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 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.
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.
Violinist Carmit Zori is the recipient of a Leventritt Foundation Award, a Pro Musicis International Award, and the top prize in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. She has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others, and has given solo recitals at Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the Tel Aviv Museum and the Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts. Her performances have taken her throughout Latin America and Europe, as well as Israel, Japan, Taiwan and Australia, where she premiered the Violin Concerto by Marc Neikrug.
Ms. Zori enjoys a prolific career as a chamber musician. After ten years as artistic director at Bargemusic, she founded the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society in 2002. In addition to her own series, she has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has been a guest at chamber music festivals and concert series around the world, including the Chamber Music at the Y series in New York City; Festival Casals in Puerto Rico; Chesapeake Bay Music Festival; Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival; Bard Music Festival; Chamber Music Northwest; Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; La Jolla Chamber Music Festival; Seattle Chamber Music Festival; Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival; Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society in Wisconsin; Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival; Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival in the UK; Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; Sarasota Music Festival; and is a regular participant at the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival in Vermont.
Ms. Zori has played for Music for Food, a concert series that helps relieve food insecurity in cities all over the United States. She has also participated in Project: Music Heals Us, a nonprofit organization that aims to educate and heal marginalized communities through music. Carmit is also a member of the Israeli Chamber Project, an ensemble that performs chamber music and conducts educational outreach in the US, Israel, and various other countries throughout the world.
Ms. Zori can be heard on the Arabesque, Koch International, and Elektra-Nonesuch labels. In addition to teaching at the Bard Conservatory, she is professor of violin at Rutgers University and SUNY-Purchase.
At the behest of violinists Alexander Schneider and Isaac Stern, Ms. Zori came to the United States from her native Israel at the age of fifteen to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Ivan Galamian, Jaime Laredo and Arnold Steinhardt.
Terrence Wilson
Piano
Terrence Wilson
Acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun as “...one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” pianist Terrence Wilson has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Washington, DC (National Symphony), San Francisco, St. Louis, and with the orchestras of Cleveland, Minnesota, and Philadelphia and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has worked include Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Neeme Järvi, Jesús López-Cobos, Lawrence Renes, Robert Spano, Yuri Temirkanov, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Gunther Herbig and Michael Morgan.
Abroad, Terrence Wilson has played concerti with such ensembles as the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He has toured with orchestras in the US and abroad, including a tour of the US with the Sofia Festival Orchestra (Bulgaria) and in Europe with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov.
An active recitalist, Terrence Wilson made his New York City recital debut at the 92nd Street Y, and his Washington, DC recital debut at the Kennedy Center. In Europe he has given recitals at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, the Lourvre in Paris, and countless other major venues. In the US he has given recitals at Lincoln Center in New York City (both Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall), the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, NY, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, and for the La Jolla Chamber Music Society. An avid chamber musician, he performs regularly with the Ritz Chamber Players. Festival appearances include Aspen, Blossom, Grant Park, Tanglewood and Wolf Trap.
In the last couple seasons, Wilson performed as soloist with the Symphony Orchestras of Anchorage, Brevard (FL), Greensboro, Harrisburg, Memphis, Portland (ME), Raleigh and Wichita to name a few. He also appeared as soloist with the Madison Symphony in their gala season-opening concert in September 2023. Other highlights included a multi-city chamber music tour with Imani Winds with performances at such venues as the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, a recital tour culminating in a recital at the prestigious Ravinia Festival - 25 years since his debut, and a return as soloist with the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago with performances of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero. Wilson also performed with Symphony Tacoma as well as the Symphony Orchestras of Roanoke and Toledo among others. He also made a recital appearance in Brookings, OR and performed chamber music with the Escher Quartet in New Orleans.
In 2025-2026, Wilson performs with the Folsom and Stockton Symphonies (Beethoven piano concertos 3 and 4 respectively). He will also perform with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, OH and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York City with The Orchestra Now (TŌN) - Bard College’s graduate training orchestra - in Saint-Saëns’ 2nd and 5th piano concertos respectively. The season will see Wilson in recitals at Boston Conservatory’s (at Berklee) Piano Masters Series, and in Washington, DC at the Bender Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington. Other highlights of the season include a tour with mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and the Catalyst Quartet with performances in San Francisco and at the Library of Congress, as well as a performance in Montréal at Fondation Arte Musica with the Escher Quartet.
Committed to education, Wilson serves as a member of the piano faculty at the Brevard Music Center (BMC) Institute and Festival in Brevard, NC for six weeks each summer. In July 2024, he was featured as faculty soloist with the Brevard Chamber Symphony at Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium at BMC. He is also a frequent guest teacher, lecturer and adjudicator in numerous international piano competitions. In 2025, Terrence Wilson was a pre-screening juror in the junior division of the Palm Springs International Piano Competition and adjudicated in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. In April 2026, Wilson will perform a joint faculty recital at Bard Conservatory with Raman Ramakrishnan, in a program including the cello sonatas of Frank Bridge and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Terrence Wilson has received several awards and prizes, including the SONY ES Award for Musical Excellence, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Juilliard Petschek Award. He has also been featured on several radio and television broadcasts, including NPR’s “Performance Today,” WQXR radio in New York, and programs on the BRAVO Network, the Arts & Entertainment Network, public television, and as a guest on late night network television. In 2011, Wilson was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Instrumental Soloist With an Orchestra” for his (world premiere) recording with the Nashville Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero of Michael Daugherty’s Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra - written for Wilson in 2007.
Terrence Wilson is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky. He has also enjoyed the invaluable mentorship of the Romanian pianist and teacher Zitta Zohar, as well as that of Maria Clodes-Jaguaribe. A native of the Bronx, he resides in Montclair, New Jersey. In March 2021, Wilson was appointed to the piano faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Shiqi Zhong
Chinese Percussion
Shiqi Zhong
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.
Christopher H. Gibbs
James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Music; Faculty, Bard College Conservatory of Music; Artistic Codirector, Bard Music Festival
Christopher H. Gibbs
Christopher H. Gibbs is executive editor of The Musical Quarterly; editor of The Cambridge Companion to Schubert (1997); author of The Life of Schubert (2000), which has been translated into five languages; coeditor of Franz Liszt and His World (2006) and Franz Schubert and His World (2014); and coauthor of The Oxford History of Western Music, College Edition (2013; 2nd ed., 2018). He is a contributor to New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 19th-Century Music, Schubert durch die Brille, Current Musicology, Opera Quarterly, and Chronicle of Higher Education. Additionally, he has served as program annotator and musicological consultant to the Philadelphia Orchestra (2000– ); musicological director of the Schubertiade at the 92nd Street Y in New York City; musicological adviser for the Schubert Festival at Carnegie Hall (1997); and artistic codirector of the Bard Music Festival (2003– ). Gibbs is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Dissertation Prize of the Austrian Cultural Institute (1992), ASCAP–Deems Taylor Award (1998), and American Council of Learned Societies fellowship (1999–2000). He previously taught at SUNY Buffalo (1993–2003). BA, Haverford College; MA, MPhil, PhD, Columbia University. At Bard since 2002.