Bard Conservatory

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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A singer in front of an orchestra in Olin Hall

Photo by Karl Rabe

Offering Unique Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

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

News

Asher B. Edelman Professor of Music Joan Tower.

Professor Joan Tower Profiled in WHMT and the Daily Catch

"We don’t try to burden our students with our style,” Tower said. “They develop their own voice, which I’m proud of.”

Opening Friday, October 2, China Now Music Festival, “Chasing Dreams,” Presents Concerts and Discussions at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Bard College, Tempo Performing Arts Center, and Asia Society

“We aim to tell stories of the shared dreams, resilience, and creativity that connect all of us, American and Chinese alike. Through music, we can be reminded that our histories and aspirations are deeply intertwined,” says Artistic Director Jindong Cai.

A professional photo portrait of Missy Mazzoli

Bard Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli featured in the New York Times

“That’s what I like about opera: That it’s a music-driven story where every emotion is taken to an extreme.”

10/3

Saturday

Celebration: A Concert honoring Joan Tower's 54th year at Bard, "My longtime home"
Presented by the Altalena Artists Collective

4:00 pm
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
10/3

Saturday

China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Asia Society
US-China Music Forum: Chasing Dreams

4:30 pm
Asia Society 725 Park Ave. New York City, NY 10021 United States
10/4

Sunday

China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Kingston
Bard East/West Ensemble conducted by Jindong Cai

3:00 pm
TEMPO Performing Arts Center 29 Wurts Street Kingston, NY, 12401 United States
10/9

Friday

China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Bard Chapel
Chinese and American Folk Songs

2:00 pm
Chapel of the Holy Innocents
10/9

Friday

Guest Artist Recital: Gilles Vonsattel, piano 7:00 pm
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space

Meet Our Faculty

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Edith Bers

Graduate Voice

Edith Bers
Edith Bers received bachelor's and master's degrees from Columbia University and studied voice with Tourel, Callas, Popper, Berl, Guth, Faull, B. P. Johnson, Cuenod, Brown, Hotter, and Stader; and acting with Stella Adler. Among her performance credits are the United States premiere of Schumann's Des Sangers Fluch and the television production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw. She has presented master classes and served on juries throughout the world, including: Symposium on the Care of the Professional Voice, Aspen Music Festival, Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition (Brussels), Korean Broadcasting System, and the Bel Canto Institute (Florence). In addition to teaching at Bard, Edith Bers teaches at the Juilliard School (where she served as chair of the voice department from 1991 to 1995), Manhattan School of Music, and New York University.
Sebastian Danila

History Seminar

Sebastian Danila
Sebastian Danila is a composer and music theoretician. He is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in composition and music theory at New York University’s Steinhardt School, where he has been part of the adjunct faculty. His dissertation focuses on the music of Romanian composer Anatol Vieru, particularly his application of pitch sets and sound blocks as compositional strategies. He is also manager of the libraries for The Orchestra Now, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and the American Symphony Orchestra. His compositions have been widely performed in the United States and Europe. An active writer, he has also contributed program notes ranging from the Baroque period to the 20th century for the ASO, TON and other ensembles.
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.
Tami Petty

Undergraduate and Graduate Voice

Tami Petty

Soprano Tami Petty is a recent Award Winner of the Joy in Singing Competition and made her New York City solo recital debut in 2015. She has performed with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, with New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, and with Voices of Ascension at Alice Tully Hall, for which The New York Times hailed her “powerful soprano” and The Classical Music Network declared, “Such a beauty and purity of tone is so rare that I could only listen in ethereal pleasure." Her performances this season include the the Vaughan Williams A SEA SYMPHONY, Haydn LORD NELSON MASS, Bruckner TE DEUM, Strauss VIER LETZTE GESÄNGE, Wagner WESENDONCK LIEDER, and world premieres by Sorrel Hayes and Gilda Lyons.

A recipient of career grants from the Richard Tucker Foundation, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, Chautauqua Opera Guild, the Lotte Lenya Competition, and the prestigious Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera Center, Ms. Petty also received special recognition in the Marilyn Horne Song Competition during her time spent at Music Academy of the West. She is the first recipient of the Emerging Artist Award from the Sorel Organization honoring women in music and received the Jessie Kneisel Prize in German Lieder while a student at the Eastman School of Music.