Symphonic Ensembles at Juilliard

The mainstay of The Juilliard School’s performing ensembles, the Juilliard Orchestra performs frequently in its own New York City series of a dozen concerts each season, and is a strong supporting partner to Juilliard’s operatic and dance performances as well. During the School’s 2005-2006 centennial season, the Juilliard orchestra traveled even farther, to six European cities – Aldeburgh, Berlin, Helsinki, Leicester, London, and Lucerne – and six major symphony halls in the United States – Chicago’s Symphony Center, Dallas’s Meyerson, Irvine’s Barclay, Los Angeles’s Walt Disney, San Diego’s Copley, and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. Principally led by the school’s Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies James DePreist, the Orchestra also appears with prominent guest conductors including, this season, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Dennis Russell Davies, James Levine, Anne Manson, Stephan Sanderling, and Emmanuel Villaume.

The 101st season introduced two new ensembles in their first full season addition to the Juilliard Orchestra and the New Juilliard Ensemble – the conductor-less Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, and a new student-run new music chamber ensemble AXIOM. The new Juilliard Chamber Orchestra consists of undergraduate and graduate students with a command of harmony, theory, and historical practice in addition to several years of exposure to orchestral performances. This ensemble is mentored by members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with periodic coachings from Mr. DePreist. Formed by student initiative in 2005, AXIOM is comprised of current Juilliard students and recent graduates, and directed by Juilliard alumnus Jeffrey Milarsky, all devoted to performing classics of the 20th-century repertoire.

Juilliard's symphonic ensembles have been featured on PBS’s “Live From Lincoln Center,” as well as the opening concert of the Mozart Bicentennial at Lincoln Center. The Juilliard Orchestra has recorded three albums of works by modern American master composers for New World Records, and is featured, along with members of the Juilliard Opera Center, in a Delos recording of two operas by William Schuman, The Mighty Casey and A Question of Taste. The Juilliard Orchestra also has recorded on the EMI Classics label, the violin concerti of J.B. Accolay, Charles Beriot, Oscar Reiding, Fredrich Seitz, and Giovanni Battista Viotti, with Itzhak Perlman as soloist, led by Lawrence Foster.

The Juilliard Orchestra has toured Japan and France, and performed a series of concerts at the Bermuda Festival. In 1987 it was the first Western conservatory ensemble allowed to visit and perform in the People's Republic of China in recent years. The orchestra’s Far East tour with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski included stops in Tokyo and Osaka, in Japan, and Hong Kong, with violin soloist Midori. The Juilliard Orchestra was resident ensemble at the Evian Festival in 1992, and twice at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy in 2003 and 2004.

Juilliard Orchestra Reviews and Timeline

“If your lights burned noticeably brighter around 10 Tuesday night, blame THE JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA. That's when, finishing up the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra, the crack student ensemble was setting off enough sparks to raise voltages for miles around. It was an exhilarating close to a concert that inspired hope for the future of classical music … The New York school, now celebrating its centenary, is audibly still attracting top-notch talent and training it superbly. In every section, this was orchestral playing on a high professional level.”
-Scott Cantrell/The Dallas Morning News

“James Conlon led THE JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA in a sweeping, detailed and altogether admirable rendition of this vast symphony (Mahler’s Third) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. … The young people who attend The Juilliard School are already as technically proficient as seasoned pros. Yet they are still testing their limits, with the result that they bring a fresh, emotional urgency to anything they play. They not only know how to create magic with their instruments, but they are also still susceptible to being moved by it themselves. In short, nobody played as though this were just another gig: THE JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA was striving for the metaphysical, and grasping it.”
-Tim Page/The Washington Post

“The salient feature of the performance (Einojuhani Rautavaara ‘s Manhattan Trilogy, Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9) was the fluidity and seamlessness with which these young players moved through the constantly changing textures. … The playing was vigorous and secure, with a transparency that suited Mr. Davies’s conception of the work as a picture of late Classicism on the cusp of the Romantic revolution.”
-Allan Kozinn/The New York Times

“The concert began with Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra, composed four years after Juilliard was founded … The Webern pieces require alertness, simplicity, musical poise. All of these qualities were present. The power of these pieces lies in their quietude, and disquietude. That power was felt. Mr. Davies understands this music, and he built the pieces hauntingly. The orchestra was gratifyingly precise … Every solo performer stepped up to the plate. I should single out the French-horn player, who was brave and accurate.”
-Jay Nordlinger/The New York Sun

“The flagship of The Juilliard School, THE JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA, managed to include in its European tour, the first ever guest performance in Finland with the Sibelius Academy as its local host – and not a day too early.  Little wonder that American orchestras can maintain their sky-high standards when the students – from 45 countries – sound like this.”
-Mats Liljeroos/Hufvudstadsbladet

“The student musicians, led by James DePreist, gave performances of Brahms's Third Symphony and German Requiem … The symphony's opening bars could hardly have been couched in grander gestures or a richer sound, and as the first movement unfolded, the orchestra's huge string body showed considerable flexibility.  The woodwinds used their spotlight at the start of the Andante to fine effect as well, introducing an invitingly warm reading. And Mr. DePreist drew shapely accounts of the final two movements … In their best moments the orchestra and the huge Choral Union produced a beautifully focused and surprisingly clear-textured sound that got to the heart of this intensely emotional and personal score.”
-Allan Kozinn/The New York Times

“In truth, I found it more rewarding to reencounter these familiar works (Beethoven Symphony No. 8) at the Juilliard concert on December 11, 2000.  There is an extra something in the atmosphere when student musicians perform the standard repertory, and it goes back to the historic role played by the conservatory, a role that has been increasingly taken for granted since the middle of the 20^th century. …it was refreshing to hear well-known works performed without the sleek gloss that often mars the work of major orchestras.  The JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA can do just fine by a Beethoven symphony, just as the school’s Opera Theater can present an enjoyable production of Rossini’s “Cenerentola,” as it recently did.”
-Anthony Tommasini/The New York Times

“Jahja Ling, who is resident conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, took the Juilliarders in hand and wrung out of them an hour and 45 minutes of almost frenetic commitment to the task at hand (Mahler’s Symphony No.3). …The strings repeatedly distinguished themselves, the violas and cellos smooth and unified in the first movement, and the entire string section sounding soft and burnished in a dreamlike slow movement. One mark of maturity among these so-called students is their responsiveness to dynamic fluctuations, and they appeared able to turn on a dime under Ling’s direction.  No phrase was static, no accent misplaced.  The culminating fourth and fifth movements maintained the momentum of this highly charged performance, with the rich-timbered and emotionally concentrated singing of mezzo Stephanie Houtzeel and fine work by the New York Choral Society and the Trinity (New Haven) Boys Choir.”
-Shirley Fleming/New York Post

"It is hardly news that the students at The Juilliard School perform with a measure of virtuosity and polish that some of their elders have reason to envy, but it can be easy to forget just how high that performance level is.  The JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA offered a reminder...when it played its first concert of the season at Avery Fisher Hall.  Gerard Schwarz conducted and the performance he drew from the ensemble was not only thrilling in an entirely visceral way but also showed the extraordinary responsiveness and coloristic scope that these young musicians already bring to their work.”
-Allan Kozinn/The New York Times

"The JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA delighted an enthusiastic audience with a thrilling all‑Beethoven program.  This was a dazzling opening to the Bermuda Festival 1994, a group of musicians who have, without exception, from flute to double bass, complete mastery of their instrument.  Despite their youth, all members of the Juilliard Orchestra played with a precision and artistry far beyond their years.  With technical excellence and youthful energy combined, they were then honed to superb ensemble under the assured baton of conductor Otto‑Werner Mueller."
‑Marjorie Pettit/The Royal Gazette­

"Much has been written about the remarkable level of training available at American conservatories, but sometimes a single performance can put that quality into perspective better than a ream of statistics and testimonials.  On Wednesday evening, barely a month into the academic year, Otto‑Werner Mueller led the JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA in a performance that was more finely polished and thoughtfully nuanced than many performances by seasoned professional orchestras."
‑Allan Kozinn/The New York Times

"[David] Diamond fared very well under [Gerard] Schwarz' baton and especially so in the JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA'S playing.  Certainly as regards responsiveness and virtuosity, there's no finer ensemble of its kind in this country."
‑Bill Zakariasen/Daily News

“The JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA, conducted by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, gave every evidence that it is a great deal more than an ensemble of student players and young graduates. In an exciting program that began with Richard Strauss, continued with Bartok, and ended with Stravinsky, the orchestra fully justified  its reputation for brilliant accomplishment.  Strauss’ Don Juan was performed with sweeping vitality, precision and beauty of tone, eloquent alike of the players’ technical mastery and first‑rate musicianship.”
‑The Japan Times

­“It was to be expected that the JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA would be a good one.  The Juilliard School attracts some of the brightest young people in the country.  But even at that, one had not expected an orchestra of this thoroughly professional caliber.  Discipline is complete.  Intonation is near‑perfect.  The strings are full, strong and clear. The contributions of all first‑desk players were up to any professional standards that could be imposed.”
‑Harold C. Schonberg/New York Times

THE JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA:

2006     Centennial Tour within the United States: Avery Fisher Hall as part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Great Performers series; Chicago Symphony Center; Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas; Irvine Barclay Theater in Irvine, California; Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; and Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego.

2006     performs at the Kennedy Center under James Conlon.

2005     Centennial Tour in Europe: Aldeburgh, Berlin, Helsinki, Leicester, London, and Lucerne.

2004     the Juilliard Orchestra is orchestra-in-residence at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy in July 2003, and returned in 2004.

1995          chamber orchestra tours the Hyogo prefecture of Japan where they perform a benefit concert for the victims of the Kobe earthquake.

1994          opens the Bermuda Festival 1994 with the first of two concerts led by­ conductor Otto‑Werner Mueller, and soloists Jennifer Hayghe (piano), and Ilya Finkelshteyn (cello).

1989          Sir Roger Norrington leads the orchestra in a program of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms at Carnegie Hall.

1989          the Juilliard Orchestra, Juilliard Choral Union, and soloists, led by guest conductor Jahja Ling, perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium.

1989          orchestra records for EMI Classics, with violin concerti performed by Itzhak Perlman and conducted by Lawrence Foster.

1989          the orchestra performs an eight-concert tour of Japan and South Korea

1989          with conductors Christopher Kendall and Miguel Harth‑Bedoya, tours eleven cities in France for three weeks under the auspices of Jeunesses Musicales.

1989          is chosen as resident ensemble of the prestigious Evian Festival (Rencontres Musicales d’Evian).

1989          performs the opening concert of Lincoln Center’s Mozart Bicentennial Celebration with members of the New York Philharmonic, at Avery Fisher Hall. Raymond Leppard conducts the festival’s gala performance in a re-creation of a program originally arranged and conducted by Mozart himself in 1783 Vienna.

1989          releases third Juilliard American Recording Institute (JAMRI) album featuring David Diamond’s Symphony No. 5, Milton Babbitt’s Relata I and­ Vincent Persichetti’s Night Dances.

1989          performs under the baton of Leonard Slatkin at the Twelfth Kennedy Center­ Honors, broadcast nationally over CBS, honoring William Schuman for lifetime achievement in the arts.

1989     with Academy Award‑winning composer Bill Conti, creates broadcast history­ becoming a "living soundtrack" for the 20th annual New York City Marathon­ broadcast from the Juilliard Theater over ABC's Wide World of Sports.

1989     releases a second Juilliard American Recording Institute (JAMRI) album featuring Jacob Druckman's Chiaroscuro, Joseph Schwanter's Aftertones of Infinity and Stephen Albert's Into Eclipse.

1988     led by Zubin Mehta, performs at Carnegie Hall under the auspices of ­the America‑Israel Cultural Foundation.

1987     in cooperation with New World Records, records 20th‑century concert music by American composers under guest conductors with the creation of the ­Juilliard American Recording Institute (JAMRI).  First JAMRI recording includes Copland's Connotations, Schuman's In Praise of Shahn, and Session's suite from The Black Maskers.

1987     led by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, tours the Far East for the first time with performances in the People's Republic of China, Japan and Hong Kong.

1986     presents four concerts each season at Avery Fisher Hall under the direction present of distinguished guest conductors, showcasing student soloists selected through audition.

1986     performs a joint concert with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall under the direction of Zubin Mehta.

1985     featured in the PBS "Live from Lincoln Center" entitled “Juilliard at 80” broadcast live from the Juilliard Theater.

1983     makes a highly acclaimed tour of Europe playing concerts to audiences in Germany, Austria, and Italy under the direction of Jorge Mester.

1981     performs NY premiere of Roger Sessions' opera Montezuma, presented by the Juilliard American Opera Center.

1972     participates in the world premiere of Virgil Thomson's opera Lord Byron given by the Juilliard American Opera Center.

1970     led by Erich Leinsdorf participates in performances of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress marking the opening of the Juilliard Theater.

1969     performs two dedication concerts at Alice Tully Hall celebrating Juilliard's opening at Lincoln Center with conductors Leopold Stokowski, Jean Morel, and Alfred Wallenstein.

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