Faculty
Vocal Performance students receive weekly private lessons with voice teachers, Teresa Buchholz, Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Claire Galloway, and Rufus Müller. Additional faculty include vocal coaches Erika Switzter and David Sytkowski.
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Teresa Buchholz
Teresa Buchholz
Versatile mezzo-soprano Teresa Buchholz enjoys success in the realms of opera, art song and oratorio. Verdi’s Requiem is quickly becoming a staple of her repertoire, and she has recently performed the work with True Concord Chorus and Orchestra (Tucson, AZ), the Helena Symphony (Helena, MT), the New Jersey Choral Society, the Lake Como Music Festival (Italy), and will perform the work with Long Beach Symphony (CA) in 2021. Some recent performances include Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall with Distinguished Concerts International New York, several Holiday concerts with The Greenwich Choral Society and a guest recital at her alma mater, The University of Northern Iowa. In March 2019 she performed Alexander Nevsky with the Anchorage Symphony, and 2018/19 marked the debut of a newly formed collaboration with Bard colleagues Erika Switzer and Marka Gustavsson, The Blithewood Ensemble, which has performed a program of chamber music as part of the Downtown Music at Grace series (White Plains, NY) at the Hudson Hall (Hudson, NY) and Bitò Hall at Bard College. She recently soloed with the New Jersey Choral Society on a concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 and Choral Fantasy, and performed the role of Domna Ivanovna Sobyrova in a staged production of “The Tsar’s Bride” by Rimsky-Korsakov as part of the Bard Music Festival. In December 2018 she soloed in Handel’s Messiah at the Bardavon Theatre in Poughkeepsie, and the previous Fall she was heard as Anne in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All in a highly acclaimed production that took place in Hudson NY, in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with The Orchestra Now at Bard College and in the role of Berta in a New York City concert version of the rarely heard opera Il Grillo del Focolare by Riccardo Zandonai. In past years she has been heard in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Lincoln Center with the National Chorale, a staged version of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Gulfshore Opera, Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Berkshire Bach Society and the Stamford Symphony, and Bach’s Magnificat with Voices of Ascension. Other recent performances have included the role of Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with Opera Roanoke; Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with the Asheville Lyric Opera; the title role in Giulio Cesare in Egitto with Opera Roanoke; Mozart’s Requiem with the Tulsa Symphony, the Stamford Symphony, and Voices of Ascension; Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody at the Bard Music Festival; Berio’s Folk Songs at the Gateway Chamber Orchestra, where she had previously performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde; and Handel’s Messiah at Lincoln Center with Distinguished Concerts International New York. In 2013 she was the winner of the female division in the Nico Castel International Master Singer Competition. Buchholz holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Northern Iowa, a master’s degree in vocal performance from Indiana University, and an Artist Diploma from Yale University. She has taught at Bard since 2012 where she teaches private voice lessons and is one of the producers and vocal coaches for Bard’s undergraduate Opera Workshop. -
Lucy Fitz Gibbon
Lucy Fitz Gibbon
Noted for her “dazzling, virtuoso singing” (Boston Globe), Lucy Fitz Gibbon is a dynamic musician whose repertoire spans the Renaissance to the present. She believes that creating new works and recreating those lost in centuries past makes room for the multiplicity and diversity of voices integral to classical music’s future. As such, Ms. Fitz Gibbon has given U.S. premieres of rediscovered works by Baroque composers Francesco Sacrati, Barbara Strozzi, and Agostino Agazzari, as well by 20 th century composers including Tadeusz Kassern, Roman Palester, and Jean Barraqué. She has also worked closely with numerous others, premiering works by John Harbison, Kate Soper, Sheila Silver, David Hertzberg, Reena Esmail, Roberto Sierra, Anna Lindemann, and Pauline Oliveros. In helping to realize the complexities of music beyond written notes, the experience of working with these composers translates to all music: the commitment to faithfully communicate not only the score, but also the underlying intentions of its creator.
As a recitalist Ms. Fitz Gibbon has appeared with her collaborative partner, pianist Ryan McCullough, in such venues as London’s Wigmore Hall; New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, and Merkin Hall; and Toronto’s Koerner Hall. They have three forthcoming CDs: Descent/Return, featuring works by James Primosch and John Harbison on Albany Records (May 2020); one alongside Dawn Upshaw and Stephanie Blythe of Sheila Silver’s complete Art Song repertoire; and one featuring mid-20 th century Polish works on Acte Préalable. In concert, Lucy has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra; the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra; the Albany, Richmond, Tulsa, and Eureka Symphonies, and the American Symphony Orchestra in her Carnegie Hall debut. She has also premiered two major works by John Harbison and Shirish Korde with Boston Musica Viva, appeared in concert with the Aizuri Quartet, and will appear on tour with Musicians from Marlboro in such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Kimmel Center through 2022. Debuts with the Seattle Opera and Lexington and Kalamazoo Symphonies, as well an appearance with the Doric Quartet at the West Cork Festival in Ireland and a guest recital at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, were all delayed because of COVID-19.
A graduate of Yale University, Ms. Fitz Gibbon is the recipient of numerous awards for her musicaland academic achievements. She holds an artist diploma from The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory and a master’s degree from Bard College-Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program; her principal teachers include Monica Whicher, Edith Bers, and Dawn Upshaw. She has spent summers at the Tanglewood Music Center (2014-2015) and Marlboro Music Festival (2016-2024). She also served as the Interim Director of the Vocal Program at Cornell University and on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program. For more information, see www.lucyfitzgibbon.com. -
Claire Galloway
Claire Galloway
Claire Galloway is a soprano with performance experience in recitals, ensembles, and concerts at venues including Opera Baltimore, Market Square Concert Series, Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Opera NexGen, Lidal North Oslo, Savannah Voice Festival, Bel Cantanti Opera, Prototype Festival, and Bach in Baltimore. She has presented roles by Mozart, Poulenc, Massenet, and Bernstein; and premiered roles by Steven Crino, Jonathan Dove, and Frances Pollock. She was awarded second prize at 2023’s songSLAM and the 2022 International Clara Schumann Competition; and was a semifinalist at the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, and NYIOPS/Premiere Opera Vocal Competition, among others.
As an educator at Bard College, the Peabody Conservatory, and in private voice and diction instruction through Claire Galloway, Soprano LLC, she has taught a large spectrum of vocal students as well as a range of courses, including the courses Advanced French Airs et Mélodies, Building a Brand and Portfolio, Pitching Your Own Creative Idea, German and French Vocal Literature, French and Italian Diction, and has been a coach for the vocal ensembles run by Beth Willer.
She has training and certification in somatic body work, founding and running The Somatic Singer workshop series and was a co-founder of the Somatic Song Institute in Laguna Beach, CA. She was a Brown Loranger Fellow at Songfest as well as a Ravinia Steans Music Institute Fellow.
She has specialized in Nordic repertoire as a Fellow at the Nordic Song Festival, Trollhättan, Sweden for the past three years. Galloway is fluent or IPA proficient in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Russian, Czech, and Ukrainian. She honed her language skills at Bard College as a French double major, Boston University as an M.A.T. in French Secondary Education, Middlebury College Summer Language Institutes, Center for University Programs Abroad in Paris, and was a Teaching Assistant in Bouxwiller, France through TAPIF.
BA, Bard College; MAT, Boston University; MM, Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University. She has been at Bard since 2023 at Artist-in-Residence. -
Rufus Müller
Rufus Müller
Rufus Müller is a sought-after tenor who was acclaimed by the New York Times, following a performance at Carnegie Hall, as “easily the best tenor I have heard in a live Messiah.” He has performed internationally in operas, oratorios, and recitals. He performed the world premiere of Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed production of the St. Matthew Passion, which was broadcast on BBC TV and recorded for the United label; he repeated the role in three revivals of the production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Müller is also a leading recitalist, performing worldwide with pianist Maria João Pires, notably in an extended Schubertiade in London’s Wigmore Hall, and on tour in Spain, Germany, and Japan with Schubert’s Winterreise. Recent performances also include Bach’s Passions and Handel’s Messiah in New York, Princeton, Toronto, Montreal, Washington, D.C., Carmel Bach Festival, Royal Albert Hall, and Canterbury Cathedral; Monteverdi’s Vespers, Schubert’s Winterreise, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Ottavio) in Tokyo; Beethoven’s Choral Symphony in Pennsylvania; the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Haydn’s Creation in London, as well as recitals and master classes in Japan, Germany, and the United States. Born in Kent, England, Müller was a choral scholar at New College, Oxford, and studied in New York with the late Thomas LoMonaco. In 1985 he won first prize in the English Song Award in Brighton and, in 1999, was a prize winner in the Oratorio Society of New York Singing Competition. A list of performances and recordings can be found at his website, rufusmuller.com. BA, MA, University of Oxford. At Bard since 2006.
Performing for Singers
Throughout their time in the undergraduate double degree program, singers are provided with ample opportunities to perform in operatic, art song, choral, and chamber music settings. All Conservatory students are required to present at least three recitals, two on-campus and one off-campus, and many courses culminate in a final public performance. In addition, students have opportunities to perform with the Bard College Baroque Ensemble, the Bard College Orchestra, the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, and with the Chamber Singers and Symphonic Chorus. Students hone their stagecraft in the yearly, fully-staged Opera Workshop in Bard's Fisher Center and in the Graduate Vocal Arts Program operas, performing in the chorus and supporting roles.
Bachelor of Music Degree Requirements for Vocal Performance Majors
Like all undergraduate instrumentalists and composers, all undergraduate singers are working toward both a bachelor of music in vocal performance and a bachelor of arts in a field other than music. Conservatory students live, eat, and attend most classes with non-Conservatory students, and are fully part of the academic and social life of the College. Each Conservatory student has two academic advisers, one from the Conservatory and one from a field that the student is considering as a major for the BA degree.
Bachelor of Music Degree Requirements for Vocal Performance Majors
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 BA major.
3. Every student must take two semesters of First-Year Seminar. Transfer students may be exempt.
4. Every student must be promoted to the Upper College by passing moderation.
5. Every student must complete an acceptable BA 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. Vocal Coaching beginning in the fall semester of the third year until graduation.
9. Chamber Singers (MUS 108D): singers participate in the Bard College Chamber Singers for the first four semesters of study.
10. Diction: four semesters of diction training in Italian, French, German, and English.
11. Vocal Pedagogy: one semester is required.
12. Vocal Electives: four semesters of these courses are required throughout the course of study. Participation in more than four semesters is highly encouraged.
CVSV 211: Alexander Technique
MUS 108P: Bard Baroque Ensemble
CNSV 240: Chromatic Harmony and Combined Species Counterpoint
CNSV 330: Contemporary Composition
CNSV 332: Conservatory Seminar
17. 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 choose courses from the Music Program’s history offerings.
18. Senior Recital Seminar (CNSV 403): a four credit course which includes recital preparation and program note writing, concert production, with a performance forum.
Performance Requirements and Assessments: (for students entering fall 2019, and after.)
1. First Year Jury
2. Second Year Jury
3. Third Year Midpoint Recital
4. Fourth Year Off-Campus Recital
5. Fifth Year Degree Recital and Promotional
Withdrawals
A Conservatory student may withdraw from the Conservatory and continue as a BA candidate at Bard College. (Such a decision may have an impact on the student’s financial aid.) However, a student may not withdraw from Bard’s BA program and continue in the Conservatory.
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Vocal Coaching
Vocal Coaching
Beginning in the third year of study, students receive weekly individual sessions with a member of the voice faculty. These sessions supplement the work done in the private studio, with a special emphasis on connection to text. -
Diction for Singers
Diction for Singers
Taught by Dr. Erika Switzer, this two semester sequence examines the basics of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as applied to the singing pronunciation of Italian and French in the first semester and English and German in the second. 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. -
Chamber Singers
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. -
Vocal Pedagogy
Vocal Pedagogy
This course, led by Teresa Buchholz, 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 will cover basic anatomy and physiology, but the emphasis is always on practical vocal application. Students will be like voice-detectives, learning new ways of how 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 Performance Elective Courses
All vocal electives are offered yearly. Participation for credit is required by all vocal performance students for at least four semesters. More than four semesters of participation is strongly encouraged and can be coordinated with the student's academic advisors.
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Song Class
Song Class
Song recitals can often be boring, or even alienating. In this class we explore ways to make the performance of art song moving and satisfying for performers and public alike. Led by Rufus Müller, these song courses explore meaningful ways to make the performance of art song moving and satisfying for performers and public alike. The course culminates in a public recital. -
Opera Workshop
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. -
Bard Baroque Ensemble
Bard Baroque Ensemble
For both singers and instrumentalists, the Bard Baroque Ensemble provides Bard College and Conservatory musicians the opportunity to explore early repertoire from the Medieval through the late Baroque periods. The ensemble takes a leading role in an annual series of Bach cantata presentations in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents and other venues on the Bard campus and in the local region. The Baroque Ensemble collaborates with other Bard musical ensembles, including the Chamber Singers, the Graduate Vocal Arts Program, the Preparatory Division Chorus, The Orchestra Now, the Graduate Conducting Program, and faculty from other branches of the College as part of their mission in bringing outstanding early music performances to the wider community. The program welcomes students from both the College and Conservatory and exemplifies the approach of including all eligible participants by challenging them at their own individual level while working together as a cohesive artistic team. This course culminates in a final public performance.
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Alexander Technique
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. Students will have the opportunity to work with their instruments in class.