Ania Bard-Schwarz

Dr. Anna Bard-Schwarz Violinist, Academic

Dr. Anna Bard-Schwarz was born in Poznań, Poland to a professional musical family. Her mother Ewa was a violinist, choral and orchestra conductor, and a music critic; her father Bogumił was a trumpet orchestra soloist and a music professor. Ania started playing the violin at the age of 5 and at 8, she performed Henryk Wieniawski's Polish Folk Dance "Obertas" with the Greater Poland Symphony Orchestra. At 13, together with her older sister Joanna, also a violinist, she performed at the Mirror Hall of Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Holland. At 14, Ania became the youngest student at the Maastricht Conservatory of Music, Holland where she studied with the Dutch-Polish violinist Robert Szreder. During that time, she performed the Saint-Saens Violin Concerto with the Eindhoven Philharmonic. At 16, Ania graduated from the "School for Talented Youth" in Poznań, Poland, and subsequently received a full scholarship to study at the University of Kansas with the Lithuanian-Israeli violinist Ben Sayevich. After earning her Bachelor of Music degree in 1997, Ania continued her studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with the Austrian-American violinist Eric Rosenblith, earning Master of Music degree in 1999. After graduation, Ania continued her studies with the renowned Polish-American violinist Roman Totenberg.

Ania won the first New England Conservatory / Gregor Piatigorsky Foundation Competition in 1999 giving 25 recitals in Florida, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and a performance at the Otto Kahn Mansion in New York City in the following season. Between 2001–2006, Ania performed extensively across Europe as a freelance member of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Polish Chamber Philharmonic, Sinfonietta Cracovia, as well as a full-time member of Camerata Stuttgart and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart. In 2008, Ania served as the first woman Concertmaster of Orquesta Filarmonica de Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile.

In 2006, Ania received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of North Texas. She earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2014 majoring in violin performance under the tutelage of the Russian-American violinist Julia Bushkova to whom she also served as an Assistant, and minoring in Ethnomusicology. While at UNT, Ania also took Concertmaster Studies with Emanuel Borok, (the long-time concertmaster of the Boston and Dallas Symphony Orchestras), and Baroque violin with the esteemed Cynthia Roberts. She served as an Adjunct Violin Faculty at the University of North Texas between 2018–2021, and at Texas Woman's University between 2012–2021. Ania was a member of Baroque Ensembles: Orchestra of New Spain, Texas Camerata, and freelanced with The Dallas Opera. Since 2010, Ania served as the Concertmaster of Plano and Irving Symphony Orchestras, being awarded the Concertmaster Emerita title of both Syphony Orchestras in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Dr. Bard took part in International Courses of Interpretation in Lancut, Poland; Sommerakademie Prague-Vienna-Budapest in Semmering, Austria; Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, Putney, Vermont; International Musical Arts Institute, Freiburg, Maine; Kneisel Hall, Blue Hill, Maine, USA; the Jerusalem Academy of Music Festival in Kibbutz Mizra Israel; and Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart Festivalensemble, Germany. She performed at such venues and halls as: Acropolis, Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw, Jordan Hall, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Musikverein, Megaron Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic, among others. In 2005 she was sponsored by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to perform in Israel with the Jerusalem Kaprizma Ensemble and at the Felicja Blumenthal Music Center in Tel Aviv, and in 2007 at the Boyle, Cork and Kinsale Arts Festivals in Ireland. In 2010 and 2011, Dr. Bard joined the Faculty of the International Chamber Music Festival in Positano, Italy. In 2015, she performed as a baroque and classical violinist at Arts Festival "Autumn Melodies" in Vietnam.

Over the years, Dr. Bard has been an avid propagator of music education for underprivileged children being involved in outreach programs in Chile, Poland, and the USA. Dr. Bard's research has focused on child and adolescent cognitive development through learning to play an instrument and listening to music. Her current interest lies in examining the role music can play in bringing people together, inspiring them to have a meaningful interaction and conversation with a goal of forming a mutual understanding and building a sustained connection.

In 2020 Dr. Anna Bard became a naturalized US citizen. Dr. Bard is married to Dr. David Schwarz, an author, scholar, and Music Theory Professor at the University of North Texas.

January 2025