Conservatory also offers a Preparatory Division for students ages 3–18.

News

a man in a black t-shirt stands in front of a hallway of gothic stone arches

James Bagwell Named Principal Conductor of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and Berkshire Bach Society

Bagwell was recognized by both organizations for the role he has played over the past two decades in creating a consistent record of excellence in choral performance.

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a man conducts an orchestra

US-China Music Institute's Conference on Chinese Music in the West Featured in China Daily 

The three-day program brought together renowned guzheng masters from China, musicians from across North America, and young student performers for a gathering of artistic exchange, collaboration, and performance.

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a woman in a pink dress sings on stage

Opera Concert by Bard Conservatory of Music and Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program Reviewed in the Millbrook Independent

A dual opera performance featuring Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amelia Goes to the Ball and Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, performed by the Bard College Conservatory of Music and Graduate Vocal Arts Program, was reviewed in the Millbrook Independent. “Both witty operettas celebrate skillful women in a male-dominated society,” wrote Kevin McEneaney. 

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Upcoming Events and Performances

  • The Graduate Vocal Arts Program Presents: Love and Truth, Actually
    5/12
    Tuesday
    The Graduate Vocal Arts Program Presents: Love and Truth, Actually 3:00 pm
    Olin Hall
  • Undergraduate Degree Recital: Mikhal Terentiev, viola
    5/12
    Tuesday
    Undergraduate Degree Recital: Mikhal Terentiev, viola 6:00 pm
    Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
  • Studio Recital: Harp Students of Mariko Anraku
    5/13
    Wednesday
    Studio Recital: Harp Students of Mariko Anraku 6:00 pm
    Edith C. Blum Institute
  • Andrés Pérez Rangel holding a cello in a hallway, with people in the background. ; Undergraduate Degree Recital: Andrés Pérez Rangel, cello
    5/13
    Wednesday
    Undergraduate Degree Recital: Andrés Pérez Rangel, cello 7:00 pm
    Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
  • Graduate Degree Recital: Hongfan Su, piano
    5/14
    Thursday
    Graduate Degree Recital: Hongfan Su, piano 4:00 pm
    Olin Hall

Meet Our Faculty

See All Faculty
  • Mark Baechle
    Film Composition

    Mark Baechle

    Mark Baechle is a Swiss-born, New York based composer and music producer. He primarily works in film and television.

    Throughout his 20-year career in the industry, he has collaborated with some of the most acclaimed filmmakers and musicians of our time.

    At the outset of his career he was an assistant to the luminary composers Elliot Goldenthal and John Corigliano.

    Under the aegis of composer Marcelo Zarvos, he provided arrangements and additional music to the acclaimed TV series “Ray Donovan”, “The Affair”, “Extant” and “The Big C”.

    He also arranged, recorded and mixed all the music for “Disney’s Little Einsteins”, a cartoon series introducing art and classical music to children, the soundtrack of which was nominated for a Grammy Award (2007).

    Besides composing his own scores, he’s in demand as an orchestrator for films and, as such, has contributed to the scores of David Newman, Clint Mansell, Nicholas Britell and many more.

    Mark is also active as a composer of vocal, chamber and orchestral music. His work has been performed by notable artists and ensembles (New York Festival of Song, the Ahn Trio, Basel Sinfonietta).

    He studied at the pre-college division of the Academy of Music and Schola Cantorum Basel (Switzerland) and graduated from Berklee College of Music with a BA in Film Scoring.

    Mark is represented by Rochelle Sharpe at Incite Management
  • Keisuke Ikuma
    Chamber Music Instructor

    Keisuke Ikuma

    Keisuke Ikuma is a highly sought-after oboe and english horn player in the New York metropolitan area. He is currently a member of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Stamford Symphony. He also performs regularly with the New York Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and numerous Broadway shows such as “The King and I,” “Wicked,” and “Phantom of the Opera”. Mr. Ikuma received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a full-scholarship student of Joseph Robinson, former principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Ikuma studied conducting with Constantine Kitsopoulos and David Gilbert, and made his Broadway conducting debut in the 2015 Tony Award-winning production “The King and I” at Lincoln Center Theater. He recently served as interim Chorus Director of the Keio High School in Westchester.
  • Jing Xia
    Guzheng

    Jing Xia

    Jing Xia is a guzheng performer, intercultural arts promotor, Chinese music scholar and educator. Xia has received numerous awards and accolades, including the prestigious Golden Bell Award; the Master of a Chinese Traditional Musical Instrument designation by the California State Senate; the Master Artist Award by Southwest Folklife Alliance; the 2022 Top 10 Outstanding Chinese American Youth Award; and the 30 Selected Leaders for the Future by the All American Chinese Youth Federation. She was selected to be featured in the 2016 Cultural and Artistic Achievement stamp and postcard series released by China Post.

    As a performing artist, Xia has been invited to perform concerts with the “Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra” along with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, China National Traditional Orchestra, Huaxia Chinese Orchestra, Chandler Symphony Orchestra, and Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra. She has traveled on concert tours to Switzerland, New Zealand, Spain, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Burma, Bangladesh, and the USA. 

    Aside from her devotion to the culture of traditional music, she is also enthusiastic about exploring new music, techniques, idioms, sounds, genres, cultures, and other aspects of musical perception. Her intercultural music project, the Duo Chinoiserie, seeks to build new musical bridges between the East and West. The award-winning album CHINOISERIE includes new works written for the Duo by renowned composers. Xia’s performing style of the guzheng is calm and subtle, yet very powerful and emotional. 

    Xia started her guzheng studies when she was four years old. Since then, she has delved into the world of guzheng music and studies with many famous Chinese guzheng masters. She holds a Master of Musicology and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the China Conservatory of Music. She is a Ph.D. candidate of Applied Intercultural Arts Research with an emphasis in applied ethnomusicology and health promotion science at the University of Arizona. Her research specializations include applied and intercultural approaches to the study of music, culture, and wellness; traditional music as a means to enhance the wellbeing of the Chinese diaspora; and the study of the Qing zheng score Shiliu Ban from “Xiansuo Beikao.” She has published articles in the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), and her research has been selected for presentation at the Association of Chinese Music Research (ACMR) meeting, the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) conference, and the National Organization of Arts in Health conference.
  • Jessie Montgomery
    Composition Masterclasses

    Jessie Montgomery

    Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful, and exploding with life” (The Washington Post). Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights include Shift, Change, Turn (2019), commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Coincident Dances (2018) for the Chicago Sinfonietta; and Banner (2014)—written to mark the 200th anniversary of “The Star-Spangled Banner”—which was presented in its United Kingdom premiere at the BBC Proms on August 7, 2021. Summer 2021 brought a varied slate of premiere performances, including Five Freedom Songs, a song cycle conceived with and written for soprano Julia Bullock, for Sun Valley and Grand Teton Music Festivals, San Francisco and Kansas City Symphonies, Boston and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, and the Virginia Arts Festival (August 7); a site-specific collaboration with Bard SummerScape Festival and Pam Tanowitz Dance, I was waiting for the echo of a better day (July 8); and Passacaglia, a flute quartet for the National Flute Association’s 49th annual convention (August 13). Since 1999, she has been affiliated with the Sphinx Organization, which supports young African American and Latinx string players, and has served as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and a former member of the Catalyst Quartet, Montgomery holds degrees from The Juilliard School and New York University, and is currently a PhD candidate in music composition at Princeton University. She has served as a professor of violin and composition at the New School, and in May 2021, she began her three-year appointment as the Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.


    BM, The Juilliard School; MM, New York University; graduate fellow in music composition, Princeton University. (2022– ) Composer in Residence.

    [Photo by Jiyang Chen]
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Bard College
Bard College
Conservatory of Music
30 Campus Road
Annandale-on-Hudson
New York 12504-5000
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All photos by Karl Rabe unless stated otherwise.