It Gets Better, which was choreographed by fourth-year dancer Nathan Makolandra, was selected from more than 100 entries to receive the grand prize in an Ovation television network competition called One Dance. One Chance. As the winner, Makolandra will have his work showcased in a 30-second spot on Ovation, and the network will give a $10,000 cash grant to Juilliard.

Pre-College cellist Taeguk Mun was the winner of the third annual André Navarra International Cello Competition in Toulouse, France.

Master’s cellist Leanna Rutt is a semifinalist in the 35th annual Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition for strings, which focuses on contemporary music. In May, Rutt will compete against eight other semifinalists at Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada.

FACULTY NEWS

In October, trombone faculty member Per Brevig (Diploma ’67, Postgraduate Diploma ’67, BM ’68, DMA ’71,trombone) conducted the Grieg Festival Orchestra at New York’s Alice Tully Hall in works by Grieg and Arne Nordheim. The concert was dedicated to the victims of the July 22 shooting in Norway. On April 17, Brevig will conduct the Strathmere Festival Orchestra in an all-Schubert program at New York City’s Church of St. Joseph.

Scenes from Golden Gate, an opera by Evening Division faculty member Conrad Cummings based on Vikram Seth’s book of the same name, were presented in November as part of the Opera America Salon Series and webcast live. The opera was named by Opera America as one of the best new operas of the 21st century. In April, Cummings’s opera Positions 1956 will be premiered on the Urban Arias series at Artisphere in Arlington, Va.

In December, Pre-College violin faculty member Shirley Givens (Diploma ’53, violin) performed with Harry Wimmer (Diploma ’50, cello) in a benefit concert for Doctors Without Borders at New York’s Peter Norton Symphony Space. 

In March, Evening Division faculty member Julie Jordan (MM ’83, piano) presented the New York Concerti Sinfonietta in a performance of works by Scriabin and Rachmaninoff at the Church of St. Joseph in New York City. Pianists Owen Zhou and Edward Leung were the featured soloists.

The New York Philharmonic has named composition faculty member Christopher Rouse its Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, a two-year appointment. As part of the residency, the Philharmonic will commission a work by Rouse that will be performed in April 2013 and conducted by Alan Gilbert, the orchestra’s music director and Juilliard’s director of conducting and orchestral studies.