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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.

More About Us
  • Visiting Bard
    Interested in visiting Bard for a campus tour or performance? 
    Learn More
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
Learn More
The Bard Conservatory also offers a Preparatory Division for students ages 3–18.

News

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.”

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US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents Ninth Annual China Now Music Festival, "Chasing Dreams," October 2–11, 2026

US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents Ninth Annual China Now Music Festival, "Chasing Dreams," October 2–11, 2026

This year’s festival “Chasing Dreams” reminds us that the pursuit of dreams is a shared human experience that connects all people.

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Professional photo of Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli.

The Galloping Cure by Composer in Residence Missy Mazzoli Featured by the BBC

"Losing someone to addiction [is] hard to have the words for. My attempt to talk about it was to make this piece,” said Mazzoli.

Read More

Upcoming Events and Performances

  • China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Carnegie Hall
    10/2
    Friday
    China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Carnegie Hall
    Bard East/West Ensemble and THE RIFT: Opera in One Act 

    7:30 pm
    Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall
  • Joan Tower smiling against a solid red wall. ; Celebration: A Concert honoring Joan Tower's 54th year at Bard, "My longtime home"
    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
  • China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Asia Society
    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
  • China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Kingston
    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
  • China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Jazz at Lincoln Center
    10/11
    Sunday
    China Now Music Festival: Chasing Dreams at Jazz at Lincoln Center
    The Orchestra Now Celebrates America's 250th Anniversary - NYC

    3:00 pm
    Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center

Meet Our Faculty

See All Faculty
  • Yan Chen
    Erhu

    Yan Chen

    Chen Yan is a young professor of erhu in the Central Conservatory of Music’s Traditional Instruments Department. A performer in the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, she graduated from Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree, and received her master’s degree at the Central Conservatory of Music. Chen Yan has won many awards, such as the Silver Award of the Youth Group in National Erhu Competition; the Silver Award of the Youth Group in the Second CCTV National Instrumental Music Competition; Second Prize of the Youth Group in the “Wenhua Cup”; and the Excellent Professional Prize from Shanghai Art Talents. She has performed as an Erhu soloist in the Opening Ceremony of the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival many times. In 2009, she premiered a Carmen Fantasia adaptation arranged for Chen by Franz Waxman. In 2011, she premiered Zhang Chao’s concerto Tribute to the Sun at the Beijing Concert Hall, winning “Best New Artist Prize” of the Fourth Ethnic Art Exhibition and the “Best New Artist Performance Prize” of the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. In recent years she has visited the United States, Germany, and Australia on tour with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra.
  • Jiazhen Zhao
    Guqin

    Jiazhen Zhao

    Zhao Jiazhen is a professor of guqin in the Traditional Music Department at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China. She studied at the Central Conservatory, graduating in 1984. Zhao has performed with the Chinese Symphony Orchestra, Film Orchestra of China, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Symphony Orchestra of Belgium, and National Orchestra of Taipei City. In 2001 and 2002 she performed in the “World Renowned Musicians and Instruments Concert” at Zhong Shan Hall inside the Forbidden City in Beijing, featuring three priceless guqins from the Tang Dynasty and five Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari violins. Zhao has performed in films such as The History of the Three Kingdoms, Dream of the Red Chamber, Swordsman, Fire on Yuanming Yuan, and Wu Ze Tian. She has also produced more than 10 albums of guqin music. At the 10th annual Independent Music Awards, her album Qin: Masterpieces of Chinese Qin from the Tang Dynasty to Today won best album in the World Traditional Music category.
  • 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.  
  • Javier Arrebola
    Graduate Vocal Arts Program

    Javier Arrebola

    Over the past decade, Spanish pianist and scholar Javier Arrebola has emerged as an important figure in art song for his creativity, artistry, performances, and scholarship.

    Mr. Arrebola is currently Artistic Associate at Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall and faculty member at the Tanglewood Music Center. In the past, he has held positions as Co-Artistic Director and Director of the Piano Program at SongFest, Head of Piano in the Program for Singers at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Chair of Collaborative Piano at Boston University and Visiting Professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is also a frequent guest at institutions such as The Juilliard School in New York City, Shanghai’s Conservatory, Boston’s New England Conservatory, University of Minnesota, Bard College, Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, Conservatoire Hector Berlioz in Paris, and The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto.

    In the last years, Mr. Arrebola’s work and contributions have extended to being the video editor and illustrator of, among other projects, Wigmore Hall’s Schubert in Life & Songs, a seminal series by pianist and scholar Graham Johnson, and of SongFest’s Songs of Unity & Hope, an online event conceived and curated by Mr. Arrebola featuring over 60 countries and 40 different languages from all over the world.

    Mr. Arrebola holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree and a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, as well as degrees in Piano Performance and Chamber Music from the Madrid Royal Conservatory. His doctoral studies included the public performance of all of Schubert's completed piano sonatas on both historical fortepianos and modern instruments, as well as a thesis on The Unfinished Piano Sonatas of Franz Schubert.

Preparatory Division Fall Registration Now Open

Apply & Register Here →

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Bard College
Bard College
Conservatory of Music
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Annandale-on-Hudson
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All photos by Karl Rabe unless stated otherwise.