<p>Can you tell us how your program is going? Is the double-degree requirement still in effect?</p>
<p>Hi mom4,</p>
<p>I'm relatively new in my position with the Conservatory. I started last September, so I am nearing my first full admissions life-cycle. The conservatory is growing smart rather than fast--there's been talk of 120 students in 5 years, which we may still reach, but that's not something I'd like to be held to as determining the success of the program overall. For undergraduates, the mandatory double degree is still in effect. I really don't see us moving away from that any time soon. </p>
<p>As for how the program is doing--while there have been kinks and growing pains, some quick facts should speak for themselves. </p>
<p>The level of playing is quite high. This summer our students are attending Tanglewood, Banff, Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, Aspen, Bowdoin, Schleswig-Holstein, Pacific Music Festival, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, EAMA in Paris, etc. So in this regard pursuing the double degree hasn't hurt students' chances of getting in to competitive summer festivals, and it's fair to say that on balance individually they play as well as students at any other major conservatory. </p>
<p>With this decision to remain selective, and, as we say, "grow smart," the area most affected is the orchestra. We hire young professionals to fill in on instruments not yet covered by students. We did not have any percussion or harp in our first four intakes; for fall 2009 we will accept percussion. The president of Bard College is also music director of two orchestras (American SO based in NYC and Jerusalem SO, the radio orchestra for the state of Israel) and in the past year has has taken a more active role in leading weekly rehearsals of the orchestra. We have brought on the concertmaster of the ASO to head seminars in audition repertoire and orchestral excerpts. This is certainly our growth area as the years progress. </p>
<p>Not to make a crass commercial plug here, but there's a website that I suspect will grow into a high-end YouTube for classical music called InstantEncore. This past year several schools have started to post content to this site, so it's a very helpful tool for hearing current students at each institution. We use it, as does Curtis, Colburn, and now I think a few more schools. Bard's website is Bard</a> College Conservatory of Music - InstantEncore</p>
<p>My background is: double-major at USC Thornton (music-conducting and East Asian Languages and Cultures), music director of the Bard Orchestra (made up of mostly non-music majors in Bard's liberal arts curriculum, with some conservatory students as well), and some corporate recruiting experience (IT consulting firm on Wall Street, and a Japanese educational services company). So that's where I'm coming from.</p>
<p>I appreciate this forum is mostly for parents and students to talk "confidentially" about the schools they're considering, so I'm grateful to be able to join the conversation and discuss relevant issues as they come up.</p>
<p>Welcome N8Ma. A quick question: is the academic year '09-'10 the fifth year of intake? I'm assuming then that the first group of five year double degree conservatory students is slated to graduate in May '10.</p>
<p>I'm just asking for point of reference.</p>
<p>Thank you for posting such an informative answer. I hope you'll keep contributing to the discussions!</p>
<p>D and I were at Bard in early spring and asked the OP's question to the college admissions rep (the conservatory building was deserted that day and we didn't find anyone there to talk to). Her answer was that all was well, with some adjustments being required along the way, such as offering sections of the introductory freshman seminar taught in Chinese.</p>
<p>Hi violadad,</p>
<p>Our first undergraduate class will graduate in May 2010. Our first graduate students in voice graduated this year. Conductors have been graduating all along; the Conductors Institute precedes the Conservatory, actually.</p>
<p>AsterMom--</p>
<p>I'm sorry you were unable to meet someone from the Conservatory during your visit. You can reach me at (845) 758-7131 if you have any questions, or you can send me an email using this system. </p>
<p>Bard wants to make the double degree achievable. Right now I think there is a perception that for someone to actually earn a double degree s/he had to be the super overachiever in high school that we all wanted to smack: concertmaster AND valedictorian. Sure, every school loves having students like that around, but overall our goal is to attract talented musicians and empower them to be more interesting performers through exposure to the liberal arts. What this means is that we are not necessarily only interested in someone equally talented in both trumpet and biology. And so this has also applied to some of our international students. One year we had a large intake from the PRC and it made sense to have them read Kant not in English but Chinese translation. They got a lot more out of the class from this experience--and some of them formed the Chimeng Quartet as a result. ("Chimeng" is the pinyin for, among other things, the Chinese translation of "The Enlightenment.") Since we only took three Chinese-speaking students this year, First Year Seminar will be business as usual. </p>
<p>I notice a current conservatory student used to post to this site under the handle wmgan. I'll see if he's interested in speaking his mind about things from a students' perspective.</p>
<p>Thanks, N8Ma, for your thoughtful reply. I do see the distinction you are making. It will be interesting to see Bard's program unfold. Best wishes!</p>
<p>N8Ma --</p>
<p>Very interesting to see/hear Bard's perspective. My S is going to school in violin performance next year. He looked closely at Bard (but did not visit). The violin teachers offered there are very appealing. He is a strong student and did apply to and was accepted at Oberlin for a double degree and almost went there. He chose another school for the teacher, but loved Oberlin for the program flexibility coupled with excellence in both music and academics. He felt that he would be too restricted at Bard where he would have to go to another school if he decided to drop the BA degree because of the pressure. This was not the case at Oberlin. As it turns out, he has pretty much decided not to do a double degree in the end, but since he'll be in a music school within a large university, he will still have the option. I do think Bard is limiting itself quite a lot by not allowing this flexibility. At 18, coming out of a demanding academic environment in high school, it is hard for him to imagine what the stresses will be once he is finally studying music professionally. You are narrowing your prospective students down a great deal. I suppose you are aware of this, but I thought you might be interested in his perspective.</p>
<p>N8Ma --</p>
<p>Thanks for your participation in this discussion. It is very constructive. I have looked at Bard because overall I think it could be a good fit for my DS. It strikes out on two counts from my son's perspective -- first, there is no undergrad voice performance major, and second, he really wants to pursue his musical studies and as a result is only interested in schools with a BM degree. </p>
<p>I appreciate the school's desire to grow slowly, and that seems smart. However, I think you should be conscious of the set of kids that are not even taking a serious look at the school.</p>
<p>Juggling Mom and stringfollies--</p>
<p>Thank you for your input as well. Although no one system has all the answers, one of the great things that distinguishes music training in the USA is the enormous variety of educational environments available for aspiring musicians. In the UK, there are exactly six conservatories; Italy has three worth mentioning; the PRC also has three (plus one in Hong Kong); Finland one. In these countries, deciding how to pursue a career in music is a lot like having a meal on an airplane--it's chicken or beef, Manchester or London, Milan or Rome, Shanghai or Beijing. As the chatter on this and other websites makes abundantly clear, in the US there are abundant options. </p>
<p>When deciding to enter the fray, Bard didn't want to bring coals to Newcastle, and simply give Michael Tree yet another school to teach at. We are attempting to create a place for gifted musicians who, at the age of 17, do not want to be forced into an either/or conundrum. There are kids at 17 who honestly do not know with 100% certainty whether they want to pursue a career in music, and are afraid of going only to a conservatory (and, in two years, wanting to transfer to a LAC but then are behind academically) or an LAC (and, in two years, are unable to transfer into a conservatory because their playing didn't continue to grow to a high standard), who are relieved to hear of the program we've created. Then there are others who know, have known since they were 11 or 12, that they wanted to pursue music professionally, but see the value in the kind of milieu we have created here. </p>
<p>All of us who work as administrators of this program have earned degrees in music and academic subjects simultaneously. And so we know from first-hand experience that frequently double degree students become ghettoized, or distinctions are made (implicit or explicit) by faculty/students/staff that there are the "real" musicians and then there are the double degree students. By making the double degree mandatory, we hope we are making a useful contribution to the quality, diversity, and choice available for aspiring musicians in America. </p>
<p>This approach, naturally, is not for everybody. People self-select themselves out of Bard for a number of reasons (rural campus, small class size, too many hippies, no football teams or fraternities, one orchestra not seven, no marching band, no musical theater, etc.) and no doubt our educational philosophy is one of those factors. On the road I notice "double degree" is a kind of litmus test...the instant I mention it some people smile and walk away; for others their face lights up and they want to hear more. Again I think that's only natural.</p>
<p>There were 3.2 million graduating seniors this year. Of those, I would say something between 1700 and 2200 entered highly selective music programs. Of that subset, we are looking for no more than 20-30 total musicians per year (undergrad and grad). </p>
<p>Finally, when we approached Dawn Upshaw about starting a program here, it was clear she wanted to teach older voices only. Since our voice faculty all teach undergrads at the major NYC conservatories, it only made sense for us to keep the program within her defined boundaries. I hope your son will consider us for graduate school when the time comes.</p>