Performance and composition - the active making of music - are the primary focuses of the Bard Music Program. Students develop their talents as performers and improvisers through lessons and in active solo and/or group playing schedules. In addition to weekly rehearsals with an ensemble and performances in class and in the Open Concerts (offered monthly), they are expected to present three or four full-length concerts by the end of their fourth year. Composers develop their individual "voice" through an active schedule of rehearsing, taping, and performing their music with faculty, outside professional players, and student performers. Electronic composers learn the use of a sophisticated electronic music studio and eventually present their pieces (live or on tape) to both the Music Program and the rest of the Bard community. All senior music majors are eligible to either perform with or have a piece played by the American Symphony Orchestra at the annual Commencement Concert.

The music faculty feels that these activities take on depth when grounded in a knowledge of musical tradition. In these days of musical pluralism, however, it is impossible to single out any one tradition as equally relevant to all musicians. Bard's Music Program is equipped for specialization in three major areas: jazz (and related African-American traditions), European classical music (including its younger, American parallel), and electronic music (starting with its early twentieth-century experimental roots). Each music major is expected to explore, through course work, the history and theory of one of these three areas. Each music major also should take at least one music course in an area outside his or her specialization (that course may also include world music). The Music Program encourages diversity, provided each musician becomes sufficiently immersed in one tradition in order to experience the richness and complexity of a musical culture.
Since the Music Program has a high ratio of faculty to students, each entering student can construct a program based on his or her interests, strengths, and capabilities, in collaboration with a faculty adviser.

BACK TO TOP

Ensembles may be taken for one credit or no credit. If private lessons are taken in conjunction with an ensemble, one more credit may be added. It is possible to participate in more than one ensemble and receive additional credit accordingly.

• Bard Community Orchestra: This is a year long course. It is open to the student and faculty body, and to the community at large. Auditions are required.

• Bard Community Chorus: The Bard Community Chorus includes membership from both the student body and the surrounding community and presents two concerts each year. Repertoire is varied, but tends to focus on music for large chorus and performs with orchestra each year. This chorus is non-auditioned and is open to any interested singer.

• Bard College Community Chamber Music Program: The program will select students, alumni, faculty and community performers to present chamber music recitals on and off campus. The program will aim for diversity, both in instrumentation (including voice) as well as in repertoire. Weekly coaching will be given by faculty, and rehearsals between coachings will be expected.

• Bard Chamber Singers: The Bard Vocal Ensemble varies in size from 16 to 25 members depending on the repertoire. Focusing on music form small chorus, this ensemble focuses on a wide variety of repertoire from the 16th century to the present, and performs with orchestra each year. Membership is by audition, held at the beginning of each semester.

• Balinese Gamelan Ensemble (also known as Chadra Kanchana [“Golden Moon”]) offers Bard students the opportunity to learn about and play the complex, powerful orchestral music of Bali on authentic instruments. Balinese music is played in ensemble, with intricate interlocking parts that are learned in rehearsal. Instruction is by Nyoman Saptanyana, a master musician from Bali. No previous musical training is required.

• Jazz Ensemble: The thought in the Jazz Ensemble is to create an opportunity in playing Jazz in a big band setting. Here, each student can grow as an individual player as well as a team player. Also, each student can familiarize themselves with jazz repertoire, as well as the opportunity to develop their improvisation skills.

• Electroacoustic Ensemble: The Bard Electro-Acoustic Ensemble performs a range of musical genres and styles that encompass "non-idiomatic," open improvisation, structured improvisation, as well as conceptual, graphic, text-based, and other types of notated scores. The instrumentation includes synthesizers, samplers, laptops, contact microphones, digital delay and other effects processors, as well as piano, cello, voice, and whatever instruments are brought to the group by the participating students. Recent repertoire has included Cornelius Cardew's Treatise, Karlheiz Stockhausen's Mikrophonie I, Christian Wolff's Edges, John Zorn's Cobra, and a variety of exercises and structures created by the members of the ensemble or suggested by the instructor. The emphasis is on developing skills of creative listening and interactive performance.

• Percussion Ensemble: This ensemble is designed to provide the basic tools for anyone serious about learning and playing percussion. The Ensemble will draw from a wide range of sources, such as Max Roach’s M’Boom to Steve Reich. Rhythms from Cuba to Senegal will be analyzed and applied to music from these regions. Learning and playing cadences is encouraged. Requirements: drumming skills (simple coordination), reading skills, four years of playing or lessons. Mallet playing is a plus. Supplies such as sticks and mallets are required by the student.

• Colorado String Quartet: In September 2000, The Colorado Quartet began a long-term teaching residency at Bard College, with the goal of creating a serious, conservatory atmosphere at this unique liberal arts college. The Quartet offers private lessons to music majors as well as quartet and other chamber music coachings. The ensemble also conducts seminars on a variety of musical topics, from those with specific quartet applications to subjects with a more universal nature.
AUDIO CLIP: Scherzo, 2:00

• Wind Ensemble: A subsidiary ensemble of the Bard Orchestra meets weekly to rehearse music specially composed for winds.


• The DaCapo Chamber Players and the Colorado String Quartet are two highly distinguished professional ensembles that have residences at Bard. They perform concerts of their own, record and perform new compositions by Bard students in ensembles comprised of themselves and Bard students. The concert sof student compositions and orchestration are presented each semester.

• The Commencement concert; seniors, and occasionally juniors, have the opportunity to compose for or perform with the American Symphony Orchestra in a concert held he night before graduation during the spring semester.

• Open concerts are held monthly and give the student an opportunity to perform a piece of their choice or premiere a new composition. Participation in these concerts is highly encouraged by the music faculty. Open concerts are usually varied in content and style of music.

• The student activities office sponsors a number of coffee house concerts and open mikes in different locations around the Bard campus. There is also an audio co-op on campus where musicians can leave their qquipment and sign out space for practicing.


BACK TO TOP