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.
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.
Shiqi Zhong is an acclaimed percussionist and DMA candidate at New York University, recognized for his extensive cross-cultural expertise and academic background in percussion. His varied career spans world, classical, contemporary, and popular music, showcasing his versatility and commitment to advancing the art of percussion.
A graduate of the China Conservatory of Music Affiliated Middle School, Juilliard Pre-College, Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, and New York University, Shiqi Zhong’s comprehensive education forms the bedrock of his emerging career. As deputy editor of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) China and board member of the Asian Youth Musician Alliance (AYMA), Shiqi Zhong has made significant contributions to percussion education and outreach. His mentorship has led to the acceptance of his former students into prestigious institutions such as the Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard Pre-College, Manhattan School of Music, and San Francisco Conservatory.
An active percussionist, Shiqi Zhong has played with renowned ensembles including the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra, and the Composer Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with esteemed conductors such as Leon Botstein, Xian Zhang, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vladimir Jurowski, and Osmo Vänskä. As a prominent percussion soloist, Shiqi Zhong has received numerous international accolades, including awards from the World Percussion Competition, the Piazzolla International Music Competition, the PAS KoSA Marimba Competition, and the Singapore Chinese Percussion Competition.
In addition to his performance career, Shiqi Zhong is an innovative composer. His works include China’s first electronic music and traditional Chinese percussion piece, The Monkey King’s Havoc in Heaven, as well as Unity, a Chinese Drum Ensemble piece, and Nezha, for solo timpani and drum ensemble. His educational method books, Rhythm Master and Handpan for Beginners, reflect his dedication to expanding and bridging cultures through percussion music.
James Sizemore
Film Composition
James Sizemore
James is a composer and music producer working in the film and television industry. He has worked with composer Howard Shore on over 20 films, producing the score of the Oscar Winning Spotlight and Canadian Screen Award winning The Song of Names, as well as orchestrating the Blockbuster Trilogy The Hobbit.
He has also worked as an arranger, music editor, music mixer, and composer for many Hollywood films ranging from the additional music he composed for A Dogs Purpose to the additional dark string arrangements in Split.
In addition to his solo album releases, James’ music can be heard across a wide variety of network television and national ad campaigns.
He holds a B.A. from Colorado College and an M.M from NYU. In addition to Bard, James has served on the faculty of New York University and the City University of New York, teaching classes on film sound and music. He lives in the Hudson Valley, NY with his wife and daughters.
Rieko Aizawa
Piano
Rieko Aizawa
Praised by the NY Times for an “impressive musicality, a crisp touch and expressive phrasing,” Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa has performed throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including at New York City’s Lincoln Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and London’s Wigmore Hall.
At the age of thirteen, Ms. Aizawa was brought to the attention of conductor Alexander Schneider on the recommendation of the pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Schneider engaged Ms. Aizawa as soloist with his Brandenburg Ensemble at the opening concerts of Tokyo's Casals Hall. Later that year, Schneider presented her in U.S. début concerts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall with his New York String Orchestra. She has since established her own unique musical voice.
Highlights have included acclaimed performances with the New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa, the English Chamber Orchestra under Heinz Holliger, the Festival Strings Lucerne in Switzerland under Rudolf Baumgartner, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under Hugh Wolff, the Curtis Institute Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, the St. Louis Symphony under David Loebel and a wonderfully received performance with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Aizawa also has a great interest in exploring unusual repertoire. The St. Paul Pioneer Press described her performance with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf "the Salieri Piano Concerto in C was played so splendidly by Rieko Aizawa. Hers was a graceful reading. .... Aizawa's performance lent the work a respect it rarely receives." In the same year, she received the Washington Award.
As a recitalist, Ms. Aizawa has been heard in many North American cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, St. Louis, Seattle, Boulder, Los Angeles, Houston, and Toronto; at the Caramoor International Festival; at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival; Ravinia Festival, and the Gilmore Keyboard Festival. Following her all-Beethoven program recital in Dresden, Germany, a reviewer wrote: "Her listeners followed her playing -- full of details and delicate contrasts -- breathlessly." Ms. Aizawa gave her "Prism" series in Japan, with tributes to Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann, and specially commissioned works for each program by Akira Nishimura, Dan Coleman and Toshiro Saruya. She also had a project performing a Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Ms. Aizawa performed a series of all- Mozart recitals, a project which was jointly presented by WFMT-Chicago and PianoForte Chicago. Ms. Aizawa’s solo debut recording of Scriabin’s and Shostakovich’s “24 Preludes” was released by Altus in Japan, and her second album of Messiaen's and Faure's preludes is coming out in the upcoming season.
Ms. Aizawa is also an active chamber musician. The youngest-ever participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, she has performed as a guest with string quartets such as the Guarneri Quartet and the Orion Quartet. She has appeared in numerous festivals, such as the Marlboro Music Festival; Bowdoin Festival; the Kammermusik Festival of Moritzburg, Germany; and the Evian Festival, France. She also has been a guest artist of Boston's, Philadelphia's and Seattle's Chamber Music Societies. She is a founding member of the prize-winning Duo Prism and of the Horszowski Trio, which honors the legacy of her teacher.
As a member of the Horszowski Trio, acclaimed as “the most compelling American group to come on the scene” by the New Yorker, Ms. Aizawa has recently made debuts at the 92nd St. Y in NYC, and at Wigmore Hall in London. The trio recorded the complete Robert Schumann piano trios on AVIE Records and the album was featured by Gramophone as an “exemplary performance.” Currently, they are celebrating their 10th Anniversary season with a project which takes inspiration from Schumann, commissioning three American composers from different generations: Paul Chihara, Derek Bermel and David Fulmer.
Ms. Aizawa was the last pupil of Mieczyslaw Horszowski at the Curtis Institute and she also studied with Seymour Lipkin and Peter Serkin at the Juilliard School. She lives in New York City, and she is on the faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and at Brooklyn College. She became artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010.
The American mezzo-soprano, Michaela Martens, is known internationally for her portrayals of some of the most difficult dramatic roles in the repertoire.
In addition to her two favorite roles, Klytämnestra/Elektra (San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera) and die Amme/Die Frau ohne Schatten (Chicago Lyric Opera, Oper Graz), her successes in Strauss include Adelaide/Arabella (San Francisco Opera), and Herodias/Salome (The Santa Fe Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Òpera de Columbia).
She has sung such notable roles as Kundry in Parsifal (Metropolitan Opera, Santiago Opera), Gertrud in Hansel and Gretel (Bayerische Staatsoper, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera), Ortrud in Lohengrin (Vienna State Opera, Oper Graz), the 2nd Norn in Götterdämmerung (Metropolitan Opera), and Fricka in Das Rheingold (North Carolina Opera).
Ms. Martens is at home with such composers as Berlioz (Cassandre/Les Troyens, San Francisco Opera, London Philharmonic), Massenet (Hérodiade/Hérodiade, Washington Concert Opera), Giordano (Countess de Coigny/Andrea Chènier, Metropolitan Opera), Bartók (Judith/Bluebeard’s Castle, Metropolitan Opera, New Japan Philharmonic, ENO), Janáček (Kostelnička/Jenůfa, Zürich Opera, ENO), Britten (Mrs. Sedley/Peter Grimes, Metropolitan Opera), Virgil Thomson (Susan B. Anthony/The Mother of Us All, Hudson Opera House, NY), and John Adams (Marilyn Klinghoffer/ The Death of Klinghoffer, Metropolitan Opera, ENO).
Recent concert engagements include Adams/The Gospel According to the Other Mary (St. Louis Symphony at Carnegie Hall), Mahler/das Lied von der Erde (Dallas, Texas), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Nashville Symphony), Harbison Requiem (live recording and performance, Nashville Symphony), and the Verdi Requiem (Grant Park Music Festival, Spoleto Festival). She made her debut at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leon Botstein in the difficult title role of Magnard’s rarely heard Bérénice.
Michaela has worked with such renowned conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Sir Charles Mackerras, James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Fabio Luisi, Daniele Gatti, Franz Welser-Möst, Bertrand de Billy, Sir Donald Runnicles, Marco Armiliato, Patrick Summers, and David Robertson. As a student at The Juilliard School, she was invited by Maestro Ozawa to sing the role of Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes at the 40th Anniversary of Peter Grimes at Tanglewood and then again for the Seito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan.
Ms. Martens keeps an active voice studio both at home in the Hudson Valley and as the resident voice teacher for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. She has been a guest clinician and teacher at The Juilliard School and at the University of Washington, her alma mater. Ms. Martens’ students can be heard on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera San Jose, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera, to name but a few. This summer, her students are headed to the Santa Fe Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Saratoga Opera, and Central City Opera.
As a student growing up in Seattle, Washington, Michaela was lucky enough to fall into the hands Ellen Faull; fearless teacher and mentor, and then after moving to New York, with the brilliant Ruth Falcon who was her teacher for 20 years. May they both Rest in Peace.
A national winner of the Metropolitan Opera (Laffont) competition, she also holds awards from the George London Foundation, the Licia Albanese Foundation, and the DeRosa Foundation.
She shares her home in the Hudson Valley with her two children and their pets: two chocolate Labradors, a tuxedo cat, and an aging bearded dragon.