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.
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.
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.
Undergraduate and Graduate Voice, Undergraduate and Graduate Seminars
Lucy Fitz Gibbon
Noted for her “dazzling, virtuoso singing” (Boston Globe), Lucy Fitz Gibbon is a dynamic musician whose repertoire spans the Renaissance to the present. She believes that creating new works and recreating those lost in centuries past makes room for the multiplicity and diversity of voices integral to classical music’s future. As such, Ms. Fitz Gibbon has given U.S. premieres of rediscovered works by Baroque composers Francesco Sacrati, Barbara Strozzi, and Agostino Agazzari, as well by 20 th century composers including Tadeusz Kassern, Roman Palester, and Jean Barraqué. She has also worked closely with numerous others, premiering works by John Harbison, Kate Soper, Sheila Silver, David Hertzberg, Reena Esmail, Roberto Sierra, Anna Lindemann, and Pauline Oliveros. In helping to realize the complexities of music beyond written notes, the experience of working with these composers translates to all music: the commitment to faithfully communicate not only the score, but also the underlying intentions of its creator.
As a recitalist Ms. Fitz Gibbon has appeared with her collaborative partner, pianist Ryan McCullough, in such venues as London’s Wigmore Hall; New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, and Merkin Hall; and Toronto’s Koerner Hall. They have three forthcoming CDs: Descent/Return, featuring works by James Primosch and John Harbison on Albany Records (May 2020); one alongside Dawn Upshaw and Stephanie Blythe of Sheila Silver’s complete Art Song repertoire; and one featuring mid-20 th century Polish works on Acte Préalable. In concert, Lucy has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra; the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra; the Albany, Richmond, Tulsa, and Eureka Symphonies, and the American Symphony Orchestra in her Carnegie Hall debut. She has also premiered two major works by John Harbison and Shirish Korde with Boston Musica Viva, appeared in concert with the Aizuri Quartet, and will appear on tour with Musicians from Marlboro in such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Kimmel Center through 2022. Debuts with the Seattle Opera and Lexington and Kalamazoo Symphonies, as well an appearance with the Doric Quartet at the West Cork Festival in Ireland and a guest recital at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, were all delayed because of COVID-19.
A graduate of Yale University, Ms. Fitz Gibbon is the recipient of numerous awards for her musicaland academic achievements. She holds an artist diploma from The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory and a master’s degree from Bard College-Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program; her principal teachers include Monica Whicher, Edith Bers, and Dawn Upshaw. She has spent summers at the Tanglewood Music Center (2014-2015) and Marlboro Music Festival (2016-2019). She is currently Interim Director of the Vocal Program at Cornell University and on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and will serve as voice faculty for Kneisel Hall’s 2020 season, occurring online. For more information, see www.lucyfitzgibbon.com.
Tara Helen O'Connor
Flute
Tara Helen O'Connor
Tara Helen O'Connor is a charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique and colorful tone spanning every musical era. Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy nominee, she was the first wind player chosen to participate in The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two) and is now a Season Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A Wm. S. Haynes flute artist, Tara is a regular participant in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Spoleto Festival USA, Chamber Music Northwest, Mainly Mozart Festival, Music from Angel Fire, Rockport Music, Bay Chamber Concerts, Manchester Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Great Mountains Music Festival, Chesapeake Music Festival and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. Along with her husband Daniel Phillips, she is the newly appointed Co-Artstic Director of the Music From Angel Fire Festival in New Mexico.
A much sought-after chamber musician and soloist, she has premiered hundreds of new works and has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, Jaime Laredo, Dawn Upshaw, Eliot Fisk, Jeremy Denk, Ida Kavafian, Peter Serkin and David Shifrin. Tara is a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, the legendary Bach Aria Group and is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble. A passionate advocate of new music, she is a member of the Talea and Cygnus Ensembles. Tara has appeared on A&E's Breakfast with the Arts and PBS' Live from Lincoln Center. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Bridge Records. She has just released a solo CD of American flute works entitled The Way Things Go on Bridge Records with pianist Margaret Kampmeier.
Tara holds a DMA from Stony Brook University where she studied with the late Samuel Baron. Her other teachers include Julius Levine, Thomas Nyfenger, Robert Dick and Keith Underwood. Her yearly summer flute master class at the Banff Centre in Canada was legendary. She is Associate Professor of Flute, Head of the Woodwinds Department and the Coordinator of Classical Music Studies at Purchase College School of the Arts Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Tara is on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory of Music, the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music and is a visiting artist, teacher and coach at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She lives with her husband, violinist Daniel Phillips and their two miniature dachshunds, Chloé and Ava on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
For more information about the flute studio at Bard, please visit: https://bardconservatoryfl.wixsite.com/my-site.
Isabelle O'Connell
Artist-in-Residence
Isabelle O'Connell
Since her acclaimed New York debut recital at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in 2002, pianist Isabelle O’Connell has developed a thriving international career that has taken her across four continents. As soloist and chamber musician she has performed around the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, at venues such as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Chicago Cultural Center, Cleveland Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Art, Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Time:Spans Festival, MATA Festival, Belfast Festival, St David’s Hall, Cardiff and the National Concert Hall, Ireland.
Isabelle has a reputation for being a dynamic interpreter and energetic advocate of music by 20th and 21st century composers, regularly commissioning and premiering new works. Some of the composers she has worked with include John Adams, John Luther Adams, Linda Buckley, Donnacha Dennehy, Michael Gordon, Missy Mazzoli, Morton Subotnick, Joan Tower, Kevin Volans and Julia Wolfe. In 2010 her debut solo album RESERVOIR featuring solo piano music by contemporary Irish composers was released to critical acclaim and the New Yorker called her “the young Irish piano phenom”.
As concerto soloist Isabelle has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under conductors William Eddins, Gerhard Markson and Gavin Maloney. Most recently she premiered Kevin Volans’ piano concerto 4b with the RTE Concert Orchestra at the 2023 New Music Dublin festival.
Isabelle is co-founder of Grand Band, New York’s new music piano sextet, described by the New York Times as: "six of the finest, busiest pianists active in New York's contemporary-classical scene”. Making their debut at the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York in 2012, they have since performed around the United States and U.K., at the Gilmore Piano Festival, Peak Performances Series at Montclair University, the Rite of Summer Music Festival, Liquid Music Festival, Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Sheffield University and Cornerstone Festival, Liverpool.
As chamber musician, Isabelle has performed with John Adams at Carnegie's Zankel Hall, with Meredith Monk at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival and with the New Zealand String Quartet at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. She has also performed with Crash ensemble at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival, Sydney Conservatoire, Galway International Arts Festival, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Reich Effect Festival. Isabelle has also played with ensembles Alarm Will Sound, the Da Capo Chamber Players, American Symphony Orchestra, the New Zealand and ConTempo String Quartets.
Isabelle has recorded for the Diatribe, Innova, NMC, Pyroclastic and Lyric fm labels. She has appeared on television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic, with regular broadcasts on ALL ARTS TV, WNYC, WQXR, WFMT Chicago, BBC3, RTE and Lyric FM radio.
Isabelle is currently serving on the piano faculty as Artist-in-Residence at Bard College and Conservatory of Music in New York. She is often invited to give masterclasses and workshops around the world, including at Princeton University, Queen's University Belfast, Montclair University, New Zealand School of Music and the European Piano Teachers' Association. Isabelle was previously Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.
Yue Li
Dizi
Yue Li
Li Yue is a Chinese bamboo flute (dizi) performer, Associate Professor of Dizi at Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and a graduate advisor. He currently serves as Director of the Wind and Percussion Teaching and Research Office in the Department of Traditional Chinese Music at Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and is also an adjunct dizi instructor at the Central Conservatory of Music. In addition, he is the Deputy Secretary-General of the Xiao and Xun Professional Committee of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society. Li holds a Doctorate in Dizi Performance from the Central Conservatory of Music.
In 2007, he won first place in the Bamboo Flute category at the CCTV National Instrumental Music Television Competition, and in 2009 received the Gold Medal at the Golden Bell Awards for Bamboo Flute. Li was admitted to the Secondary School of the Central Conservatory of Music in 2000, where he studied under renowned dizi masters Zhang Yongfa, Liu Hanyou, Zhan Yongming, Wang Ciheng, and Xin Zhengkui. In 2006, he entered the Central Conservatory of Music to study with Professor Dai Ya, a distinguished dizi performer, educator, and doctoral advisor. In 2022, he was admitted to the doctoral program in Dizi Performance at the Central Conservatory of Music, continuing his studies with Professor Dai Ya.
In recent years, Li has been invited to perform as a dizi soloist with leading orchestras and ensembles worldwide, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Russian National Folk Chamber Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra, and the China National Traditional Orchestra, among many others, giving hundreds of performances.
Li joined the faculty of the US-China Music Institute at Bard in 2025 through USCMI's ongoing partnership with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.