Watch all the conference event videos now posted on each day’s event page.

Conference Overview

Buddhism is a philosophy of life that aims to liberate living beings from suffering. Because of that, compassion is at the core of Buddhist teaching. Music plays an integral role in the practice of Buddhism, and has been said to “adorn the places where the Buddha preaches.” In difficult times, music can be especially powerful as a source of solace – and none more so than the music created to fulfill this special role in Buddhist practice. 

In the three days of the Harmony and Compassion conference, we heard from scholars, educators, composers, lamas, monks, and musicians. We learned about the origins of Buddhist poetics, song, chant, and other forms.  We heard ceremonial music from temples in the regions of Northern China, Southern China, Taiwan, and Tibet, as well as Bhutan, and North America. We heard chanting in solitude and in small groups, and instrumental music as large as a symphony orchestra in a concert hall, or as intimate as a duet for guqin and bamboo flute. The conference closes with a special music-filled event from the Kingdom of Bhutan, a message of healing from one of the happiest nations on earth.  

More information about the conference and each day’s events can be found in the links to the left or below.

event schedule

participants

and more…

about the us-china music institute annual conference

The US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music is dedicated to promoting the study, performance, and appreciation of music from contemporary China, and to support musical exchange between the United States and China. Each year since its founding the Institute has produced a scholarly conference as one of the four main components of the Chinese Music Development Initiative, in collaboration with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Previous conferences held on campus at Bard were titled Harmony and Power: The Role of Music in the Cultivation of the Literati in Ancient China in 2018, and Tradition and Discovery: Teaching Chinese Music in the West in 2019.

The 2020 Spring conference was cancelled due to the pandemic. In the Fall of 2020, the Institute presented the 3rd annual China Now Music Festival, China and Beethoven online, with artists and scholars participating from around the US and China.