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.
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.
A member of the ensemble Sō Percussion (called "brilliant" and "consistently impressive" by the New York Times) since 2007, Eric has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Lincoln Center Festival, Stanford Lively Arts, The Walker Center and dozens of other venues in the United States. In that time, Sō Percussion has toured Russia, Australia, Colombia and throughout Europe. They have performed on The Late Show with Steven Colbert, at the TED Conference and Bonnaroo Festival, and with Radiolab Live. Eric has had the opportunity to work closely with Steve Reich, Caroline Shaw, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Bryce Dessner, Steve Mackey, Dan Trueman, Fred Frith, Suzanne Farrin, Glenn Kotche, Paul Lansky, Donnacha Dennehy, Vijay Iyer, Dawn Upshaw, Shara Nova, Matmos, The National, Dan Deacon, Buke and Gase, Dave Douglas, Angelica Negron, and many others. And he has performed on eighteen of So Percussion’s albums.
As a composer, he has written works for JACK Quartet, Modern Medieval, Buke and Gase, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, Sirius String Quartet, and This Is How We Fly. Eric's pieces written for Sō Percussion are featured in ‘A Gun Show’ (BAM Next Wave 2016); ‘From Out a Darker Sea’ (Forma Arts UK commission 2016); 'Where (we) Live'; (BAM Next Wave 2012); 'Five Songs, Dances, and Meditations'; written to accompany Martin Kersels 'Five Songs' (Whitney Biennial 2010); 'Imaginary City' (BAM Next Wave 2009); and 'Music for Trains' - a site-specific performance on the train and at train stations in Brattleboro and Bellows Falls, VT (2008). With Jason Treuting and Josh Quillen, he co-composed music for Shen Wei Dance's 'Undivided/Divided' (Park Avenue Armory 2011), the 2wice 'Fifth Wall' app for iPad with dancer Jonah Bokaer, and the sound installation 'On/Off' as part of Bring to Light/Nuit Blanche New York 2011. He has composed the music for the dance film 'Parts Don't Work' (2011) by choreographer KT Niehoff and Lingo Dance, and the transition music for the internet radio station Q2 (2010 and 2013). His compositions have also been featured in the 'Bell by Bell' parade as part of Make Music Winter in 2011 and 2012. And his electronic music has been featured during the 2012 Look and Listen Festival and on the album 'Amid the Noise Remixes' (2011).
Outside of Sō Percussion, Eric has premiered new works from Lukas Ligeti, Caroline Shaw, Frank Nuyts and Jacob Cooper. Upcoming solo commissions are in development with Andrea Mazzariello and Dan Trueman. And he has performed and collaborated with pianist Peter Serkin, rock band The National, electronic artist Nicolas Jaar, composer Tristan Perich, the St. Louis Symphony Chamber Ensemble with David Robertson, bass player Evan Lipson, composer Daniel Wohl and many others.
Together with the other members of Sō Percussion, Eric serves as Edward T. Cone Performer-in-Residence at the Princeton University Music Department. He is also Co-Director of the Sō Percussion Summer Institute at Princeton University, an annual intensive course for college-aged percussionists started in 2009. And he is co-director of the percussion program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Studying with Robert van Sice, Eric received his Bachelor of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma at the Peabody Conservatory, where he won the Yale Gordon Concerto Competition, and his Master of Music at the Yale School of Music. He also received a Fulbright fellowship and pursued additional study with Bernhard Wulff in Freiburg, Germany.
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.
Tan Dun
Dean of Bard Conservatory
Tan Dun
The world-renowned artist and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun, has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. A winner of today’s most prestigious honors including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and most recently Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, Tan Dun’s music has been played throughout the world by leading orchestras, opera houses, international festivals, and on radio and television. Most recently, Tan Dun was named as Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun will further demonstrate music’s extraordinary ability to transform lives and guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of understanding music’s connection to history, art, culture, and society.
As a conductor of innovative programs around the world, Tan Dun has led the China tours of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra. His current season includes leading the Orchestre National de Lyon in a six-city China tour, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in a four-city tour of Switzerland and Belgium as well as engagements with the Rai National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra where he was recently named Artistic Ambassador. Tan Dun currently serves as the Principle Guest Conductor of the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, Tan Dun conducted the grand opening celebration of Disneyland Shanghai which was broadcast to a record-breaking audience worldwide. Tan Dun has led the world’s most esteemed orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Münchner Philharmoniker, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Tan Dun’s individual voice has been heard widely by international audiences. His first Internet Symphony, which was commissioned by Google/YouTube, has reached over 23 million people online. His Organic Music Trilogy of Water, Paper and Ceramic has frequented major concert halls and festivals. Paper Concerto was premiered with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the opening of the Walt Disney Hall. His multimedia work, The Map, premiered by YoYo Ma and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has toured more than 30 countries worldwide. Its manuscript has been collected by the Carnegie Hall Composers Gallery. His Orchestral Theatre IV: The Gate was premiered by Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra and crosses the cultural boundaries of Peking Opera, Western Opera and puppet theatre traditions. Other important premieres include Four Secret Roads of Marco Polo for the Berlin Philharmonic, Piano Concerto “The Fire” for Lang Lang and the New York Philharmonic. In recent seasons, his percussion concerto, The Tears of Nature, for soloist Martin Grubinger premiered in 2012 with the NDR Symphony Orchestra and Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women Symphony for 13 Microfilms, Harp and Orchestra was co-commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. Most recently, Tan Dun conducted the premiere of his new oratorio epic Buddha Passion at the Dresden Festival with the Münchner Philharmoniker, the piece was co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Dresden Festival and will go on to have performances in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Rome, Hamburg, Paris, Singapore and London in the coming seasons.
As a visual artist, Tan Dun’s work has been featured at the opening of the China Pavilion at the 56th Venice Art Biennale. Other solo exhibitions include the New York’s Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Beijing’s Chambers Fine Art Gallery, and Shanghai Gallery of Art. Most recently, Tan Dun conducted The Juilliard Orchestra in the world premiere of his Symphony of Colors: Terracotta for the opening of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s epic exhibition The Age of Empires.
As a global cultural leader, Tan Dun uses his creativity to raise awareness of environmental issues and to protect cultural diversity. In 2010, as “Cultural Ambassador to the World” for the World EXPO Shanghai, Tan Dun envisioned, curated and composed two special site-specific performances that perform year-round and have since become cultural representations of Shanghai: Peony Pavilion, a Chinese opera set in a Ming Dynasty garden and his Water Heavens string quartet which promotes water conservation and environmental awareness. Tan Dun was also commissioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to write the Logo Music and Award Ceremony Music for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Tan Dun currently serves as Honorary Chair of Carnegie Hall’s China Advisory Council, and has previously served as Creative Chair of the 2014 Philadelphia Orchestra China Tour, Associate Composer/Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony, and Artistic Director of the Festival Water Crossing Fire held at the Barbican Centre.
Tan Dun records for Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Opus Arte, BIS and Naxos. His recordings have garnered many accolades, including a Grammy Award (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and nomination (The First Emperor; Marco Polo; Pipa Concerto), Japan’s Recording Academy Awards for Best Contemporary Music CD (Water Passion after St. Matthew) and the BBC’s Best Orchestral Album (Death and Fire). Tan Dun’s music is published by G. Schirmer, Inc. and represented worldwide by the Music Sales Group of Classical Companies.
Jia Qiao
Chinese percussion
Jia Qiao
When she was eleven years old Qiao Jia passed the audition to be a percussion student at The Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Years later she graduated and became a classical Chinese percussion teacher at the same institution, which she still holds today. She has devoted herself to the performance of contemporary music written for her by Asian and western composers. Her knowledge of both traditions and her enthusiasm for new challenges enables her to perform different aesthetics of today’s music with formidable ease, accuracy and passion. She is considered one of the best Asian percussionists of contemporary music. In September 2008, Qiao realized a long tour in Scandinavia, closing it with a concert at the New Opera House in Copenhagen. In this tour she world-premiered three pieces that the audience greatly acclaimed and led to a huge success of this tour. In the summer of 2017 she participated as a faculty member in the US-China Music Institute Summer Academy and joined the USCMI faculty in 2022.