The Juilliard School

A brief overview in 700 words

The Juilliard School is building an extraordinary future in its second century of excellence in providing education for aspiring dancers, actors, and musicians. Since opening in October 1905 as the Institute of Musical Art, Juilliard has set this country's standard for education in the performing arts. Today's Juilliard continues to represent such excellence, growing with and responding to the needs of a thriving cultural community in New York City, the U.S., and abroad, with more than 800 dance, drama, and music students drawn from 44 states (including Washington, D.C.) and 46 foreign countries. The school offers degree programs from the bachelor to the doctorate, as well as highly selective and competitive diploma programs in jazz, opera, performance, string quartet, and playwriting. Juilliard alumni are working artists who carry with them the highest standards of the performing arts profession worldwide. Juilliard recently expanded its facilities with a 39,000 square-foot addition, as the School continues to educate thousands of aspiring artists and expand its mission to instill in them a strong sense of activism and arts advocacy.

It was the goal of music educator Dr. Frank Damrosch and banker James Loeb, to create an institute that would give the fledgling classical music culture in the U.S. its first academy committed to the finest professional education of skilled musicians. The Institute of Musical Arts, located at 5th Avenue and 12th Street, opened on October 30, 1905, and enrolled a first‑year class of close to 500 students. In 1920, the Juilliard Foundation was created with a bequest by textile merchant Augustus D. Juilliard, specifically for the advancement of music. Four years later, its trustees formed the Juilliard Graduate School at 49 East 52nd Street, which in 1926 merged with the Institute of Musical Art under one president and one board of trustees. John Erskine became the first president of the combined institutions in February 1928. Although they kept two separate deans, the schools soon moved to new quarters on Claremont Avenue built expressly to house both educational divisions.

The amalgamation of the schools was gradual, continuing through the administration of President Ernest Hutcheson (1937-45). The next president of the combined schools was Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Schuman (1945-62). He completed the merger, and in 1946 the name Juilliard School of Music became official. In 1951, he established Juilliard's Dance Division, making Juilliard the first major teaching institution ever to combine equal dance instruction in both contemporary and ballet techniques. Dr. Peter Mennin was Schuman's successor. In 1968, a four-year Drama Division was added, and the school officially changed its name to The Juilliard School, in time for its 1969 move to the Lincoln Center, for which it was the sole academic constituent.

Following the death of Dr. Mennin in 1983, Dr. Joseph W. Polisi was appointed Juilliard's sixth president beginning with the 1984-85 academic year. He begins his 25^th season as Juilliard's president starting in the fall of 2009, and his tenure has been a time of vitality, with the establishment of new student services; alumni programs; revised curriculum; new emphasis on liberal arts; greater interaction between the three Juilliard divisions of music, dance, and drama; new emphasis on humanities, community outreach, and the arts in education; creation of a CD-ROM to teach music to children; and the development of a comprehensive long-range plan for the school to guide it through the 21^st century. Beginning in 2001, Juilliard broke new ground by adding undergraduate and graduate programs of study in jazz, including the pre-professional Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, a collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center. Juilliard begins a new graduate-level program in Historical Performance in fall 2009, and a joint training program with the Metropolitan Opera, the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in Partnership with The Juilliard School. The program aims to identify and educate the finest young opera singers and accompanists, preparing them for careers in the world's great opera houses. Juilliard's ambitious $300 million Second Century Fundwill support and further enhance student and faculty financial support, and help initiate important artistic and academic projects. Its completion coincides with the opening of Juilliard's renovated building containing state-of-the-art studios, theaters, rehearsal halls, centers for music technology and writing/communication, and a secure facility for storage and use of the priceless Juilliard Manuscript Collection. In addition to its college programs, Juilliard offers graduate and pre-college programs in music as well as a continuing education program for adults; community outreach programs for New York City metropolitan-area students, and specialized music programs for children from under-represented populations.