Undergraduate Voice

Introduction

As with our undergraduate instrumental program, the Bard Conservatory undergraduate voice program integrates excellent classical music training with rigorous academic pursuit. Developing students’ artistic skills through a diverse, inclusive range of repertoires and performance opportunities, we emphasize exploration and musical self-actualization. Students’ musical knowledge is enriched and contextualized by complementary coursework across all divisions of the College, understanding that the role of the singing artist is both communicator and innovator.

Vocal performance students will work with faculty in both the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Bard College Music Program. Opportunities for collaboration include the Chamber Singers, led by Maestro James Bagwell; the annual, fully-staged Opera Workshop at Bard’s Fisher Center; and various performance classes led by Rufus Müller. Performance coursework will be matched with body and breath awareness courses in the Feldenkrais Method and/or Alexander Technique.

In addition to the courses required of all Conservatory students (studio instruction; chamber music; our core sequence of theory, analysis, and composition courses; aural skills; music history; and senior recital seminar), we offer a curriculum that builds skills necessary to the 21st century vocalist. (Voice-specific jury and recital requirements can be found here.) Brief descriptions of these courses are offered below:

Diction for Singers
This four-semester, two-year sequence examines the basics of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as applied to the singing pronunciation of Italian and French, and English and German, taught in alternating years with a lecture course in the fall and workshop in the spring semester. Through written exercises, coaching, performance, and listening assignments, students will develop their ability to identify the component sounds of each sung language and to enunciate them with clarity and physical ease. Students are required to take these courses in their first two years at Bard.

Vocal Pedagogy 
This course is designed for students with teaching ambitions as well as for serious singers who would like to deepen their exploration of their own instrument. The class covers basic anatomy and physiology, but the emphasis is always on practical vocal application. Students will be like voice-detectives, learning new ways to listen to voices, to identify physiological influences in a sound, and to remedy imbalances in vocal production through specific changes in posture, head or tongue positions. The course will also explore questions such as: What are vocal registers and how do they work? What are good vowels, and how can they help us solve vocal problems? What is a good vibrato and what information can we gain from it?

Vocal Coaching
Beginning in the third year of study, students receive weekly individual sessions with a member of the faculty. These sessions supplement the work done in the private studio, with a special emphasis on connection to text.

• Chamber Singers 
  Led by Maestro James Bagwell, the Chamber Singers is a select choir made up of undergraduate singers in both the Conservatory and B.A. Music Program. The Chamber Singers perform throughout the year at Bard’s Fisher Center with the Bard Conservatory Orchestra and The Orchestra Now.
• Song Class 
  Song recitals can sometimes be boring, or even alienating. In this class, led by Rufus Müller, students explore meaningful ways to make the performance of art song moving and satisfying for performers and public alike. Each iteration of the course culminates in a public recital.
• Opera Workshop 
  The Undergraduate Opera Workshop is a yearly collaboration between the Bard Conservatory and Music Program. Throughout the fall semester, students prepare a themed program of operatic excerpts (choruses, ensembles, solos), culminating in a fully-staged performance with orchestra at Bard’s Fisher Center in the early spring semester.
• Musical Theater Workshop
  This workshop explores solo and ensemble excerpts of works commonly categorized as musical theatre (musicals of all eras, operetta, cabaret, etc.), as well as approaches to performing and storytelling through combinations of text, music, and movement. With a focus on methods of musical and textual preparation to facilitate one’s adaptability and presence in live performance, this course culminates in a presentation of work at the end of the semester. The workshop will also consider students’ original work and concepts–explorations of the liminal spaces between genres is highly encouraged.
• Bard Baroque Ensemble 
  For both singers and instrumentalists, this performance ensemble focuses on music from 1550-1750. The course culminates in a final public performance.
• Alexander Technique
  The Alexander Technique provides a way of teaching us how to re-connect with our own innate energies. For musicians this means discovering a way of performing with greater muscular ease, less accumulated fatigue and a less restrictive approach to technique. This course introduces both F. M. Alexander’s principles and a new set of physical experiences suited to the musician’s specific needs. The aim of the class will be learning how to apply the Technique to practice and performance situations.

Faculty

• Stephanie Blythe, masterclasses
• Teresa Buchholz, studio instructor, OWS
• Lucy Fitz Gibbon, studio instructor
• Kayo Iwama, masterclasses
• Rufus Müller, studio instructor, performance workshop, OWS
• Erika Switzer, diction, vocal coaching, CPF director
• David Sytkowski, aural skills, vocal coaching, musical theater, OWS

Curricular Requirements (Current as of spring 2023)

1. A minimum of 160 credits, at least 64 of which must be taken at Bard.
2. A minimum of 40 credits outside the division of B.A. major.
3. Every student must take two semesters of the First-Year Seminar. Transfer students may be exempt.
4. Every student must be promoted to the Upper College by passing Moderation in their academic area.
5. Every student must complete an acceptable B.A. Senior Project in a field other than music.
6. Distribution requirements: one course from each of the appropriate distribution areas.
7. Studio instruction (CNSV 100) in every semester of enrollment for performance majors.
8. Enrollment in at least one ensemble or workshop class for at least four semesters. These courses include the workshops outlined above:
   • Chamber Singers
   • Opera Workshop
   • Musical Theater Workshop
   • Song Class
9. Chamber Music (CNSV 108, 110) (2 credits). Students will take CNSV 108 in their first semester at Bard. Following this, voice students should enroll in CNSV 110 at least once prior to their graduation.
10. Core Sequence in Theory, Analysis, and Composition (CNSV 140, 240, 330, 332) four semesters (4 credits each):
    • CNSV 140: Diatonic Harmony
    • CNSV 240: Chromatic Harmony
    • CNSV 330: Contemporary Composition
    • CNSV 332: Conservatory Seminar
    • The order indicated by the numbering is strongly recommended, except that CNSV 330 and CNSV 332 may be taken in either order.
    • If students do not test into CNSV 140, it is possible that they may first need to enroll in MUS 122, a spring-semester introduction to music theory course. Students desiring to register for the Music Department’s two-semester theory sequence in lieu of the Conservatory’s may do so, with permission from their advisor.
11. Aural Skills (CNSV 308, 309) two semesters, 2 credits per course. These courses should be taken in conjunction with CNSV 140 and 240.  If students complete the Music Department’s theory sequence, these courses are not required.
12. Music History: two semesters/courses of 4 credits per course. (MUS 264-265 in Language and Literature of Music are recommended, as preparation for graduate school entrance exams).  With prior approval, students may instead choose courses from the Music Program’s history offerings.
13. Senior Recital Seminar (CNSV 403) (4 credits). This course helps students work towards their final degree recital preparation and program note writing, concert production, with a performance forum.

Students wishing to see a sample five year plan in voice may view one here.