The Juilliard School announces its 2008-09 season of more than 700 events

Highlights of season include: 

-Alice Tully Hall Opening Nights Festival with the Juilliard Orchestra and conductor David Robertson and numerous other artists on the opening night gala concert on February 22 and a performance of Messiaen’s Des canyon aux étoiles on February 26; Juilliard students perform a free Wednesdays at One all-Schubert concert on February 25 
   
-Juilliard Opera Center presents two full-length operas and three one-act operas in 2008-09: Trilogy, three rarely performed one-act operas conceived and conducted by James Conlon, realised by Darko Tresnjak and directed by James Marvel on November 12, 14, and 16; John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer on January 31, conducted by the composer and directed by Edward Berkeley; and Verdi’s Falstaff on April 22, 24, and 26, conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson and directed by Stephen Wadsworth 

-CALIFORNIA: A Century of New Music is subject of this year’s 2009 FOCUS! Festival, which opens on January 23 with the New Juilliard Ensemble and director/conductor Joel Sachs and closes with a concert version of John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer on January 31; Festival also will include world premiere of a new string quartet by John Adams written for and performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet

-World premieres of new works by composers Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Bruce MacCombie performed by the Juilliard Orchestra 

-New Dances/Edition 2008 features Juilliard dancers in four world premieres by innovative choreographers Sidra Bell, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Johannes Wieland, and Larry Keigwin; Juilliard Dance Repertory features works by leading choreographers Lar Lubovitch, Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp, and Ohad Naharin

-Juilliard Jazz welcomes Benny Golson and Christian McBride as artists-in-residence next season and new faculty members Ron Carter, Xavier Davis, Ray Drummond, Benny Green, Frank Kimbrough, Ted Nash, Steve Turre, and Kenny Washington; Juilliard Jazz Orchestra presents two special evenings featuring the music of Andrew Hill and the music of Terence Blanchard

-Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds featuring a concert with the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Alan Gilbert as part of citywide Bernstein commemoration in November 2008

-Juilliard Drama Division graduating actors are featured in four fully-staged productions in 2008-09: Molière’s The Misanthrope, directed by Lucie Tiberghien; Lanford Wilson’s Burn This, directed by Pam MacKinnon; Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, directed by Ethan McSweeny; and The Greeks, Part III, The Gods, adapted by John Barton and Kenneth Cavander, and directed by Brian Mertes

-William Christie and Les Arts Florissants return for second early music residency, March 23-27, focusing on the music of Handel

-Roster of guest conductors making appearances at Juilliard in 2008-09 includes: John Adams, David Atherton, James Conlon, Alan Gilbert, Ludovic Morlot, Nicholas McGegan, David Robertson, Emmanuel Villaume, and Keri-Lynn Wilson and Juilliard conductors James DePreist, Adam Glaser, Jeffrey Milarsky, and George StellutoThe Juilliard School, now in its 103rd year, announces a season of more than 700 dance, drama, and music (classical and jazz) performances featuring Juilliard students, faculty, and special guest artists in 2008-09. Almost all of these events are FREE and are open to the public; some carry a nominal charge.

Expansion and Renovation

This fall, Juilliard opens its new main entrance and lobby at 155 West 65th Street. The lobby, named the June Noble Larkin Lobby, honors Juilliard’s first woman board chairman (from 1985 until 1994); the new street level entrance to Juilliard plays an important role in the transformation of 65th Street into a pedestrian-friendly “street for the arts.” The Juilliard Box Office, named the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office, also opens in its permanent location in the lobby of the School. Other new spaces to open in the fall include the Sidney R. Knafel Admissions Suite and the Morse Student Lounge. Juilliard concerts return to the newly-transformed Alice Tully Hall in February 2009. As part of Juilliard’s expansion and renovation, the School is adding approximately 39,000 square feet of space in and around the current Juilliard building. While construction, which began in the summer of 2006, will be completed in many public areas this coming season, other interior construction will continue through fall 2009. The architects for the renovation are Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in association with FX Fowle. For more information, please visit Juilliard’s Web site at http://www.juilliard.edu/press/kit/articles/Juilliard-Expansion-and-Renovation.html.

Season Overview

The Juilliard Orchestra presents two Carnegie Hall concerts in the 2008-09 season and also makes three Avery Fisher Hall appearances. On Monday, October 27 at 8 PM, conductor James Conlon leads the Orchestra in the world premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Symphony No. 5: Concerto for Orchestra and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Major; and on Friday, December 12 at 8 PM, Juilliard’s Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies James DePreist conducts a program featuring Enescu’s Rumanian Rhapsody, No. 2; Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2 in G Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 63; and Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1. On Monday, November 24 at 7:30 PM as part of a citywide tribute to Leonard Bernstein, Alan Gilbert leads the Orchestra in Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish”) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (“Eroica”). On Tuesday, February 17 at 8 PM, James DePreist conducts the Juilliard Orchestra in the world premiere of a new work by former Juilliard Dean, Bruce MacCombie; Liszt’s Concerto No. 2 in A Major for Piano and Orchestra, S. 125; and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47. On Monday, April 6 at 8 PM, French conductor Ludovic Morlot leads the Juilliard Orchestra in Schumann’s Manfred Overture, Op. 115; Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra,  Op. 33; Ives’ Ragtime Dances; and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. The Juilliard Orchestra returns to its most frequently used venue, Alice Tully Hall, for five concerts beginning in February 2009 with the Orchestra’s remaining three performances taking place in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater. (For more details, see the Juilliard Orchestra section.)

Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds, a citywide festival celebrating Leonard Bernstein in commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the legendary composer/conductor/commentator’s birth and the 50th anniversary of his appointment as music director of the New York Philharmonic, features a concert with the Juilliard Orchestra on Monday, November 24 at 7:30 PM in Avery Fisher Hall. Led by New York Philharmonic music director-designate (and Juilliard alumnus) Alan Gilbert, Bernstein’s Third Symphony has been programmed to complete the performance cycle of all three of Bernstein’s symphonies.

The Juilliard Opera Center begins its season with Trilogy, featuring three one-act portraits of marriage, conceived and conducted by James Conlon, realised by Darko Tresnjak and directed by James Marvel with singers from the Juilliard Opera Center and the Juilliard Orchestra on Wednesday, November 12 and Friday, November 14 at 8 PM and Sunday, November 16 at 2 PM in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The three operas, which will be performed without an intermission, are: The Marriage (Zhenitba), with music and libretto by Modest Mussorgsky and orchestration by Tcherepnin, based on the comedic social satire by Gogol; Heavyweight or The Pride of the Nation (Schwergewicht, oder Die Ehre der Nation), a farce about European culture between the world wars, with music and libretto by Ernst Krenek; and Rothschild’s Violin (Skripka Rotshilda) with music and libretto by Benjamin Fleischmann, completed and partly orchestrated by Dmitri Shostakovich, after a short story by Chekhov. The Juilliard Opera Center season continues with a concert version of Pulitzer Prize-winner John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer on the concluding night of Juilliard’s 2009 FOCUS! Festival on Saturday, January 31 at 8 PM. Mr. Adams conducts and Edward Berkeley directs. On Wednesday, April 22 and Friday, April 24 at 8 PM and Sunday, April 26 at 2 PM, the Juilliard Opera Center presents Verdi’s Falstaff with conductor, Juilliard alumna Keri-Lynn Wilson, who returns to make her Juilliard professional debut, and Stephen Wadsworth, who directs his first New York production since Iphigénie en Tauride at the Metropolitan Opera in November 2007.

As part of Juilliard’s Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series, pianist Seymour Lipkin celebrates the 60th anniversary of his triumph as winner of the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition (at the age of 19) with friends, pianist Robert McDonald, violinist Ronald Copes, violist Samuel Rhodes, and cellist Joel Krosnick, on Monday, October 20 at 8 PM in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The program includes works by Schubert and Mozart. Violist Samuel Rhodes performs works by Martino, Stravinsky, Babbitt, Carter, Hindemith, and Hall Overton on Thursday, October 23 at 8 PM in Paul Hall. Juilliard’s resident ensembles presenting recitals on the series include: the Juilliard String Quartet (Tuesday, April 7 and Wednesday, April 15, 8 PM, Alice Tully Hall), the American Brass Quintet (Tuesday, October 7, 8 PM, Paul Hall), and the New York Woodwind Quintet (Wednesday, March 18, 8 PM, Paul Hall). Judy LeClair, Juilliard faculty member and principal bassoon with the New York Philharmonic, and Robert Langevin, Juilliard faculty member and principal flute with the New York Philharmonic, conclude the series with a duo-recital on Wednesday, April 29 at 8 PM in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Early music expert William Christie and members of his ensemble, Les Arts Florissants, return for their second weeklong residency at Juilliard from March 23-27. This season, the focus will be on the instrumental and vocal music of Handel. Last year’s residency focused on the repertoire of Boismortier, Charpentier, Lambert, Lully, Rameau, and Rebel. Students participating in the residency will receive individual lessons, ensemble coachings, lectures, and participate in private and public master classes. Students will be chosen through auditions taking place on November 17-19, 2008. More information will be released later this fall.

The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra performs on Thursday, October 16 (The Music of Andrew Hill) and Monday, February 2 (The Music of Terence Blanchard), at 8 PM, in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater and on Thursday, April 16 (program to be announced) at 8 PM, they return to Alice Tully Hall. Juilliard Jazz Ensembles perform on Wednesday, October 1 (Blues in the Church featuring guest artist Mulgrew Miller), Monday, November 3 (Artist Diploma ensemble), Tuesday, December 9 (Jazz Emergent I), Tuesday, January 20 (program to be announced), Tuesday, February 24 (The Music of Woody Shaw), Monday, March 23 (Artist Diploma ensemble), and Monday, April 27 (Jazz Emergent II) in Paul Hall. Juilliard Jazz students also make appearances at Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

 Juilliard Dance Division’s series New Dances: Edition 2008 features four world premieres by innovative choreographers Sidra Bell, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Johannes Wieland, and Larry Keigwin. Juilliard Dance Repertory features works by mostly American choreographers: Lar Lubovitch (a Juilliard alumnus), Mark Morris, and Twyla Tharp, as well as Ohad Naharin (also a Juilliard alumnus). Juilliard dancers join the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in New York City on the opening and closing nights of the company’s City Center engagement on Thursday, November 5 and Sunday, November 9 as Mr. Lubovitch celebrates the 40th anniversary of his company.

Juilliard participates in the Alice Tully Hall Opening Nights Festival, Lincoln Center’s two-week celebration marking the reopening of a transformed Alice Tully Hall. The Juilliard Orchestra, led by David Robertson, joins the Emerson String Quartet, Jordi Savall, Leon Fleisher, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Artists for a gala opening night concert on Sunday, February 22. The Juilliard Orchestra, with Maestro Robertson, performs Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite. During the weeklong festival, on February 25, Juilliard presents the first of its Wednesdays at One lunchtime concerts when the series returns to Alice Tully Hall for the first time since the renovation shutdown. The all-Schubert chamber music program complements that night’s Great Performers program presented by Lincoln Center. Conductor David Robertson returns with the Juilliard Orchestra on Thursday, February 26 for a performance of Messiaen’s Des canyon aux étoiles, a work commissioned by Miss Alice Tully for the United States bicentennial and premiered in the Hall in 1974. The newly-renovated Alice Tully Hall was completed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in association with FX Fowle.

The 2009 FOCUS! Festival heads west for CALIFORNIA: A Century of New Music on January 23-31 in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater. This season’s festival showcases works from early 20th century radical composers Henry Cowell, John Cage, and Lou Harrison through the many illustrious members of the next generation, among them, Morton Subotnick, Roger Reynolds, John Adams, Robert Erickson, Leon Kirchner, and Terry Riley, to the younger composers of today. The festival opens on January 23 with the New Juilliard Ensemble conducted by Joel Sachs and concludes on January 31 with the Juilliard Orchestra in a concert version of John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer.

The Juilliard Drama Division presents four fully-staged productions featuring its fourth-year students: Molière’s The Misanthrope from October 22-26, directed by Lucie Tiberghien, Lanford Wilson’s Burn This from November 13-17, directed by Pam MacKinnon. Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa from December 11-15, directed by Ethan McSweeny, and The Greeks, Part III, The Gods from February 12-16, adapted by John Barton and Kenneth Cavander, and directed by Brian Mertes. 

For the complete 2008-09 Juilliard Season Announcement (PDF document), click here.

For the complete season calendar (PDF document), click here.