Current and future Juilliard students received great news when two extraordinary scholarship gifts were announced this year. Together with his wife, Suzie Kovner, Bruce Kovner, Juilliard’s chairman, made a major gift to establish the Kovner Fellowships. Kovner Fellows will receive tuition, room and board, and stipend assistance on the basis of artistic accomplishment. In other big news, the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, which endowed a scholarship in 1985, recently made a significant gift to enrich the level of support that the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Fellowships will continue to provide musicians, dancers and actors.

The Kovner and Greene gifts together represent substantial advances in the ability to meet students’ needs. Their support is echoed by the outstanding scholarship gifts received this year from alumni, faculty, trustees, friends, corporations, and foundations. Every gift counts and makes a difference in a young artist’s life.

Juilliard trustee Stephanie P. McClelland, who has generously funded drama and violin scholarships and given extraordinary support to the Drama Division over the years, has endowed a major new award, the Helen G. Palmer Scholarship in Drama, which is named for McClelland’s mother. Trustee Christopher Kojima and his wife endowed the unrestricted Beth and Christopher Kojima (Goldman Sachs Gives Fund) Scholarship. And Barbara Fleischman, also a trustee, was honored on the occasion of a milestone birthday with the announcement of the Barbara G. Fleischman Drama Scholarship, endowed with generous leadership gifts from her daughter Martha Fleischman and numerous friends.

As the academic year concluded last year, Juilliard received a generous bequest from the Estate of Elliot C. Carter Jr. The Elliott Carter Memorial Scholarship in Composition provides a lasting tribute to Carter by assisting the studies of many future composers. Carter, the great American composer who died at age 103 in 2012, was a member of Juilliard’s faculty from 1966 to 1984.

Additional bequests made with thoughtful estate planning provided generous scholarship funding during the past year and will be a lasting resource for our students. Voice and instrumental students will benefit from the James C. Caple Scholarship. The Walter P. Pettipas Scholarship is unrestricted. The George H. Gangwere Scholarship is designated for music students, as is the Charles E. Weekes Scholarship, which was endowed through the Estate of Geraldine Weekes. 

The Alice Kobler Straschil Scholarship and the Nelly Walter Scholarship have been endowed through a large gift from the Estate of Alice Kobler Straschil. The two women were cousins; Walter was a renowned artist representative who was for many years associated with Columbia Artists Management. These new scholarships memorialize both of them.

Other bequests included a gift for the Dr. Charles L. Ozer Scholarship for pianists and violinists from the Estate of Margaret Alexander, and another for the Saul Kay Trombone Scholarship from the Estate of Evelyn De Piero. The Robert Allan Foster Scholarship was given in memory of Elizabeth Foster and Katherine Foster. The Dora L. Foster Scholarship is designated for vocal arts students, and the John E. Manby Scholarship in Jazz Piano is a gift from Manby’s estate.

Juilliard’s presence in South Carolina through the Juilliard in Aiken Festival for the past six years has fostered close relationships between the student and faculty performers and their hosts in the town of Aiken. The Caldwell Davis Scholarship in Percussion is a notable result. Hornor and Freddie Davis endowed the scholarship in memory of Hornor’s brother, Caldwell Davis; they were inspired to do so by getting to know three Juilliard percussionists at the festival.

The Constance Goulandris Scholarship has been established in tribute to this arts patron and member of a Greek shipping family. This generous gift from the Goulandris Foundation is designated for music students—there will be five next year, at least one of whom will be of Greek heritage. The Edith Rosenhouse-Baehr Scholarship, created this fall, is an award for dance students.

Seth Frank is no stranger to Juilliard, having guided the Georges Lurcy Trust to fund the Arthur Rubinstein Scholarship and Prize, as well as the Palmer Dixon Prize in Composition here. With the Molly Frank and Aliki Perroti Scholarship in Violin and Conducting, he pays tribute to his mother, Molly, who inspired his passion for music, and his partner, Aliki, with whom he continues to enjoy the arts. 

Barbara Agosin, who previously generously endowed two scholarships—one in piano and the second in vocal arts—made a new gift endowing the Kenneth M. and Josephine J. Bissell Scholarship. She was inspired to give this award for music students by her relatives the Bissells, who were admired for their cultural knowledge and love for the arts.

The Kadar Family Scholarship for Israeli Talent was endowed with support from Avraham Kadar. The Shubert Foundation made a generous grant for the benefit of students in the Drama Division, who will be known as Shubert Scholars. In addition, an anonymous donor also made a generous gift providing drama scholarships. 

Scholarship support from alumni or gifts made in their honor continue to be a vital resource for our students. The Stephen Clapp Memorial Violin Scholarship was established with gifts in tribute to Clapp (Pre-College ’57; M.S. ’65, violin), a former dean of Juilliard and a beloved member of the violin faculty until his recent death. The Walter Rosenberger Percussion Scholarship memorializes Rosenberger (Diploma ’41, percussion) who had a long career with the New York Philharmonic and who was on the Juilliard faculty in the 1980s. The Bertha Melnik Scholarship honors Melnik (’39, piano), who taught at Juilliard for more than 50 years. The Kory Perigo Scholarship was established with memorial gifts from dance alumni honoring Perigo (B.F.A. ’94, dance). The Alan Seidler Scholarship in Composition was created by Jack Seidler, in memory of his son who studied piano here from 1969 to 1972. The Vivian Roe Sweet Scholarship is a memorial tribute to this alumna, who studied music theory at Juilliard from 1939 to 1942.

Other alumni-related awards include the Kawaja Family Scholarship, which will go to dance students; it’s the gift of Michell Hageman Kawaja (B.F.A. ’02, dance). The Roxanne Rosoman Scholarship is the gift of Roxanne Wruble Levy Rosoman (B.S. ’61, piano). Husband-and-wife drama alums established the Tim Blake Nelson (Group 19) and Lisa Benavides Nelson (Group 20) Scholarship. The Stephen Wolosonovich Scholarship honors this 1959 graduate of Juilliard’s violin program and is the gift of Thomas Hollerbach.

Juilliard friends and members often deepen their involvement with the School by making scholarship gifts. Such gifts led to the establishment of the Isabel Brenes Scholarship, the Syril H. and Walter A. Frank Scholarship, and the Gilbert W. Glass Scholarship. The Marilyn Emanuel Scholarship was established by Marilyn and her husband, Steven, and was inspired by her studies in the Evening Division. The Knoller Rosen Scholarship for Composition is gift of Barry Cohen, another Evening Division student. The John R. Philpit Scholarship, designated for dance students, is the gift of this arts patron and retired educator.  The Moca Foundation Scholarship, an award for graduate-level pianists, was established with a gift from Mary L. Bianco.  An anonymous patron funded a new scholarship designated for instrumentalists who add historical performance to their regular program of study. 

Carol Feld from Dallas established the Norton Feld and Ben Feld Scholarship to memorialize her businessman husband and his father, a former violinist with the St. Louis Symphony. The Elizabeth Sheppard Scholarship is a gift of this Memphis-based organist and pianist in celebration of her daughter Elizabeth Hurley, Juilliard’s vice president for development and public affairs. The Kurt Wolf Scholarship, a vocal arts award, was established in memory of a longtime opera fan by his nephew Gary Wolf.

The Bowers & Wilkins Scholarship was sponsored by this designer of high quality audio equipment as part of its support of Evening Sessions at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. The Ida and William Rosenthal Scholarship, designated for trumpet students, was created in honor of Juilliard faculty member Raymond Mase by the Rosenthal Foundation at the suggestion of Nicholas Brawer (Pre-College ’87; B.C.J.E. ’89, trumpet).