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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 professional photo of Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli.

Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli Profiled in the New York Times

“We want the field to expand,” said Mazzoli, “and so bringing in [diversity] helps the field survive and thrive.”
 

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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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Meet Our Faculty

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  • 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.
  • Teresa Buchholz
    Undergraduate Voice, Undergraduate Opera Workshop

    Teresa Buchholz

    Versatile mezzo-soprano Teresa Buchholz enjoys success in the realms of opera, art song and oratorio. Verdi’s Requiem is quickly becoming a staple of her repertoire, and she has recently performed the work with True Concord Chorus and Orchestra (Tucson, AZ), the Helena Symphony (Helena, MT), the New Jersey Choral Society, the Lake Como Music Festival (Italy), and will perform the work with Long Beach Symphony (CA) in 2021. Some recent performances include Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall with Distinguished Concerts International New York, several Holiday concerts with The Greenwich Choral Society and a guest recital at her alma mater, The University of Northern Iowa. In March 2019 she performed Alexander Nevsky with the Anchorage Symphony, and 2018/19 marked the debut of a newly formed collaboration with Bard colleagues Erika Switzer and Marka Gustavsson, The Blithewood Ensemble, which has performed a program of chamber music as part of the Downtown Music at Grace series (White Plains, NY) at the Hudson Hall (Hudson, NY) and Bitò Hall at Bard College. She recently soloed with the New Jersey Choral Society on a concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 and Choral Fantasy, and performed the role of Domna Ivanovna Sobyrova in a staged production of “The Tsar’s Bride” by Rimsky-Korsakov as part of the Bard Music Festival. In December 2018 she soloed in Handel’s Messiah at the Bardavon Theatre in Poughkeepsie, and the previous Fall she was heard as Anne in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All in a highly acclaimed production that took place in Hudson NY, in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with The Orchestra Now at Bard College and in the role of Berta in a New York City concert version of the rarely heard opera Il Grillo del Focolare by Riccardo Zandonai. In past years she has been heard in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Lincoln Center with the National Chorale, a staged version of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Gulfshore Opera, Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Berkshire Bach Society and the Stamford Symphony, and Bach’s Magnificat with Voices of Ascension. Other recent performances have included the role of Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with Opera Roanoke; Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with the Asheville Lyric Opera; the title role in Giulio Cesare in Egitto with Opera Roanoke; Mozart’s Requiem with the Tulsa Symphony, the Stamford Symphony, and Voices of Ascension; Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody at the Bard Music Festival; Berio’s Folk Songs at the Gateway Chamber Orchestra, where she had previously performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde; and Handel’s Messiah at Lincoln Center with Distinguished Concerts International New York. In 2013 she was the winner of the female division in the Nico Castel International Master Singer Competition. Buchholz holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Northern Iowa, a master’s degree in vocal performance from Indiana University, and an Artist Diploma from Yale University. She has taught at Bard since 2012 where she teaches private voice lessons and is one of the producers and vocal coaches for Bard’s undergraduate Opera Workshop.
  • Caeli Smith
    Viola

    Caeli Smith

    Called “intense, precise, and full of personality,” Caeli Smith is one of New York City’s most sought-after chamber musicians and educators. She is a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has performed with them across the U.S., Europe, and Asia; as well as with the

    New York Philharmonic, The Knights, Sejong Soloists, and the Verbier Chamber Orchestra. She is principal viola of Simone Dinnerstein’s ensemble Baroklyn.

    Known among students and colleagues for her exuberance and curiosity, Caeli

    (pronounced “Chay-lee”) is on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory, Montclair State University, the Heifetz International Music Institute, and Kinhaven Music School. She works weekly with pre-college, college, and graduate students at The Juilliard School as a teaching assistant/adjunct professor for multiple studios. Caeli holds a bachelor’s degree in violin performance and a master’s degree in viola performance from The Juilliard School. Upon graduating, she received the William Schuman Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music. She holds a Masters in Education from Harvard, with a concentration in Arts and Learning. Caeli is an alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect.

    Caeli has written for radio, TV, and print, and her articles have appeared in The

    Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as Strings, Teen Strings, and Symphony magazines.
  • Daniel Phillips
    Violin

    Daniel Phillips

    Violinist Daniel Phillips enjoys a versatile career as an established chamber musician, solo artist, and teacher. A graduate of Juilliard, his major teachers were his father, Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sandor Vegh, and George Neikrug. He is a founding member of the 32-year-old Orion String Quartet, long time artist members of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Available on recording are the complete quartets of Beethoven and Leon Kirchner. Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has been an up and coming soloist , including engagements with many orchestras, like the Pittsburgh, Boston,  Houston, New Jersey, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Yakima symphonies. He appears regularly at the Spoleto USA Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Chesapeake Music Festival, Music@Menlo, and has participated in the International Musicians Seminar in Cornwall, England since its inception. He also has served on the summer faculty of the Heifetz Institute , St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar at Stanford, the new Vivace online festival. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group, and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for SONY with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma. A judge in the 2018 Seoul International Violin Competition, he is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Bard College Conservatory, and The Juilliard School. And his wife, flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, are newly appointed artistic directors of Music from Angel Fire in New Mexico, They live on Manhattan's upper west side with their two adorable dachshunds. 

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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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