JinOu started at Bard in the Fall of 2019. As a student of the double-degree program at the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Jinou is majoring in pipa performance and global and international studes. Through Bard’s partnership with the Central Conservatory of Music, JinOu studies under the guidance of CCOM Professor Zhang Qiang.

Monika Dziubelski is a third-year student at Bard College and Conservatory, where she is pursuing degrees in chemistry and flute performance, studying with Dr. Tara O’Connor. She has participated in multiple youth orchestras, most notably Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra, winning their concerto competition in 2018, and the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra, with whom she made her Carnegie Hall debut, as well as recorded a studio album under conductor Michael Repper and with producer Judith Sherman. With composer and conductor Tan Dun and the Bard Philharmonic Orchestra, Monika traveled to Haikou in Hainan Province, China, at the end of 2019 to open the Haikou Bay Performing Arts Center. Monika has had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Tara Helen O’Connor, Linda Chesis, and Jeffery Zook through masterclasses and seminars, as well as perform and discuss music virtually with Echo: Musicians Connect. She is Bard College’s Alexander Borodin Scholar of 2021.

Yixin enrolled as a guzheng major in the first year of the double-degree program in Chinese instruments at the Bard Conservatory in the Fall of 2018. Through Bard’s partnership with the Central Conservatory of Music, she is studying with CCOM Professor Zhou Wang. Yixin’s second major is mathematics.