Juilliard

The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elite drama, music, and dance schools in the world.

History

Early years: 1905-1946

In 1905, the Institute of Musical Art, Juilliard's predecessor institution, was founded by Frank Damrosch, the godson of Franz Liszt and head of music education for New York City's public schools, on the premise that the United States did not have a premier music school and too many students were going to Europe to study music. In 1919, a wealthy textile merchant named Augustus Juilliard died and left the school in his will the largest single bequest for the advancement of music at that time. In 1968, the school's name was changed from the Juilliard School of Music to The Juilliard School to reflect its broadened mission to educate musicians, directors, and actors.

The Institute of Musical Art opened in the former Lenox Mansion, Fifth Avenue and 12th Street, on October 11, 1905. It moved in 1910 to 120 Claremont Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, onto a property purchased from Bloomingdale Insane Asylum near the Columbia University campus. In 1920, the Juilliard Foundation was created, named after textile merchant Augustus D. Juilliard, who bequeathed a substantial amount of money for the advancement of music in the United States. In 1924, the foundation purchased the Vanderbilt family guesthouse at 49 E. 52nd Street, and established the Juilliard Graduate School. In 1926, the Juilliard School of Music was created through a merger of the Institute of Musical Art and the Juilliard Graduate School. The two schools shared a common board of directors and president (Columbia University professor John Erskine) but retained their distinct identities. The conductor and music-educator Frank Damrosch continued as the Institute's dean, and the Australian pianist and composer Ernest Hutcheson was appointed dean of the Graduate School. In 1937, Hutcheson succeeded Erskine as president of the two institutions, a job he held until 1945.

Expansion and growth: 1946-1990

In 1946, the Institute of Musical Art and the Juilliard Graduate School completely merged to form a single institution. The president of the school at that time was William Schuman, the first winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music.William Schuman graduated from Columbia's Teachers College (BS 1935, MA 1937) and attended the Juilliard Summer School in 1932, 1933 and 1936. While attending Juilliard Summer School, he developed a personal dislike for traditional music theory and ear training curricula, finding little value in counterpoint and dictation. Soon after being appointed as president of the Juilliard School of Music in 1945, Schuman created a new curriculum called the ''Literature and Materials of Music'' (L&M), designed for composers to teach. L&M was a reaction against more formal theory and ear training, and as a result did not have a formal structure. The general mandate was "to give the student an awareness of the dynamic nature of the materials of music." The quality and degree of each student's education in harmony, music history, or ear training was dependent on how each composer-teacher decided to interpret this mandate.

In 1946, the Juilliard String Quartet was created by Schuman as a resident ensemble at the school, and it quickly established an international reputation as one of the most notable classical music groups in the United States. That year, the school had more than 1,800 students, with more than 500 supported by the G.I. Bill. Two years later, the number was close to 1,100 students in total.

In 1951, Schuman established the dance division of the school under the direction of Martha Hill. In 1957 after months of meetings with various organizations and individuals, it was announced that the Juilliard School of Music will relocate from upper Manhattan to the future Lincoln Center. It was also announced that upon the school's eventual relocating, it will add a drama division. Juilliard's new building at Lincoln Center was designed by Pietro Belluschi with associates Eduardo Catalano y Helge Westermann. The Center would cover the costs for the construction project and Juilliard would be changed with renting the space.William Schuman was elected president of Lincoln Center in 1962 and Peter Mennin, another composer with directorial experience at the Peabody Conservatory, was elected as his successor. Mennin made significant changes to the L&M program—ending ear training and music history and hiring the well known pedagogue Renée Longy to teach solfège. In 1968, Mennin hired John Houseman to manage the new Drama Division, and in 1969 oversaw Juilliard's relocation from Claremont Avenue to Lincoln Center. The School's name was changed to The Juilliard School to reflect its broadened mission to educate musicians, directors, and actors. On October 26, 1969, the dedication ceremony for the new building at Lincoln Center included a concert at Alice Tully Hall (built into the Juilliard School) with the Juilliard Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and Jean Paul Morel, and with soloists Itzhak Perlman,