Conservatory fundraising leads to swank new building
by J.P. Lawrence
At the beginning of every semester, David Bloom ‘13, a student in the Bard Conservator reserves all of his rehearsal spaces in advance – even for rehearsals months away.
Bloom does this because as a member of the Conservatory, he knows that there is a lack of rehearsal space on campus, and that to reserve a larger space – especially during prime hours – is a difficult task and may require more than two weeks notice.
Because Bloom plans ahead, he normally has no problems. But when an unexpected circumstance required him to arrange a rehearsal on short notice, he was out of luck: every single space was taken.
In the coming years, perhaps students like Bloom will not have this problem - because after six years of fundraising, begging, schmoozing, the Bard Conservatory will soon have a building to its own. Slated to begin construction in September of this year and to open in December of 2012, the building will be located immediately next to the conservatory’s current home in the Milton and Sally Avery Center for the Arts.
The building will centralize conservatory practice areas, currently spread throughout the campus, into a single nine-million-dollar space. The building will allow them to move out of the space they currently share with Bard’s music department.
It will include a recital hall, teaching studios, and spaces for the many rehearsals and recitals required of the Bard conservatory student. The construction of this new building is a development many Conservatory students support.
“The building we have was meant for one department, and it’s being used for two,” said Alex Fager, an economics and violin major. “That makes scheduling anything a pain in the ass.”
Lest students believe that the new building will take needed funds away from concerns like their housing and their tuition, the building comes as a gift from Bard alum Laszlo Bito and his wife.
“The entire cost of the building comes from the gift,” Robert Martin, head of Bard’s Conservatory program, said. “The president made it clear that we couldn’t use any college funds.”
The rehearsal rooms and recital hall will be open to non-Conservatory students as well. Jim Brudvig, Vice President for Administration, was quick to note that the new facility will be available to all Bard students.
For Martin, who has been at the helm of the fledgling program since its inception, the building is the culmination of a long fundraising effort. He gained support from sources like a sold-out Natalie Merchant concert that raised $60,000, and a 2.5 million dollar challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will be matched by 7.5 million raised by the college itself.
Martin insists that all these dollar figures will benefit the conservatory and therefore the college as a whole – that because Bard’s conservatory students must major in another discipline, the instruments, high-profile instructors, new buildings and scholarships will benefit the entire college as a whole.
“It’s one of the most important features of the conservatory is that it’s part of a liberal arts college,” said Martin. “The whole idea is that students live together, each together, go to class together with students that are doing other things. That’s really, really important. The integration of the conservatory into the college is part of the idea of the conservatory.”
Martin sees students like Bloom, who majors in philosophy in addition to his composing work, as examples of the well-rounded students he envisioned when the program began.
“When we started, we thought about Oberlin, and how proud they were of their conservatory, to have such talented musicians in their student body, as their friends, eating with them,” said Martin. “And I think the same is true here: I think conservatory students bring something to the campus. They’re good kids.”
As for Bloom himself, he welcomes the new space – but with a catch.
“It’s be great to have more practice rooms and an extra hall, to have more space,” said Bloom, but added, “I am wary of the time of construction. The last thing we need is for construction to compromise the facilities we have now.”