The Bard College campus is awash in music; by all accounts, that fact is one of the school’s most distinctive features. The Music Program, one of the largest programs on campus, provides a wide range of musical concentrations, from classical composition and performance to jazz, electronic music, musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory. The music faculty all maintain highly visible careers outside academia, many of us nationally or internationally. Many of our most active music students are majoring in something other than music, and all are welcome.
Photo by Karl Rabe
The Bard Conservatory
The Music Program is separate from the Bard College Conservatory of Music, which has a double-degree program and various graduate programs. The Conservatory's primary differences are as follows: focus on classical music performance and composition; secondary major required; five-year program; and audition required to apply. Despite the separation, many performance opportunities involve both Conservatory students and Music Program students.
The Bard Baroque Ensemble
The Bard Baroque Ensemble welcomes students from both the College and Conservatory. At the start of the semester, students from the College or Conservatory wishing to join should contact director Renée Anne Louprette at [email protected] to express their interest in joining. Watch a livestreamed concert by the Bard Baroque Ensemble in collaboration with Bard Chamber Singers, Preparatory Chorus, Graduate Vocal Arts Program, performing works by Bach in Olin Hall.
Applying to the Program
Upcoming Events
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4/06Sunday1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
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4/09Wednesday7:30 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Blum Hall
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4/12Saturday12:00 pm – 12:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Memorial Hall (Old Gym)
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4/12Saturday4:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
Music Alive! Composer Showcase
Saturday, April 12, 2025 | 4:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 | Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance SpaceCurated by Joan Tower
A showcase featuring compositions by Elena Hause, Lili M. Namazi, Rowan Robinson, Olivia Marhevka, Logan Rishard, Santiago Mieres, Artemy Muhkin, Steve Bonacci, Julian Raheb, Emily Ta, Sam Mutter, Faisal Jones, Drew Frankenberg, and Manar Hashmi. Free and open to the public.
Livestreaming on the Conservatory YouTube Channel.
Sponsored by: Bard College Conservatory of Music; Music Program
Contact: Bard Conservatory Concert Office
E-mail: [email protected]
NEWSROOM
Bard Baroque Ensemble Presents Concert in Memory of Frederick Fisher Hammond on April 19
The Bard Baroque Ensemble, under the direction of Renée Anne Louprette, presents a concert in the Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater with works by Bach, Handel, and Mozart.
Bard Baroque Ensemble Presents Concert in Memory of Frederick Fisher Hammond on April 19
Bard Baroque Ensemble. Photo by Christopher Kayden
The evening’s program celebrates the restoration of Professor Hammond's French double-manual and Italian single-manual harpsichords—now a part of Bard College’s collection of early keyboard instruments—featuring them in the Concerto for Two Harpsichords, Strings, and Continuo in C Minor, BWV 1060 by Johann Sebastian Bach, with Sophia Cornicello and Raymond Erickson as harpsichord soloists. One of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's most popular and enduring works, Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550, opens the program, interpreted by the Ensemble with a Baroque sensibility. Bard faculty member and distinguished tenor Rufus Müller presents the ravishing opening aria from Handel’s Serse: Ombra mai fu (Never was a shade). The program concludes with Bach's Cantata No. 1: Wie schön leuchtet Der Morgenstern (How brightly shines the Morningstar), featuring the Bard Chamber Singers, Preparatory Division Children's Chorus, and soloists from the Graduate Vocal Arts Program. This luminous chorale-cantata—originally conceived for the Feast of the Annunciation—is presented here in the context of transition from darkness to light, on the date of Holy Saturday within the Christian Church. Valentina Grasso, assistant professor of history at Bard, will present a reading from Dante’s Divine Comedy—in lieu of the traditional Lutheran sermon—at the center of Bach’s 1724 masterpiece.
Post Date: 03-27-2025
Book by Franz Nicolay One of the “Best Music Books of 2024” by Rolling Stone
Nicolay’s Band People: Life and Work In Popular Music offers a close look at the lives of working musicians, like backup singers and support musicians, whose creative collaboration plays an irreplaceable role in popular music.
Book by Franz Nicolay One of the “Best Music Books of 2024” by Rolling Stone
Franz Nicolay, visiting instructor of music at Bard College.
Post Date: 01-28-2025
New Summer Program for Transfeminine Composers
The GLISS residency, open to three transfeminine composers aged 18–30, will provide support through a series of lessons, workshops, masterclasses, recordings, barbecues, and hangouts in a transwoman-only space.
New Summer Program for Transfeminine Composers
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Sarah Hennies. Photo by Kay Bell ’26
Post Date: 01-06-2025