While Juilliard performers have been performing all over the globe this summer, the public performance season at Juilliard begins on September 10 with a recital by organ chair Paul Jacobs, followed by New Juilliard Ensemble (September 20), Historical Performance (September 23), and jazz concerts (September 30). 

THE JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA 

This year’s orchestra season includes four debuts, two of them by alums, and several collaborations with other departments. (The soloists for all concertos are to be announced.)

Things start off October 13 with the Jerome L. Greene concert in which the Metropolitan Opera’s Fabio Luisi makes his Juilliard Orchestra debut. The program includes Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 (“Spring”) in Alice Tully Hall. On October 25, Edward Gardner returns to Juilliard to lead Knussen’s The Way to Castle Yonder, Vaughan Williams’s Concerto for Oboe and Strings in A Minor, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. Gardner is the music director of the English National Opera and, starting next fall, will be the chief conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

Faculty member and alum Jeffrey Milarsky will conduct the orchestra twice at Tully Hall this season. On November 8, he’ll lead Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Stravinsky’s Petrushka (1947). On April 28, he’ll conduct four world premieres by Juilliard students.

Larry Rachleff, the music director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and director of Rice University’s Shepherd School Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, returns to Juilliard to lead the orchestra at Tully on December 11. On the program are Ives’s Central Park in the Dark, Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher for Viola and Small Orchestra, and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony.

Alumnus Peter Oundjian, who’s the music director of both the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony, will make his Juilliard Orchestra conducting debut on January 24 at Tully Hall. On the program will be The Infernal Machine by faculty member Christopher Rouse, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.

Emmanuel Villaume, who led last spring’s Juilliard Opera production of Cendrillon, conducts the orchestra in Stravinsky’s Feu d’artifice, Ravel’s La Valse, Glazunov’s A-Minor Violin Concerto, and Mussorgksy’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The concert takes place on February 17 in Tully.

Dreamwaltzes by incoming faculty member Steven Stucky will be on the bill when David Zinman, who just completed his final season as music director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, leads the orchestra on February 24. Also on the program at this Carnegie Hall concert will be Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 and Richard Strauss’s tone poem Ein Heldenleben.

In celebration of the 90th birthday of Pierre Boulez, David Robertson’s April 19 concert with the orchestra takes place in Avery Fisher Hall. It will include two pieces by Boulez: Originel from … explosante-fixe … and Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna as well as Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1947). 

Alumnus Alan Gilbert, Juilliard’s director of conducting and orchestral studies, will lead the May 21 commencement concert, which features Strauss’s Don Juan and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. 

In collaborations around the School, the orchestra will accompany the dance performances and, under the debuting baton of Tadaaki Otaka, the final concert of the Focus! festival, on January 30. The orchestra pairs up with Vocal Arts for Il turco in Italia in November, The Rape of Lucretia in February, and Le nozze di Figaro in April. Il Turco will be led by alumna Speranza Scappucci making her Juilliard Orchestra conducting debut. Mark Shapiro will take the podium for Lucretia and faculty member Gary Thor Wedow for Figaro.

The Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, which is coached by alum and faculty member Eric Bartlett—a member of Orpheus—performs Boccherini’s Symphony No. 6 in D Minor, Bottesini’s Double Bass Concerto No. 2 in B Minor, Puccini’s I Chrisantemi, and Respighi’s Gli Uccelli on November 17 at Tully. Juilliard’s newest ensemble is the Wind Orchestra, which debuts October 12. Read more about it in next month’s Journal.

JAZZ 

Juilliard Jazz begins its first full season under new director Wynton Marsalis on September 30 with a Paul Hall Artist Diploma ensemble concert called Meditations on Integration: Two Masters of Time and of Times—Charles Mingus and David Brubeck, with guest coach Charles McPherson. Two weeks later, on October 14 in the Sharp Theater, the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra launches its season with Blues, Ballads and Train Whistles with guest conductor Bill Dobbins. Jazz ensembles are in Paul Hall on November 4—bebop is the theme and Jon Faddis is the coach—and December 9, with Lightning, Thunder, and Fire: The Sophistication of the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.

In the new year, the Jazz Orchestra starts out in the Sharp Theater on January 21 with From the Stratosphere to the Source: The Transcendent Music of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, with guest conductor Ted Nash. It returns to the Sharp on February 25 with Marsalis conducting The Activist Benny Goodman and the Ambassador Duke Ellington: Democracy at Home and Around the World.

The spring ensemble concert series in Paul Hall begins February 3 with a celebration of the visionary genius of Miles Davis (particularly his albums Kind of Blue and Filles de Kilimanjaro). The March 30 concert spotlights the ensembles in Dos Reyes del Bajo: Israel “Cachao” López and John Kirby, with guest coaches Carlos Henriquez and Loren Schoenberg. And the ensembles wind up on April 13 with Federal Government and States Rights: The Music of Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe “Jelly Roll” Morton and Joe “King” Oliver.

DRAMA 

The Drama season kicks off with a trio of fourth-year plays. By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (October 8 to 12) is a comedy set in 1930s Hollywood by Pulitzer-winner Lynn Nottage that’s directed by Lucie Tiberghien. Alum David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole (October 29-November 2), which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 and was also a Tony nominee, recounts the story of a couple whose young child has died. It’s directed by faculty member Rebecca Guy. The last of the three also won a Pulitzer, in 1993. It’s Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches (November 20-24) by Tony Kushner, and it was first presented in workshop at Juilliard in 1992, when Kushner was a playwright in residence here; this production is directed by Lila Neugebauer. 

The annual fourth-year repertory cycle takes place from February 11 to 22 and begins with Edward Albee’s 2002 Tony winner The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch. It’s followed by a four-character, all-female version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth adapted and directed by Erica Schmidt. And the third play is Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, a mythological tale of love, loss, and transformation directed by faculty member Moni Yakim.

This fall, Juilliard’s third-year actors will perform in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings (October 21-26; directed by Kenneth Washington), Kate Fodor’s 100 Saints You Should Know (October 22-26; directed by Janet Zarish), and The Frogs by Aristophanes (December 10-14; directed by alum Orlando Pabotoy). The annual third-year cabaret will be directed by Deborah Lapidus (February 11-15). In the spring, the third-years will take the stage for the annual Shakespeare rep series, this year featuring The Winter’s Tale (May 6-16; directed by Rebecca Guy) and Measure for Measure (May 9-16; directed by Jenny Lord). 

DANCE

Works by two alums will be on the bill at New Dances: Edition 2014 (December 10-14), in which each of the four classes give world premiere performances. Austin McCormick (B.F.A. ’06, dance), whose Company XIV specializes in what he calls Baroque burlesque ballet, will create a work for the first-years. Loni Landon (B.F.A. ’05, dance), who currently dances with the Metropolitan Opera and who won a 2013 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship, will be paired with the second-year dancers. Kate Weare, whose eponymous company has recently been in residence at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, will choreograph for the third-years, while Larry Keigwin, who founded Keigwin + Co. in 2003, will return to Juilliard to work with the fourth-years. For a peek behind them scenes of all four pieces, stop by the Guggenheim’s Works and Process series on November 16 and 17.

Renowned works by Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham are on tap for Juilliard Dances Repertory (March 21-27) in the Sharp Theater. Graham completed Dark Meadow in 1946, just a few years before joining the nascent Juilliard dance faculty. The abstract work, which is set to music by Carlos Chávez and had sets by Isamu Noguchi, will be staged by faculty member Terese Capucilli, who was a principal dancer with Graham’s dance company for 26 years. BIPED by Cunningham was premiered in 1999 and has a score by Gavin Bryars with projected artwork by Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar.

Other highlights of the dance season include the annual collaboration of Juilliard choreographers and composers known as ChoreoComp (November 21-22; Willson Theater) as well as the division’s annual celebrations of its students’ work: Senior Dance Production (April 24-26, Willson Theater), Choreographic Honors (May 15-16, Sharp Theater), and the Senior Showcase (May 18, Sharp Theater).

OPERA AND SONG

The Juilliard Opera season begins in the Sharp Theater with Rossini’s Il turco in italia (November 19, 21, and 23) featuring Juilliard singers and the Juillard Orchestra. The performance will be directed by faculty member John Giampietro and conducted by alumna Speranza Scappucci. It continues February 18, 20, and 22 in the Willson Theater with Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, which will be directed by Mary Birnbaum with Mark Shapiro conducting the singers and the Juilliard Orchestra. 

In the spring, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, directed by faculty member Stephen Wadsworth is on the bill (Sharp Theater; April 24, 26, and 28). This marks the completion of Wadsworth’s Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy at Juilliard; faculty member Gary Thor Wedow will conduct the Juilliard Orchestra.

Other season highlights include a residency and master class by the legendary Dutch soprano Elly Ameling (October 2). Three additional vocal arts master classes—with Thomas Hampson (January 28), Patricia Racette (April 23), and Gerald Finley (May 7) will be streamed live on Juilliard’s website (they are not open to the general public).

Juilliard Songfest, which is curated and accompanied by Vocal Arts artistic director Brian Zeger (M.M. ’81, piano), is on December 4 in Tully Hall. The New York Festival of Song celebrates great American songwriting teams including Richard Rodgers (’24, music theory) and both Moss Hart and Oscar Hammerstein; George and Ira Gershwin; Comden and Green, and more. It’s co-directed by faculty member Steven Blier (Sharp Theater, January 14). The annual Vocal Arts Honors Recital will be held on March 26 in Tully Hall. 

The six-concert Liederabend series, which takes place on Thursdays at 6 p.m. in Paul Hall, begins on October 16 and ends on April 9; Wednesdays at One concerts with Juilliard vocalists take place on December 3 and April 8. 

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE 

After a whirlwind series of European performances in August and September, Historical Performance begins its sixth season September 23 with a Juilliard Baroque performance in Paul Hall at which the resident faculty ensemble will play works for oboe, recorder, bassoon, violone, harpsichord, and theorbo by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Zelenka. 

In October, the program’s collaboration with Yale continues with Masaaki Suzuki conducting Juilliard415 and the Yale Schola Cantorum in Zelenka’s Missa dei Patris in Boston (Jordan Hall, October 17), New Haven (St. Mary’s Church, October 18), and N.Y.C. (Sharp Theater, October 19). The Yale collaboration will be revisited when David Hill will lead the combined groups in Beethoven’s Mass in C, Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony, and a new work. Concerts take place on April 30 in New Haven’s Woolsey Hall, and on May 2 at Alice Tully Hall. The groups will also tour the program to the United Kingdom in May and June. 

The regular Juilliard415 season opens with South African fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout directing on October 30 in Tully Hall; he’ll also have a residency in the spring. H.P. director Robert Mealy leads the ensemble and countertenor Eric Jurenas in music by Vivaldi and Locatelli at Tully Hall on November 14; faculty member Monica Huggett leads Beethoven’s Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, a symphony to be announced, and Romance No. 2 in F Major (Sharp Theater, January 18). Vivaldi violin concertos are on the bill when Rachel Podger makes her Juilliard debut leading the group (Tully Hall, March 19). And faculty member Gonzalo Ruiz helms the winds of Juilliard415 in the Loud Band, a Renaissance double-reed extravaganza (Tully Hall, March 20). 

Juilliard415 goes off campus several times including for performances as part of the Bohemians series at the Kosciuszko Foundation (15 East 65th Street; November 3) and, led by Jordi Savall, a to-be-announced venue on January 31. As part of the Music Before 1800 series (Corpus Christi Church, 529 West 121st Street; April 12), Monica Huggett will lead a two-part concert (at 4 and 6 p.m.) called Concerti Bizzarri. It will feature concertos by Telemann, Graupner, Dittersdorf, Johann Ludwig Bach, and Vivaldi.

Historical Performance’s busy season includes a collaboration with Vocal Arts: On December 8, singers and Juilliard415 will perform Handel’s La resurrezione under William Christie at Tully Hall.

In addition to the master classes and residencies already mentioned, Richard Egarr will have residencies in October, February, and April. Harry Bicket returns to Juilliard to give a public master class, on October 22; his ensemble the English Concert will hold a coaching day later that month, and Trio Holloway will hold a coaching day in November.

The Historical Performance season winds up with a collaboration between Juilliard415 and London’s Royal Academy of Music. Masaaki Suzuki will conduct the orchestras and concertmaster Rachel Podger in an all-Bach program at the Boston Early Music Festival (June 13), Alice Tully Hall (June 15), the Thomaskirche in Leipzig (the church where Bach was organist for many years; June 15), and Duke’s Hall in London (June 19).

Historical Performance musicians are continuing their series of free noontime concerts at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (65th Street and Central Park West; October 7, December 16, February 24, April 21).

NEW MUSIC 

Juilliard’s new-music season begins in the Sharp Theater on September 20 with the New Juilliard Ensemble conducted by its founder, faculty member Joel Sachs. The program includes the world premiere of Alessandro Annunziata’s Ritrovare (2014), the Western Hemisphere premiere of Bernd Franke’s Veil (I) (2013), the New York premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s Cantus Iambeus (2004-5), and Shulamit Ran’s Fault Line (2005-6) with Juilliard soprano Onadek Winan. On November 3, N.J.E. will take part in Carnegie Hall’s Ubuntu Festival (October 8-November 5), which celebrates the music and arts of South Africa. N.J.E.’s concert will include works by Robert Fokkens, Andile Khumalo, Bongani Ndodana-Breen, Michael Blake, Clare Loveday, Paul Hammer, and Kevin Volans. The ensemble’s season concludes on April 10 with world premieres by Juilliard composers Simon Frisch and Max Grafe, the winners of N.J.E.’s annual composition competition, along with works by Eric Lindsey, Reza Vali, and Paul Desenne. 

The 31st annual Focus! festival turns its lens to the music of Japan since 1945, including works by Toshio Hosokawa, Akira Nishimura, Somei Satoh, Toru Takemitsu, and others. It opens with an N.J.E. concert in the Sharp Theater on January 23 with Sachs conducting and concludes on January 30 with a Juilliard Orchestra performance in Sharp Theater conducted by Tadaaki Otaka. On the program are Takemitsu’s Twill by Twilight and Far Calls. Coming, Far! for violin and orchestra, Akira Miyoshi’s Noesis, and Takashi Yoshimatsu’s Threnody to Toki.

AXIOM, the contemporary-music ensemble founded and conducted by faculty member and alum Jeffrey Milarsky, begins the year in the Sharp Theater on October 17 with Birtwistle’s Three Settings of Celan (1989-14), Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques, and Son of Chamber Symphony by John Adams. The ensemble’s season continues November 24 with Tully Hall two works each by Cage (Third Construction and Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra) and Nancarrow (String Quartet No. 1 with the Aelous Quartet and another piece that has yet to be announced). Second-year master’s student Han Chen will be the soloist on the Cage concerto. AXIOM winds up its season on February 25 with an all-Ligeti concert including Sippal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel (With Pies, Drums, Fiddles), Six Bagatelles, Concerto for Cello (soloist Jay Campbell), and Kammerkonzert. The November and February concerts also feature the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble under faculty member and alum Daniel Druckman.

FACULTY RECITALS 

The Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recitals series launches on September 10 with organ department chair Paul Jacobs performing solo works by J. S. Bach and Max Reger. On October 14, Catherine Cho (B.M. ’92, M.M. ’94, violin) and Robert McDonald (M.M. ’79, piano) will perform Beethoven sonatas in Paul Hall. Two days later in the Sharp Theater, the 54-year-old American Brass Quintet pays tribute to its incoming—Louis Hanzlik and Eric Reed—and outgoing—Raymond Mase and David Wakefield—members. On March 16, Joel Krosnick and his duo partner Gilbert Kalish (piano) will perform in Paul Hall.

The Juilliard String Quartet takes the Tully Hall stage twice this year. On October 27, it will perform Webern’s Five Movements, Op. 5; Berg’s Quartet, Op. 3; and Schubert’s Quartet in D Minor (“Death and the Maiden”); on February 5, quartets by Haydn, Shulamit Ran, and Beethoven will be on the bill. The annual J.S.Q. seminar takes place May 22.

OTHER EVENTS

Performances of note in 2014-15 include the Gina Bachauer Piano Competition winners’ recital, by Yun Wei and Alan Woo (Paul Hall, October 29); the Leo Ruiz Memorial Recital, given by piano alumnus Jie Yuan (Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, November 13) featuring the world premiere of Three Preludes for Piano by Peng-Peng Gong (Pre-College ’10; B.M. ’14, composition); and the Petschek Piano Debut Award Recital (Tully Hall, May 6).

This year’s eight-concert Sonatenabend series of collaborative piano and instrumentalist performances in Paul Hall begins October 9 and ends April 16. The annual student ChamberFest is packed with concerts from January 12 to 17. Wednesdays at One concerts take place in Tully on October 22 and February 4 (piano); November 5 (percussion); November 19, January 14, March 25, and April 15 (chamber music); December 3 and April 8 (vocal arts); December 10 and April 1 (the Lab Orchestra); February 18 (Artist Diploma recital); April 29 (brass); and May 20 (Pre-College chamber music).

Juilliard organ students will give a recital at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (April 22). On May 4, the Aeolus, Juilliard’s graduate resident string quartet, gives the annual Lisa Arnhold Memorial Recital at Tully Hall. 

The Pre-College Orchestra, which is made up of older high school students, begins its season on November 20 in Alice Tully Hall; subsequent concerts will be held on February 21 and May 23. The Pre-College Symphony (younger high school students) gives concerts on December 20, February 28, and May 23. The Pre-College String Ensemble—the youngest performing group at Juilliard—performs on December 20 and May 2 while Pre-College chamber concerts are held on select Saturdays between December 3 and May 16. The Pre-College choruses will perform on January 24 and May 9. Members of the Pre-College faculty will give recitals on most Saturdays this fall from September 13 through November 22.