Elie Yarden (1923–2022), Professor Emeritus of Music

To The Bard College Community:

It is with deep regret that I inform the Bard College community of the death, on September 5, 2022, of Elie Yarden, professor emeritus of music, at the age of 99. He was surrounded by family at home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Elie Yarden joined the faculty at Bard in the music department in the fall of 1967 and taught continuously until his retirement in 1987. He continued to teach in the MFA program at Bard after retirement from the undergraduate college until 1991. As a teenager, he studied piano and music composition with Stefan Wolpe at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. He went on to study music at the University of Pennsylvania, Eastern languages at the University of Chicago, and engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles.

His contribution to the music department at Bard, from the late 1960s through the early 1980s, was invaluable. Elie was instrumental in steering the establishment of the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts and the creation of the electronic music program.

Throughout his tenure Elie showed a deep commitment to his students, the ideals of the liberal arts, and to the Bard community. At Bard and in his retirement, he was always willing to debate, initiate, and engage in discussions on serious matters of politics and society, the curriculum, educational policy, and philosophy. He was fearless and determined and only rarely daunted by issues of pragmatism or politics. With rare intensity he pursued issues he considered essential and critical.

On behalf of the entire Bard College community, I wish to extend my deepest condolences to his sons Tal ’81, Guy ’84, and Seth Yarden, as well as his grandchildren and extended family.

Leon Botstein
President

Post Date: 09-09-2022