Following the annual Playwrights Festival and several recitals, the 2012-13 season swings into full gear on September 22 with the first of three New Juilliard Ensemble concerts. In October, the Juilliard Orchestra begins its season with one of three of this year’s debut conductors, Semyon Bychkov, at the podium. And Historical Performance winds up its fourth season with a spring performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Yale’s early-music ensembles. 

THE JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA 
Three guest conductors will make their Juilliard Orchestra debuts this season: Semyon Bychkov, Stephen Lord, and Mark Wigglesworth. The season begins October 24 in Alice Tully Hall with Bychkov leading Symphony No. 4 by Brahms, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Dutilleux’s Métaboles. Lord takes the podium for the Juilliard Opera production of Don Pasquale in February (see Opera and Song); and Wigglesworth will close the annual Focus! festival (see New Music) on February 1.

A number of Juilliard alumni will conduct the orchestra this season. On November 1 in Tully Hall, faculty member and alum Jeffrey Milarsky leads the Juilliard players in Arvo Part’s Symphony No. 4, titled Los Angeles, and his Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten as well as in Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste. On February 25, Milarsky will conduct works by student composers in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Jaap van Zweden, the music director of the Dallas and Hong Kong symphonies, takes the Tully Hall stage on November 16 to conduct Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, Britten’s Violin Concerto, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 at Tully Hall. On December 4, faculty member and alum Itzhak Perlman presides over the overture to Mozart’s Abduction From the Seraglio, Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto, and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique at Avery Fisher Hall. Marin Alsop conducts the orchestra on February 9 at Carnegie Hall in a celebration of faculty member John Corigliano’s 75th birthday; the program includes his second and third symphonies. On April 20, James Gaffigan takes the podium for Mahler’s Fourth Symphony at Tully Hall, and on May 4, Leonard Slatkin conducts Strauss’s Don Quixote and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, also at Tully.

The orchestra pairs up with Opera Studies three times in 2012-13, for Mozart’s Così fan tutte in November, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in February, and Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen in late April and early May. (See Opera and Song for more details.)

Four Alice Tully Hall concerts round out the orchestral season. Principal conductor and director emeritus James DePreist leads performances on December 13 and April 4. The Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, which is conductorless, performs Bartok’s Divertimento for Strings, Dvorak’s Serenade (Op. 44), and Beethoven’s First Symphony on November 20. And the commencement concert (program and conductor to be announced) takes place on May 23.

JAZZ 
On October 16, the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra plays the first of three shows this year at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater; on this night the musicians are joined by Memphis jazz masters George Coleman and Harold Mabern. On January 15, the J.J.O. plays classic arrangements by Benny Golson, Thad Jones, Gerry Mulligan, Oliver Nelson, Sammy Nestico, and others; and on February 21, it plays student compositions. The Jazz Ensembles’ Paul Hall performances take place on October 1 (music by keyboardist Cedar Walton); November 5 and April 16 (student compositions); December 10 (standards); February 4 (with artist-in-residence Wycliffe Gordon); and April 2 (led by clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera). On November 20, the Artist Diploma Ensemble is joined by Brazilian drummer Paulo Braga for  a concert in Paul Hall that’s part of Carnegie Hall’s Voices From Latin America series. Juilliard jazz ensembles also perform throughout the year at brunches at the Blue Note (131 West Third Street); and at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. 

DRAMA 
The Drama Division season opens with the sixth annual fall Playwrights Festival (September 6-9), which features two works by currently enrolled playwrights and one by an alum. They are Mike Lew’s Bike America, directed by Hal Brooks; Kate Gersten’s Benefit of the Doubt, directed by Daniel Goldstein; and A Lifetime Burning by Cusi Cram (’01, playwrights), directed by Evan Cabnet. (See article on Page 1.)

The fall fourth-year productions include McReele, a death-row drama written by Stephen Belber (’96, playwrights) and directed by Sam Buntrock (Oct. 17-21); Sarah Ruhl’s Pulitzer Prize finalist The Clean House, directed by Marcela Lorca (Nov. 8-12); and Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan, which is set in Ireland in 1934 and will be directed by Pam Berlin (Dec. 6-10). 

The fourth-year repertory cycle takes place February 13-24 and starts off with a series of short plays by Tennessee Williams called Williams in Transit that is directed by Jonathan Rosenberg. Also in the cycle: former Juilliard intern Erica Schmidt directs Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog, and alumnus Orlando Pabotoy (Group 27) directs Shakespeare’s Pericles. 

From October 23 through 28, Juilliard’s third-year actors will perform in Brendan Behan’s The Hostage, which is directed by Janet Zarish, and Caryl Churchill’s Fen, directed by Jonathan Rosenberg. They will return in the spring for the annual third-year Shakespeare rep series.

DANCE
This year’s Juilliard Dance season begins off-campus at City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, during which students and alumni will perform Pam Tanowitz’s Fortune on September 29 and 30 (see photo on Page 28). Choreographers and Composers (November 15-17), the division’s annual celebration of student work, features premieres by third-year choreographers and six student composers in the Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater. A month later (December 12-16), New Dances: Edition 2012 debuts in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater with the premieres of four commissions, by Camille Brown, Emery LeCrone, Susan Shields, and Jarek Cemerek.

The spring dance season kicks off with Juilliard Dances Repertory (April 3-7) in the Sharp Theater. Murray Louis’s Four Brubeck Pieces (1984), set to music by Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond, is staged by faculty member Janis Brenner. The students will also perform Sunset (1983), choreographed by Paul Taylor (B.S. ’53, dance) to music by Elgar (performed by the Juilliard Orchestra under George Stelluto), which is staged by faculty member Linda Kent, and William Forsythe’s One Flat Thing, reproduced (2000), with music by Thom Willems and staging by Christopher Roman. This year’s Senior Production (May 2-5) takes place in the Willson Theater and is the culmination of a yearlong creative and educational process that launches seniors into the “real” world—and gives third-years an opportunity to learn about stagecraft.

The Dance Division’s year concludes in the Sharp Theater with two Choreographic Honors concerts (May 17-18) and the Senior Showcase (May 20) featuring the graduating class.

OPERA AND SONG 
On November 14, 17, and 19, Juilliard Opera continues its collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program with Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte. The joint production, which will feature singers from Juilliard and Lindemann, will be conducted by Alan Gilbert (Pre-College ’85; M.M. ’94, orchestral conducting), the director of conducting and orchestral studies, and directed by Stephen Wadsworth, the director of the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies program.

The Juilliard Opera double bill continues this school year’s celebration of British music (see New Music) by pairing Britten’s Curlew River with Riders to the Sea by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Faculty member John Giampietro will direct and Mark Shapiro will conduct. Performances take place at the Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater on December 9, 11, and 13. 

The opera season continues on February 13, 15, and 17 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater with Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, which will be directed by James Robinson and conducted by Stephen Lord. On April 28 and 30, and May 2, Anne Manson will conduct Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen with Emma Griffin directing.

The 16th annual Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital takes place on November 29 and features soprano Jennifer Zetlan (A.D. ’06, opera studies) accompanied by David Shimoni (M.M. ’98, piano; M.M. ’00, accompanying); they’ll be performing a work by alumnus Nico Muhly (Barnard-Columbia-Juilliard Exchange ’02, M.M. ’04, composition) that was commissioned for the concert. The annual Vocal Arts Honors Recital will be held on February 28 at the Sharp Theater; the New York Festival of Song (this year’s theme: A Night at the Operetta), co-directed by faculty member Steven Blier, takes place on January 16 in the Sharp Theater; the six-concert Liederabend series (Thursdays at 6 p.m.) begins on October 18 and ends on April 11; Wednesdays at One concerts with Juilliard vocalists takes place on December 5 and April 3; and the Juilliard Songfest takes place on December 6.

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE 
The Historical Performance program, now under the direction of faculty member Robert Mealy, begins its fourth year on September 24 in Paul Hall with Juilliard Baroque, the faculty ensemble, performing Telemann’s “Paris” Quartets and other works. The group will also perform selections from Couperin’s Les Nations as part of the Music Before 1800 series on February 10 at Corpus Christi Church (529 West 121st Street).

On October 2 Wieland Kuijken will give a public viola da gamba master class. And this year, Historical Performance will hold regular early-afternoon chamber-music concerts at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (3 West 65th Street) as an extension of the regular Juilliard Wednesdays at One series. Concerts take place on October 10, November 7, January 30, and May 8.

On October 27, William Christie conducts the student ensemble Juilliard415 and guest members of his group Les Arts Florissants as well as Juilliard singers in Handel’s oratorio Il Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at Alice Tully Hall. Other Juilliard415 guest conductors this season include South African fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout making his Juilliard debut in an all-Mozart program (November 19) and Jordi Savall exploring the birth of the orchestra in Germany, with music for strings, winds, brass, and percussion (January 26). Faculty members leading the students this season include Robert Mealy (suites from Rameau’s Dardanus and Castor et Pollux on December 14 at Tully Hall) and Monica Huggett (Dmitri Sitkovetsky’s string orchestra transcription of J. S. Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations on February 27 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater). Students from the ensemble will give a chamber concert in Paul Hall on December 18.

Huggett, who this year assumes the new roles of artist-in-residence and artistic advisor in the Historical Performance program, will also lead the students in three off-site concerts: at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (921 Park Avenue) on February 24 and March 3, and at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street) on April 14. 

In the spring, Historical Performance revisits its collaboration with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, which began two years ago, with Masaaki Suzuki conducting Juilliard415, the Yale Schola Cantorum, and the Yale Baroque Ensemble in J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor. They will perform the choral masterpiece at St. Thomas Church in New York City on April 27; as part of the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk on April 28; and at New Haven’s Woolsey Hall on April 26. And from May 28 to June 9, the group will take the Mass on tour to Japan and Singapore.

NEW MUSIC 
On September 22, the New Juilliard Ensemble launches the new-music season with five works that have connections to Asia and the South Pacific conducted by the ensemble’s director, faculty member Joel Sachs (see article on Page 5). N.J.E. performs music from Latin America (by Paul Desenne, Alejandro Iglesias Rossi, Guido López-Gavilán, Sergio Kafejian, Hilda Paredes, and Hebert Vázquez) as part of Carnegie Hall’s Voices From Latin America series at its November 9 concert in Alice Tully Hall. And on April 12, the ensemble plays five world premieres that were composed for it, by Eugene Astapov, Mohammed Fairouz, David Hertzberg, Luca Lombardi, and Laura Elise Schwendinger.

The 27th annual Focus! festival pays tribute to English music since World War II, with a particular nod to Benjamin Britten, who would have turned 100 in 2013. It opens with an N.J.E. concert at Tully Hall on January 25 and closes on February 1, with British conductor Mark Wigglesworth making his Juilliard Orchestra debut. He’ll conduct Michael Tippett’s “Ritual Dances” from Midsummer Marriage, Knussen’s Horn Concerto, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Ceres, and Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem.

Axiom, under the direction of faculty member Jeffrey Milarsky, presents Oliver Knussen’s Coursing, Wuorinen’s Cyclops 2000, and Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 on October 12 in Peter Jay Sharp Theater. On December 10, the ensemble will play Toru Takemitsu’s Archipelago S for 21 players and John Adams’s Grand Pianola on December 10 in Alice Tully Hall. It will also perform March 28 in Alice Tully Hall; program to be determined.

Beyond the Machine, Juilliard’s periodic celebration of multimedia performance, features two e-Virtuosos concerts this year, in November and March. In the first (November 1-3), the program will include world premieres (for brass quintet and electronics and for piano and electronics) by Neil Rolnick and Max Grafe, a piece called Improvisation for Chamber Ensemble and Electronics by the Juilliard Electric Ensemble with Langdon Crawford Interactive Programming, and a concerto for violin, chamber ensemble, and electronics by Rolnick with fourth-year violinist Andrea Jarrett as soloist. Faculty member George Stelluto will conduct.  

FACULTY RECITALS 
The Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recitals series includes concerts by three of the School’s resident chamber ensembles: the American Brass Quintet (October 22), the Juilliard String Quartet (November 26 and February 26), and the New York Woodwind Quintet paying tribute to former faculty member Milton Babbitt (March 21). The November 7 Saidenberg recital features violinist Ronald Copes and pianist Seymour Lipkin playing Beethoven sonatas. On November 27, faculty members Dane Johansen (cello) and Joseph Lin (violin) will play works by Elliott Carter, Dutilleux, Poulenc, Ravel, and Wuorinen at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. And on March 27, J.S.Q. cellist Joel Krosnick joins faculty members and friends Gilbert Kalish, Seymour Lipkin, Laurie Smukler, Ronald Copes, Gwen Krosnick, and the Juilliard String Quartet. 

OTHER EVENTS
The Pre-College Orchestra, which is made up of older high school students and conducted by Adam Glaser, opens its season on November 15 in Alice Tully Hall; subsequent concerts will be held on February 23 and May 25. George Stelluto leads the Pre-College Symphony (younger high school students) in concerts on December 22, March 2, and May 25. Shih-Hung Young will lead the Pre-College String Ensemble on December 22 and May 4; while Pre-College Chamber Music concerts will be held on December 22, January 19, February 9, May 4, May 18, May 22, and other to-be-announced dates. Pre-College vocalists will perform on January 26 and May 11; voice majors perform opera scenes on April 20. Members of the Pre-College faculty will give recitals every Saturday from September 29 through November 17.

Other notable performances this season include the Bachauer Piano Competition winners’ recital, by Fei-Fei Dong and Steven Lin, on October 17 in Paul Hall; and the Petschek Piano Debut Award Recital on May 9 in Tully Hall (recipient to be announced in January). On October 19, Juilliard chamber musicians will join colleagues from Germany’s Cologne Academy to present a transatlantic music project. 

This year’s six-concert Sonatenabend series begins October 11 and ends April 18, with performances at 6 p.m. in Paul Hall, which will be simulcast on WQXR; the annual student ChamberFest takes place from January 14 to 19.

Juilliard organists will give recitals on October 23 in Paul Hall and on January 22 in Alice Tully Hall. On May 7, the Attacca String Quartet, in its second year as Juilliard’s graduate resident string quartet, will give the annual Lisa Arnhold Memorial Recital at Tully Hall. 

This year pianists Murray Perahia, Richard Goode, and Leon Fleisher will have Juilliard residencies as will Swedish cellist Frans Helmerson. 

For more information about these and other Juilliard events, go to events.juilliard.edu.