Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship

Fellows are responsible for playing for studio lessons, master classes, rehearsals, auditions, and performances for the instrumental and vocal students of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Graduate Vocal Arts Program. In this capacity, they play for and are coached by the faculty and guest artists of the Conservatory. In the past, piano fellows have performed at Bard Fisher Center, National Sawdust and the Morgan Library in New York City, the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and throughout the Hudson Valley. They have also had the opportunity to play for guest artists such as Renée Fleming, Pierre Vallet, and Margo Garrett.

Led by Erika Switzer, Kayo Iwama, and Frank Corliss, this weekly seminar has two main components: to survey the basic collaborative piano repertoire and to build the skills necessary to work as a collaborative pianist. This is done through the study of duo repertoire, concerto repertoire, and the basic aria and song repertoires with voice, playing orchestral reductions, sight reading, score reading, and transposing. With emphasis on the practical rather than the theoretical, the seminar also addresses the various challenges, both practical and musical, of being a professional collaborative pianist. Guest artists active in the professional world are also brought in occasionally as master teachers.

On a limited basis, piano fellows may teach some secondary piano lessons to undergraduate instrumentalists and graduate conductors, under the guidance and mentorship of the directors.

Additionally, fellows are evaluated at the end of each academic year by the collaborative piano faculty. A successful performance review at the end of the first year is necessary to qualify for the second year of the fellowship.