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The Music Program at Bard

Photo by Jonathan Aseidu '24
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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.
The Bard Conservatory
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.

More about the Bard Conservatory

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.

More about the Baroque Ensemble

Learn more about other music ensembles at Bard

Applying to the Program

Upcoming Events

  • 4/06
    Sunday
    1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
    Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space
  • 4/11
    Friday
    7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
    Bard Hall
  • The three members of Eri Yamamoto's Colors of the Night Trio.; Richard Gordon Jazz Series
    4/15
    Tuesday
    4:00 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
    László Z. Bitó Conservatory Performance Space
  • 4/17
    Thursday
    7:30 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
    Blum N211, the Jazz room

NEWSROOM

Book by Franz Nicolay One of the “Best Music Books of 2024” by <em>Rolling Stone</em>

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.

New Summer Program for Transfeminine Composers

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.

Joan Tower’s Cello Concerto <em>A New Day</em> Featured in <em>Times Union</em>

Joan Tower’s Cello Concerto A New Day Featured in Times Union

The work was written while Jeff Litfin, her late husband of 50 years, was dying.