Bard College

  • State: New York
  • Private School
  • School Website
  • Map Link
  • Music School Central 10 Best Hidden Gem Music School for 2017 (#3)
  • Music School Central
  • Top 10 Colleges for Music for 2014 (#9)

Leigh Mesh, bass faculty

General Statistics

  • US News Ranking: #49 in National Liberal Arts Colleges
  • US News Overall Score (out of 100): 70
  • Tuition & Fees 2016-17: $51,384
  • Room & Board 2016-17: $14,540
  • Total Enrollment: 2,290
  • Acceptance Rate (from 2015): 32%
  • Student – Faculty Ratio: 10:1
  • 4 year graduation rate: 69%
  • % of undergrads receiving Financial aid: 67%
  • Average Financial Aid: $37,785

Double Bass Statistics

  • Average number of undergraduate bass students: 4
  • Average number of graduate bass students: 3
  • Studio Class, Orchestral Repertoire Class, Bass Ensembles

What Alumni Are Doing

  • Playing in the TON Orchestra and further study

Perspectives from the Bass Faculty

Q: What are some of your favorite experiences teaching at your school?

A: Eager students, beautiful place, amazing faculty and very compatible ideals about teaching to mine

The undergrad performance degree is required to be a double degree, bass performance and a degree of the students choice. It’s a 5 year program

About The Bass Faculty

Leigh Mesh, associate principal double bass, joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 1993. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he began his professional career with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and later played with the Indianapolis and Chicago Symphony Orchestras.

He has taught master classes at the New World Symphony in Miami, Cincinnati Conservatory, Juilliard School, and Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Mesh is the double bass coach of the UBS Verbier Festival Youth Orchestra in Verbier, Switzerland. He has been a guest artist with the Verbier Festival, Linton Chamber Music Series, Pensacola Classicfest, Chamber Music Society of Martha’s Vineyard,Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, and the Salt Bay Chamberfest. Mr. Mesh has performed with the MET Chamber Ensemble, the Caramoor Virtuosi, and the Brentano and Tokyo String Quartets.

Mr. Mesh was a faculty member of the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles during the 2009–2010 school year. He joined the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music in the fall of 2010. He lives with his wife, Nancy Wu, associate concertmaster of the MET Opera Orchestra, and their two children, Guinevere and Wolfram, in Pleasantville, New York. He pursues cycling and skiing whenever he can. Mr. Mesh is an exclusive artist for Thomastik-Infeld Strings.

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