The Julliard School

The Julliard School  located in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established during 1905. It is identified informally as simply Julliard and currently trains about 800 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music.

In 1905, the Institute of Musical Art was initiated 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.[1] At its formation, the Institute was located in Manhattan at Fifth Avenue and 12th Street. During its first year, the institute enrolled 500 students. It relocated during 1910 to Claremont Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. 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 East 52nd Street to start the Juilliard Graduate School. In 1926, it merged partially with the Institute of Musical Art with a common president, the Columbia University professor John Erskine. The schools had separate deans and 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. In 1946, the combined schools were named The Juilliard School of Music. The president of the school at that time was William Schuman, the first winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 1951, the school added a dance division, directed by Martha Hill.

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 selected as president of The Juilliard School of Music during 1945, William Schuman created a new curriculum termed "The Literature and Materials of Music" (L&M) designed to be taught by composers. L&M was Schuman's 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. Many questioned the quality of L&M as a method to teach the fundamentals of music theory, ear training and history.

William Schuman resigned his job as president of Juilliard after being elected president of Lincoln Center during 1962. 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 out ear training and music history and hiring the well known pedagogue Renée Longy to teach solfège. During 1968, Mennin hired John Houseman to manage a new Drama Division, and during 1969 oversaw Juilliard's relocation from Claremont Avenue to Lincoln Center and shortened its name to The Juilliard School.

Dr. Joseph Polisi became president of Juilliard during 1984 after Peter Mennin died. Polisi's many accomplishments include philanthropic successes, broadening of the curriculum and establishment of dormitories for Juilliard's students. During 2001, the school established a jazz performance training program. During September 2005, Colin Davis conducted an orchestra which combined students from the Juilliard and London's Royal Academy of Music at the BBC Proms, and during 2008 the Juilliard Orchestra embarked on a successful tour of China, performing concerts as part of the Cultural Olympiad in Beijing, Suzhou, and Shanghai under the expert leadership of Maestro Xian Zhang.

During 1999, The Juilliard School was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Le Conservatoire de Paris

The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th disfranchisement of Paris, France. The conservatoire offers instruction in music, dance, and drama, drawing on the traditions of the "French School." In 1946 it was split into two Conservatoires, one for acting, theater and drama, known as the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatize (CNSAD), and the other for music and dance, known as the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris (CNSMDP).

The conservatories operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Communication.

The origins of the Paris Conservatoire can be traced back to the creation of the École Royale de Chant (literally, The Royal School of Singing) by decree of Louis XIV on 28 June 1669. It was reconstituted by the composer Gossec in 1785.

In 1793, the Ecole Royal was combined with a school for musicians of the National Guard, and named the Institut national de musique.

In 1795, the National Convention established during the French Revolution refounded it as the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique, and the Conservatoire's first 350 pupils commenceir studies in October 1796.

By the 1940s, the Paris Conservatories had grown and become one of the biggest and most prestigious in Europe. In 1946, the Conservatoire was split into three Conservatories; one for music and dance, and one for the dramatic arts. The conservatories train more than 1,200 students in structured programs, with 350 professors in nine departments.

Entrance to the CNSAD.

The Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique ("National Superior Conservatory of the Dramatic Arts") is the conservatory for acting, drama, and theatre, known by its acronym CNSAD.

The Conservatoire resides in the original historic building of the Conservatoire de Paris on the rue du Conservatoire at rue Sainte-Cécile in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Free public performances by students at the CNSAD are given frequently in the Conservatoire's theatre.

The Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris ("National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance", acronym CNSMDP) is a separate conservatory for music and dance. The French government built the impressive new campus with strikingly modern architecture in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. Design by Christian de Portzamparc.

The organ on site was built in 1991 by a firm from Austria.

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock, and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip hop, reggae, salsa, and bluegrass.To date, 99 Berk lee alumni have received 221 Grammy Awards.

Berk lee College of Music is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). NEASC is the regional accreditation agency for schools and colleges located in the New England region of the United States.

In 1945, pianist-composer-arranger and MIT graduate Lawrence Berk founded Schillinger House, the precursor to the Berklee School of Music.Located at 284 Newbury St. in Boston’s Back Bay, the school specialized in the Schillinger System of harmony and composition[6] developed by Joseph Schillinger. Berk had studied with Schillinger. Instrumental lessons and a few classes in traditional theory, harmony, and arranging were also offered. At the time of its founding, almost all music schools focused primarily on classical music, but Schillinger House offered training in jazz and commercial music for radio, theater, television, and dancing. At first, most students were working professional musicians. Many students were former World War II service members who attended under the G.I. Bill. Initial enrollment was fewer than 50 students,but by 1949 there were more than 500 students.In 1954, when the school’s curriculum had expanded to include music education classes and more traditional music theory, Berk changed the name to Berklee School of Music, after his son Lee Eliot Berk, to reflect the broader scope of instruction.

Lawrence Berk placed great emphasis on learning from practitioners, as opposed to academics, and generally hired working musicians as faculty members. Several of the school’s best-known musician-educators arrived after the school’s name changed. In 1956, trumpeter Herb Pomeroy joined the faculty, remaining until his retirement in 1996.Drummer Alan Dawson and saxophonist Charlie Mariano became faculty members in 1957. Reed player John LaPorta began teaching in 1962.Like many of Berk’s ideas, this practice continues into the present. Although far more emphasis is placed on academic credentials among new faculty hires than in the past, experienced performers such as Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Joe Lovano, and Danilo Perez have served as faculty over the years.

Another trend in the school’s history also began the mid-’50s. During this period, the school began to attract international students in greater numbers. For example, Japanese pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi arrived in 1956.Multiple Grammy-winning producer Arif Mardin came from Turkey to study at the school in 1958.The number of international students has grown steadily to 24.2 percent of total enrolment in 2010.

In 1957, Berklee initiated the first of many innovative applications of technology to music education with Jazz in the Classroom, a series of LP recordings of student work, accompanied by scores. These albums contain early examples of composing, arranging, and performing by students who went on to prominent jazz careers such as Gary Burton, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, Ernie Watts, Alan Broadbent, Sadao Watanabe, and many others. The series, which continued until 1980, is a precursor to subsequent Berklee-affiliated labels. These later releases provided learning experiences not only for student composers and performers, but also for students in newly created majors in music engineering and production and music business and management.

Berklee awarded its first bachelor of music degrees in 1966.Members of the first graduating class to receive degrees included Alf Clausen, Stephen Gould and Michael Rendish. Gould taught film scoring at Berklee and is currently the Program Director for the Educational Leadership PhD program at Lesley University. During the 1960s, the Berklee curriculum began to reflect new developments in popular music, such the rise of rock and roll, soul and funk, and jazz-rock fusion.In 1962, Berklee offered the first college-level instrumental major for guitar. The guitar department initially had nine students. Today it is the largest single instrumental major at the college. Trombonist Phil Wilson joined the faculty in 1965.His student ensemble, the Dues Band, helped introduce current popular music into the ensemble curriculum, and later as the Rainbow Band, performed world music and jazz fusions.In 1969, new courses in rock and popular music were added to the curriculum, the first ever offered at the college level.The first college course on jingle writing was also offered in 1969.

Royal College of Music

The college was founded in 1883 to replace the short lived and unsuccessful National Training School for Music (NTSM). The school was the result of an earlier proposal by the Prince Consort to provide free musical training to winners of scholarships under a nationwide scheme. After many years' delay it was established in 1876, with Arthur Sullivan as its principal. Conservatoires to train young students for a musical career had been set up in major European cities, but in London the long-established Royal Academy of Music had not supplied suitable training for professional musicians: in 1870 it was estimated that fewer than ten per cent of instrumentalists in London orchestras had studied at the academy.[3] The NTSM's aim, summarised in its founding charter, was:

    To establish for the United Kingdom such a School of Music as already exists in many of the principal Continental countries, – a School which shall take rank with the Conservatories of Milan, Paris, Vienna, Leipsic, Brussels, and Berlin, – a School which shall do for the musical youth of Great Britain what those Schools are doing for the talented youth of Italy, Austria, France, Germany, and Belgium.

The school was housed in a new building in Kensington Gore, opposite the west side of the Royal Albert Hall. The building was not large, having only 18 practice rooms and no concert hall. In a 2005 study of the NTSM and its replacement by the RCM, David Wright observes that the building is "more suggestive of a young ladies' finishing school than a place for the serious training of professional musicians."

Under Sullivan, a reluctant and ineffectual principal, the NTSM failed to provide a satisfactory alternative to the Royal Academy, and by 1880 a committee of examiners comprising Charles Hallé, Sir Julius Benedict, Sir Michael Costa, Henry Leslie and Otto Goldschmidt reported that the school lacked "executive cohesion".The following year Sullivan resigned, and was replaced by John Stainer. In his 2005 study of the NTSM, Wright comments:

    Like the RAM at that time, the NTSM simply failed to relate its teaching to professional need, and so did not discriminate between the education required to turn out professional instrumentalists/singers and amateur/ social musicians; nor between elementary and advanced teachers. And because its purpose was unclear, so was its provision.

Even before the 1880 report it had become clear that the NTSM would not fulfil the role of national music conservatoire. As early as 13 July 1878 a meeting was held at Marlborough House, London under the presidency of the Prince of Wales, "for the purpose of taking into consideration the advancement of the art of music, and establishing a college of music on a permanent and more extended basis than that of any existing institution."The original plan was to merge the Royal Academy of Music and the National Training School of Music into a single, enhanced organisation. The NTSM agreed, but after prolonged negotiations the Royal Academy refused to enter into the proposed scheme.

In 1881, with George Grove as a leading instigator, and with the support of the Prince of Wales, a draft charter was drawn up for a successor body to the NTSM. The Royal College of Music occupied the premises previously home to the NTSM, and opened there on 7 May 1883. Grove was appointed its first director.There were 50 scholars elected by competition and 42 fee-paying students.

The Manhattan School of Music (MSM)

The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition. With a faculty of 275 and over 800 students from 40 countries, the school also has a pre-college division which trains 500 students per academic year.

Founded in 1917, the school is located on Claremont Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City, adjacent to Broadway and West 122nd Street (Seminary Row). The MSM campus was originally the home to The Juilliard School, until Juilliard migrated to the Lincoln Center area of Midtown Manhattan. The campus of Columbia University resides close by, where it has been since 1895. Many of the students live in the school's residence hall, Andersen Hall. At the present time, 75 percent of the students come from outside New York State and 31 percent from outside the United States.

The School was founded in 1917–1918 by Janet D. Schenck, pianist and philanthropist, as the Neighborhood Music School. Initially located at the Union Settlement Association on East 104th St in Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood, the school moved into a brownstone building at East 105th St.[1] Pablo Casals and Harold Bauer were among the first of many distinguished artists who offered guidance to the School. Eventually, its name was changed to Manhattan School of Music.

In 1943, the artistic and academic growth of the School resulted in a charter amendment to grant the bachelor of music degree. Two subsequent amendments authorized the offering in 1947 of the master of music degree and, in 1974, the degree of doctor of musical arts. In 1956, Dr. Schenck retired and John Brownlee, noted Metropolitan Opera baritone, was appointed director, a title later revised to president. President Brownlee initiated the idea of relocating the School to the Morningside Heights neighborhood; his death occurred only months before his efforts were realized. In 1969, George Schick, Metropolitan Opera conductor, accompanist, and distinguished opera coach, succeeded Brownlee as president and led the School's move to its present location. He created the opera program, while all other major school functions are managed by Senior Director Stanley Bednar.

John O. Crosby, founder and general director of the Santa Fe Opera, was appointed president in 1976. He was followed by Gideon W. Waldrop, who was appointed in 1986, and Peter C. Simon in 1989. On July 1, 1992, Marta Casals Istomin was named President, a position which she held until October 2005 when she retired.

Dr. Robert Sirota, former director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, who took over the presidency of the Manhattan School in 2005  has announced that he will be stepping down from the position.

The Manhattan School contains multiple performance spaces, each dedicated to separate ensemble requirements. The largest is the John C. Borden Auditorium, where all orchestral and large jazz ensemble concerts are held. The smaller Greenfield Recital Hall and Miller Recital Hall are used for solo and small ensemble recitals, especially for graduation-required recitals. The Ades Performance Space is the newest of MSM's venues, and is dedicated more toward small jazz ensemble performances and contemporary music. Additionally, the Mitzi Newhouse Pavilion (the school's cafeteria) is the chosen performance venue for the school's jazz combos.

Curtis Institute of Music

The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera.It was established in 1924 by Mary Louise Curtis Bok, and was named in honor of her father, Cyrus Curtis. After consulting with musician friends including Josef Hofmann and Leopold Stokowski on how best to help musically-gifted young people, Bok purchased three mansions on Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square and had them joined and renovated. She established a faculty of prominent performing artists and eventually left the institute with an endowment of US$12 million.

The institute has served as a training ground for orchestral players to fill the ranks of the Philadelphia Orchestra, although composers, organists, pianists, and singers are offered courses of study as well.

All pupils attend on full scholarship, and admission is extremely competitive. Besides composers, conductors, organists, and pianists, only enough students are admitted to fill a single orchestra and an opera company. Accordingly, enrollment is in the range of 150 to 170 students. According to statistics compiled by U.S. News & World Report, it has the lowest acceptance rate of any college or university, making it the most selective institution of higher education in the United States.

Curtis accepts students of all races, although there is some evidence that suggests that this policy wasn't very strictly enforced several decades ago: Nina Simone claims that she was rejected in the early 1950s because of her race despite excellent credentials and audition performance.

As of March 2010, Roberto Diaz is President and director of the Institute. Diaz is also a Curtis alumnus and faculty member. He was principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1996 to 2006 and is a member of the Diaz Trio.John R. Mangan serves as vice president and dean.

Cleveland Institute of Music

The Cleveland Institute of Music is an independent, international music conservatory located in the University Circle district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is led by President Joel Smirnoff. Adrian Daly serves as dean for the conservatory and Sandra Shapiro is dean of the preparatory/continuing education division.

The Institute was founded in 1920, with the composer Ernest Bloch as director. There are now more than 400 conservatory students and 1500 preparatory and continuing education students. Approximately 1,100 people apply for 150 undergraduate and graduate openings each year, of which 60-70 are freshmen.

More than half of the members of The Cleveland Orchestra are connected to the Cleveland Institute of Music as members of the faculty, alumni or both. Through a cooperative arrangement with Case Western Reserve University, CIM students have full access to university courses and facilities.

CIM's East Boulevard entrance

In 2007, CIM completed a remodeling project in conjunction with its successful campaign to raise $40 million. Two wings were added to the main building. The facilities added 36,000 square feet (3,300 m2) and feature: a new entryway and expanded lobby --Pogue Lobby--on East Boulevard; an expanded Barbara S. and Larry J. B. Robinson Music Library; Mixon Hall, a 250-seat, state-of-the-art recital hall that also includes the Robert and Jean Conrad Audio Control Room for high-tech broadcasting; the Fred A. Lennon Education Building which includes new practice rooms, teaching studios and a student lounge; Kulas Center for International Education (Distance Learning Studio) and administrative space. This also includes the Gilliam Family Music Garden, which can be enjoyed year round from inside and outside Mixon Hall.

CIM students and faculty perform in hundreds of concerts each year--most free of charge. CIM graduates are members of premier orchestras around the globe.