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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.

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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
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The Bard Conservatory also offers a Preparatory Division for students ages 3–18.

News

a black and white archival photo of a man at a piano

Bard Conservatory of Music Announces Seventh Annual Kurtág Festival Honoring György Kurtág’s 100th Birthday, March 11–April 4

The 2026 edition highlights the clarity, precision, and expressive depth of Kurtág’s music.

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two men raise their hands to conduct against a black backdrop

Bard Conservatory Orchestra Innovation and Legacy Concert Featured in China Daily and Xinhua

The concert, notes Xinhua, was “more than a performance—it was a profound musical dialogue across eras and cultures.”

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The Eighth Annual China Now Music Festival Reviewed in <em>China Daily</em>

The Eighth Annual China Now Music Festival Reviewed in China Daily

The final performance of the festival, a chamber opera and dance concert by the Bard East/West Ensemble, will take place on October 5 at 3 pm at Jazz at Lincoln Center. 

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Upcoming Events and Performances

  • Studio Recital: Double Bass Students of&nbsp;Satoshi Okamoto
    12/15
    Monday
    Studio Recital: Double Bass Students of Satoshi Okamoto 5:30 pm
    Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
  • Percussion Studio Recital
    12/16
    Tuesday
    Percussion Studio Recital 7:00 pm
    Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
  • Student Recital: Lili&aacute;na Szokol, flute
    12/17
    Wednesday
    Student Recital: Liliána Szokol, flute 2:00 pm
    Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
  • Studio Recital: Piano Students of Rieko Aizawa
    12/17
    Wednesday
    Studio Recital: Piano Students of Rieko Aizawa 6:00 pm
    Olin Hall
  • Poetry Into Song
    12/18
    Thursday
    Poetry Into Song 12:00 pm
    Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space

Meet Our Faculty

See All Faculty
  • Jenny Q Chai
    Piano Masterclasses; Chinese Admissions Ambassador

    Jenny Q Chai

    An artist of singular vision, pianist Jenny Q Chai is widely renowned for her

    ability to illuminate musical connections throughout the centuries. With radical

    joie de vivre and razor-sharp intention, Chai creates layered multimedia

    programs which explore and unite elements of science, nature, fashion, and art.

    The New Yorker describes Chai as “a pianist whose dazzling facility is matched

    by her deep musicality.”

    Chai’s instinctive understanding of new music is complemented by a deep

    grounding in core repertoire, with special affinity for Schumann, Scarlatt

    Beethoven, Bach, Debussy, and Ravel. She is a noted interpreter of 20th-century

    masters Cage, Messiaen, and Ligeti, and her career is threaded through with

    strong relationships and close collaborations with a range of notable contemporary

    composers, including Tan Dun, Jarosław Kapuściński, Andy Akiho, Pamela Z,

    Lukas Ligeti, Cindy Cox, Annie Gosfield and György Kurtág. With a deft poeti

    touch, Chai weaves this wide-ranging repertoire into a gorgeous and lucid

    musical tapestry. Chai is also a vital champion and early tester of the groundbreaking

    synchronous score following software program, Antescofo. Developed at IRCAM by

    scientist Arshia Cont, the software offers a real time computer and animation respons

    to live performance elements, enabling performers to create multimedia presentations

    of AI sophisticated and expressive fluency. Chai explored and helped hone Antescof

    in residence at IRCAM alongside frequent collaborator Jarosław Kapuściński, and has

    since toured internationally with the software offering multimedia performances i

    Shanghai, New York, Havana, and elsewhere. In September 2019, Chai gave a TEDx

    Talk titled When Classical Music Meets Technology.

    Other notable highlights include her 2024 Shanghai Symphony Hall Audiovisual AI

    Concert, 2012 Carnegie Hall recital debut; many

    performances at (le) Poisson Rouge, including a 2016 Antescofo-supported

    program, Where’s Chopin?; her 2018 Wigmore Hall debut with a program

    exploring the relation between color and sound; lectures and recitals at Shanghai

    Symphony Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, and Shanghai Mercedes Benz Arena; a

    featured performance at Tan Dun’s International Music Medicine Festival in Qingdao;

    the Leo Brouwer Festival in Havana, Cuba; Philippe Manoury’s double-piano concerto,

    Zones de turbulences, at the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary

    Music with duo partner, pianist Adam Kośmieja and the Polish National Radio

    Symphony Orchestra; and much more.



    Her immersive approach to music is also channeled into her work with FaceArt Institute

    of Music, the Shanghai-based organization she founded and runs, offering musi

    education and an international exchange of music and musicians in China and beyond.

    In summer 2019, Chai oversees FaceArt’s first ever month-long Co-Creation Summe

    Festival, which invites International piano and composition faculty. Additionally, Chai

    served on the Board of Directors of the New York City-based contemporary music

    organization Ear to Mind, and has published a doctoral dissertation on Marco Stroppa’s

    Miniature Estrose which is collected by many schools including Stanford and Harvard

    University.

    Chai has recorded for labels such as Divine Art, Deutschlandfunk, Naxos, ArpaViva and

    MSR. In 2010, she released her debut recording, New York Love Songs, featuring

    interpretations of works by Cage and Ives among others, and her most recent

    recording, (S)yn(e)sth(e)te, was released by MSR Records in 2017. She can also be

    heard on Michael Vincent Waller’s Five Easy Pieces and Cindy Cox’s Hierosgamos. In

    2021, her newest album on Bach, Ives and Schumann Kreisleriana received positive

    reviews globally. The album was featured by Apple Music as one of its selected best

    Classical Music albums.

    The recipient of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust’s 2011 Pianist/Composer Commissionin

    Project, the DAAD Arts and Performance award in 2010, Chamber Music America

    commissioning award and first prize winner of the Keys to the Future Contemporar

    Solo Piano Festival, Jenny Q Chai studied at the Shanghai Music Conservatory, the

    Curtis Institute of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and in Cologne University of

    Music and Dance. Her teachers include Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Seymour Lipkin,

    Solomon Mikowsky, Marilyn Nonken, and Anthony de Mare.

    Academically, Chai has given lecture recitals at universities such as Stanford, Harvard,

    University of California Berkeley, NYU, Shanghai Conservatory and more.

    Chai is a former piano faculty member of the University of California Berkeley, an

    alumni mentor at Curtis Institute of Music and an official career mentor at Manhatt

    School of Music. In 2022, Chai became Fazioli Global Piano Ambassador.

    Chai is a social activist who works passionately on environmental causes through her

    music and runs a personal animal shelter. She has rescued over one hundred small

    animals in China since the pandemic and is an active donor to many animal rescue

    organizations.
  • 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.
  • Junzhi Cui
    Konghou

    Junzhi Cui

    Cui Junzhi is a leading pioneer of the modern art of konghou (Chinese harp) performance. With her incomparable style, she continues to shine on the world's musical stage.

    A recipient of many prestigious accolades, she has been honored with a medal from UNESCO and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the United Nations. She was awarded first prize in the World Broadcasting Competition, garnered a Gold Award at the Philadelphia International Music Festival for Chinese Composition Performance, and earned the title of "Outstanding Artist" at the inaugural International Harp Competition in the United States. Moreover, she consistently excels in national competitions for instrumental music and composition competitions sponsored by the Ministry of Culture in China.

    Cui serves as a leader in numerous konghou-related arenas, from performance and education to international outreach and multimedia recordings. With the endorsement of several major music schools, she pioneered the establishment of the konghou performance major. Invitations to perform and lecture have taken her to dozens of countries, where she has broken new ground with her konghou concertos. She wrote the book The World of Konghou and edited the inaugural "Central Conservatory of Music Examination Syllabus," for konghou performance. These works have served as milestones in the developing landscape of modern konghou artistry.

    Currently, she holds the titles of National First-Class Performer, professor of konghou, and Master's Degree supervisor. Additionally, she serves as the president of the Konghou Research Association, which operates under the auspices of the China Musicians Association. She joined the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music in 2023, where she serves as master teacher to majors in konghou performance in the US-China Music Institute.
  • Javier Arrebola
    Graduate Vocal Arts Program

    Javier Arrebola

    Over the past decade, Spanish pianist and scholar Javier Arrebola has emerged as an important figure in art song for his creativity, artistry, performances, and scholarship.

    Mr. Arrebola is currently Artistic Associate at Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall and faculty member at the Tanglewood Music Center. In the past, he has held positions as Co-Artistic Director and Director of the Piano Program at SongFest, Head of Piano in the Program for Singers at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Chair of Collaborative Piano at Boston University and Visiting Professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is also a frequent guest at institutions such as The Juilliard School in New York City, Shanghai’s Conservatory, Boston’s New England Conservatory, University of Minnesota, Bard College, Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, Conservatoire Hector Berlioz in Paris, and The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto.

    In the last years, Mr. Arrebola’s work and contributions have extended to being the video editor and illustrator of, among other projects, Wigmore Hall’s Schubert in Life & Songs, a seminal series by pianist and scholar Graham Johnson, and of SongFest’s Songs of Unity & Hope, an online event conceived and curated by Mr. Arrebola featuring over 60 countries and 40 different languages from all over the world.

    Mr. Arrebola holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree and a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, as well as degrees in Piano Performance and Chamber Music from the Madrid Royal Conservatory. His doctoral studies included the public performance of all of Schubert's completed piano sonatas on both historical fortepianos and modern instruments, as well as a thesis on The Unfinished Piano Sonatas of Franz Schubert.
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Bard College
Bard College
Conservatory of Music
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Annandale-on-Hudson
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All photos by Karl Rabe unless stated otherwise.