Newsmakers

A Bard College Music Program faculty member and three Conservatory of Music alumni/ae have been nominated for the 2026 GRAMMY Awards. Gwen Laster, visiting artist in residence, is nominated in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for Lights on a Satellite recorded with Sun Ra Arkestra. Devony Smith VAP ’14, is nominated in the category of Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for her album In This Short Life with pianist Danny Zelibor. Julia Bullock VAP ’11, is also a featured artist on the album Schubert/Beatles, nominated in the same category. Eri Nakamura CPF ’15, a member of the Neave Trio, is nominated in the category of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their album, La Mer: French Piano Trios. The 2026 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 68th GRAMMY Awards, will take place on Sunday, February 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. 

The Bard College campus is awash in music—by all accounts, one of the school’s most distinctive features. The Music Program, one of the largest programs on campus, provides a wide range of musical concentrations, and the Bard Conservatory aims to provide the best possible preparation for a person dedicated to a life immersed in the creation and performance of music.

When Bard Baccalaureate student and Afghan asylum seeker Ali Faqirzada ’28 was detained on October 14 after a routine hearing in New York, officials from Bard College and the Episcopal Diocese mobilized their networks to help. Dionne Searcey for the New York Times reports on these ongoing efforts. “The only chance of rescuing this individual from injustice is to make it visible,” President Leon Botstein told the Times. “If you stand for the truth and for learning and all the virtues of a serious education and an examined life and you believe in the idea of justice, you have to act.” 

Immediately following his detainment, Bard Vice President for Strategy and Policy and Chief of Staff Malia Du Mont ’95 and Vice President for Student Affairs Dumaine Williams ’03 visited Faqirzada at Delaney Hall, the ICE detention facility in New Jersey where he is being held. “I would describe it as feeling like a member of the family had been taken,” said Du Mont, a US veteran of the Afghan War.

The College, alongside Human Rights First and the Episcopal Diocese of New York, has worked to enlist bipartisan federal, state, and local elected officials in efforts to organize and advocate for Faqirzada’s release. Two Bard alumni/ae at the law firm Quinn Emanuel have offered pro bono legal services to represent Faqirzada in his asylum case.