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.
Elaine Douvas, oboe, has been principal oboe of the Metropolitan Opera since 1977 and is on the oboe faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Since 1982 she has also served as oboe instructor at The Juilliard School and Woodwind Department Chairman there since 1997. Her career highlights include the Strauss Oboe Concerto with the MET Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, James Levine conducting, and Dutilleux's Les Citations with the MET Chamber Ensemble. Her three CDs include a solo recital and her quartet project "Pleasure is the Law", issued by Boston Records, and "Oboe Divas" on the Oboe Classics label. One of the most influential teachers in the USA, her students hold important positions in more than a dozen major orchestras and university faculties. In the summers, Ms. Douvas is an artist faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and she teaches three intensive, one-week oboe seminars: Le Domaine Forget Academy in Quebec, Interlochen (MI) Arts Camp, and the Hidden Valley Music Seminars in Carmel, California. She has given master classes at the Curtis and Cleveland Institutes of Music, the Manhattan and Eastman Schools of Music, the New World Symphony, and the Conservatories of Beijing and Shanghai. Her three albums of demonstration and written commentary for Music Minus One are used by teachers and students across the country. Originally from Port Huron, Michigan, Ms. Douvas trained at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with John Mack, at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Her first job was principal oboe of the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Shaw. For many years she has devoted her spare time to figure skating and earned her Gold Medal for Adult "Moves in the Field" in 2006. Photo by John Abbott.
Tao Chen
Dizi
Tao Chen
Chen Tao is an internationally acclaimed Chinese flutist, music educator, composer, and conductor of Chinese orchestra; founder and director of Melody of Dragon, Inc., and of Melody of Dragon & the Youth; artistic director and conductor of the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York and conductor of New Jersey Buddha’s Light Youth Chinese Orchestra; artistic director of New York Guqin Association; and executive chairman of the New York Chinese Music Instruments International Competition since 2015. He is also a 27th-generation musician of Zhi-Hua Buddhism music. The New York Times called Chen Tao a “poet in music” and his playing “a miracle of the oriental flute.” Conductor Herbert von Karajan praised him as an artist who “performs with his soul.”
A graduate of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Chen Tao was the winner of the 1989 National Folk Instrument Competition in China and has toured the United States, Germany, Italy, France, England, Holland, Singapore, and elsewhere. He has collaborated with the BBC Philharmonic and National Orchestra of Lyon. His playing can be heard on soundtracks of Hollywood movies including Seven Years in Tibet, Corrupter (with the New York Philharmonic) and on the PBS documentary Under the Red Flag. Since coming to the United States in 1993, Chen Tao has been invited to perform and lecture throughout the country. His second Flute Recital was performed in Carnegie Hall by the New York Flute Club in 2001. He has performed at Lincoln Center and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center with groups such as the Manhattan School of Music’s Chamber Orchestra, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, and H. T. Chen Dancers. China Institute in America has invited him to perform and lecture on the Chinese flute since 1995. The World Journal and Tsingtao Daily have called him “king of the flute.”
As a music educator, Chen Tao has been leading Melody of Dragon in collaboration with the Midori & Friends Foundation to develop Chinese music culture in elementary schools and high schools throughout the New York metropolitan area.
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.
Michaela Martens
Graduate Voice
Michaela Martens
The American mezzo-soprano, Michaela Martens, is known internationally for her portrayals of some of the most difficult dramatic roles in the repertoire.
In addition to her two favorite roles, Klytämnestra/Elektra (San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera) and die Amme/Die Frau ohne Schatten (Chicago Lyric Opera, Oper Graz), her successes in Strauss include Adelaide/Arabella (San Francisco Opera), and Herodias/Salome (The Santa Fe Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Òpera de Columbia).
She has sung such notable roles as Kundry in Parsifal (Metropolitan Opera, Santiago Opera), Gertrud in Hansel and Gretel (Bayerische Staatsoper, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera), Ortrud in Lohengrin (Vienna State Opera, Oper Graz), the 2nd Norn in Götterdämmerung (Metropolitan Opera), and Fricka in Das Rheingold (North Carolina Opera).
Ms. Martens is at home with such composers as Berlioz (Cassandre/Les Troyens, San Francisco Opera, London Philharmonic), Massenet (Hérodiade/Hérodiade, Washington Concert Opera), Giordano (Countess de Coigny/Andrea Chènier, Metropolitan Opera), Bartók (Judith/Bluebeard’s Castle, Metropolitan Opera, New Japan Philharmonic, ENO), Janáček (Kostelnička/Jenůfa, Zürich Opera, ENO), Britten (Mrs. Sedley/Peter Grimes, Metropolitan Opera), Virgil Thomson (Susan B. Anthony/The Mother of Us All, Hudson Opera House, NY), and John Adams (Marilyn Klinghoffer/ The Death of Klinghoffer, Metropolitan Opera, ENO).
Recent concert engagements include Adams/The Gospel According to the Other Mary (St. Louis Symphony at Carnegie Hall), Mahler/das Lied von der Erde (Dallas, Texas), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Nashville Symphony), Harbison Requiem (live recording and performance, Nashville Symphony), and the Verdi Requiem (Grant Park Music Festival, Spoleto Festival). She made her debut at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leon Botstein in the difficult title role of Magnard’s rarely heard Bérénice.
Michaela has worked with such renowned conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Sir Charles Mackerras, James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Fabio Luisi, Daniele Gatti, Franz Welser-Möst, Bertrand de Billy, Sir Donald Runnicles, Marco Armiliato, Patrick Summers, and David Robertson. As a student at The Juilliard School, she was invited by Maestro Ozawa to sing the role of Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes at the 40th Anniversary of Peter Grimes at Tanglewood and then again for the Seito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan.
Ms. Martens keeps an active voice studio both at home in the Hudson Valley and as the resident voice teacher for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. She has been a guest clinician and teacher at The Juilliard School and at the University of Washington, her alma mater. Ms. Martens’ students can be heard on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera San Jose, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera, to name but a few. This summer, her students are headed to the Santa Fe Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Saratoga Opera, and Central City Opera.
As a student growing up in Seattle, Washington, Michaela was lucky enough to fall into the hands Ellen Faull; fearless teacher and mentor, and then after moving to New York, with the brilliant Ruth Falcon who was her teacher for 20 years. May they both Rest in Peace.
A national winner of the Metropolitan Opera (Laffont) competition, she also holds awards from the George London Foundation, the Licia Albanese Foundation, and the DeRosa Foundation.
She shares her home in the Hudson Valley with her two children and their pets: two chocolate Labradors, a tuxedo cat, and an aging bearded dragon.