I saw the article “Keeping It All in the Family” [Juilliard Journal, February 2012]. I am not a Juilliard graduate, but my great-great-great uncle was Augustus Juilliard, benefactor and namesake of the school. My grandfather, Juilliard Blicke, was his great nephew and shared several stories of his memories of Uncle Gus. My son and my brother both have the middle name Juilliard.

Amy King
Powell, Ohio
Submitted online

Editor’s note: The February issue of The Journal was dedicated to the many family members—spouses, siblings, children, parents, nieces, nephews—who have shared the Juilliard experience. One feature profiled a few of the approximately 500 Juilliard alums who became couples (“Romantic School”) either at the school or afterward. Uri Pianka (Pre-College ’55; Diploma ’58, violin), a former concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony, wrote in to tell us about two more couples. One is Amiram Sheffet (Diploma ’59, Postgraduate Diploma ’61, violin) and Alice Miller (Diploma ’60, M.S. ’62, piano); the other is Roland Vamos (B.S. ’59, M.S. ’60, D.M.A. ’74, violin) and Almita Hyman Vamos (B.S. ’60, violin).

A Thousand Thanks

Now that the Focus! festival honoring John Cage’s centennial is over [“Focus! on John Cage,” Juilliard Journal, December 2011-January 2012], I want to extend special thanks to the many people who helped ensure its success—the staffs of the prop shop, costume shop, the backstage crew, and the building management; the Juilliard community, which jumped in enthusiastically to fill our need for old radios forImaginary Landscapes No. 4; Steve Carver and his staff of piano technicians, who ensured that the players of prepared piano had the right instruments and places to practice. For advice and assistance, thanks are owed to Laura Kuhn, director of the John Cage Trust; Susan Allen, a specialist in “extended harp” at CalArts; and Juilliard alumna Margaret Leng Tan—one of the world’s reigning players of prepared piano—who devoted an enormous amount of time to helping Nathaniel LaNasa, the soloist in the Concerto for Prepared Piano, prepare his instrument properly. Gene Caprioglio, of C.F. Peters, Cage’s publisher—doubtless pleased that our library had purchased every available score by Cage thanks to Jane Gottlieb, vice president for library and information resources—made sure that we lacked nothing else.

Cage would have been overjoyed by such a truly communal effort.

Joel Sachs
Faculty member and director of the Focus! festival