Gearing Up for Commencement

Juilliard has been gearing up for its 119th commencement, which takes place May 24.

The ceremony itself will be packed with multidivisional performances, and it will follow a week of departmental performances and celebrations. And, of course, years of hard work and dedication by the more than 300 students who will be graduating. At the commencement ceremony we will also celebrate arts world leaders Carolyn Adams (faculty 1984–2011), Jessica Chastain (Group 32), Tania León, and the Emerson String Quartet, who will receive honorary doctorates. You can find more details about end-of-year performances and the college, preparatory, and Tianjin commencement ceremonies at the end of this article.

Carolyn Adams

Paul Taylor Dance Company luminary and longtime Juilliard faculty member Carolyn Adams’ steadfast advocacy for dance and dancers is at the core of her vision and commitment to the form. After retiring as a principal dancer with the Taylor company (1965-82), which was founded by Paul Taylor (’53, dance), Adams maintained ties to the company, restaging works and teaching teaching Taylor technique and repertory at Juilliard, City College, Jacob’s Pillow, and the Ailey School. Since 2022, she has served as the Taylor School’s director of education, guiding it as it “embraces the rich history of the field while providing innovative dance education initiatives and seeks to produce the next generation of dancers, dance makers, dance audiences, and dance advocates.”

Adams holds a bachelor’s from Sarah Lawrence, certificates from the University of Paris and La Schola Cantorum, and a master’s in social work from Fordham. Her passion for teaching emerged early as did her commitments to community development and preservation. In 1969, the Adams family founded the Harlem Brownstone Preservation Committee and established the Harlem Dance Studio. In 1993, she and her sister, Julie Adams Strandberg, founded Dancing Legacy to develop programs addressing access, education, and preservation. Adams was the founding artistic director of the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) School of Dance where, for 32 years, she developed workshops for middle and high school students. Her commitment to accessibility can also be seen in the Repertory Etudes project—which commissions choreographers to create short studies that are available for viewing, teaching, and performing—and in her creation of a dance curriculum for children on the autism spectrum.

Adams’ honors include the American Dance Festival’s Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke chair, an International Association of Blacks in Dance award, and a Martha Hill lifetime achievement award.

Jessica Chastain

Celebrated for her work in film, television, and theater, Jessica Chastain (Group 32) has received an Oscar and Golden Globe, Drama Desk, Critics’ Choice, and SAG awards as well as Emmy, Tony, and BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and nine Golden Globes.  

After she trained at Juilliard, Chastain began her journey with breakthrough roles in films including The Help, The Tree of Life, and Zero Dark Thirty. Some of her most notable roles include her captivating portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, the astronaut Melissa Lewis in The Martian, the enigmatic Murph in Interstellar, and Molly Bloom in Molly’s Game. Her other film appearances include Take Shelter, Lawless, Miss Sloane, and Crimson Peak. On television, she starred in the critically acclaimed miniseries George & Tammy (Showtime) and Scenes From a Marriage (HBO). Chastain’s notable theater roles include Nora in Amy Herzog’s updating of A Doll’s House, Catherine Sloper in The Heiress, and in the title role in Salomé, opposite Al Pacino. 

Chastain’s talent extends behind the camera through Freckle Films, a New York-based film and television production company she launched in 2016. In addition to The 355, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and George & Tammy, Freckle Filmsproduced Mothers’ Instinct for NEON, the upcoming Apple Originals’ limited series The Savant, and Michel Franco’s upcoming film Dreams.

Chastain’s starring role in 2021 as Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye earned her best actress Academy, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics Choice awards. Other recent work includes The Good Nurse, Scenes From a Marriage, The 355, Molly’s Game, It Chapter Two, Interstellar, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Tree of Life. She was most recently seen on Broadway in her Tony-nominated performance as Nora in A Doll’s House.

Tania León

A world-class leader on today’s music scene, Tania León is as highly regarded as a composer and conductor as she is for her accomplishments as an educator and arts advisor.

León began studying the piano at 4 and earned her bachelor’s at the Carlos Alfredo Peyrellade Conservatory in Havana, where she grew up. She was a founding member and the first music director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem; founder of the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s Community Concert Series; a co-founder of the American Composers Orchestra’s Sonidos de las Américas festivals; a new music advisor to the New York Philharmonic—it commissioned her Stride, which won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for music; and founder/artistic director of Composers Now, a presenting, commissioning, and advocacy organization.

León’s recent premieres include works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Arkansas, Detroit, and NDR symphony orchestras; Grossman Ensemble; International Contemporary Ensemble; Ensemble Modern; Arnhold Creative Associates Jennifer Koh and Claire Chase (with the Crossing Choir); Curtis Institute; and Juilliard415 (Seven Last Words). Her guest conducting appearances include the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Gewandhausorchester, Orquesta Sinfónica de Guanajuato, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba.

The 2023-25 composer in residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, León holds Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair. Other honors include a Kennedy Center lifetime achievement award; Spain’s highest composition prize; an International Society of Performing Arts distinguished artist award; induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and fellowship awards from ASCAP and the Koussevitzky Music and Guggenheim foundations. The recipient of multiple honorary degrees, León served as a U.S. artistic ambassador of American culture in Madrid and is a CUNY professor emerita.

Emerson String Quartet

Formed in 1976, the Emerson String Quartet has been one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles, making more than 40 recordings and receiving nine Grammys (including two for best classical album), three Gramophone awards, and the Avery Fisher prize. In the fall, the quartet—violinists Eugene Drucker (Diploma ’72) and Philip Setzer (BM ’73, MM ’74), violist Lawrence Dutton (Pre-College ’72; BM ’77, MM ’78), and cellist Paul Watkins—completed its last world tour, and its final performance is the subject of a planned documentary by filmmaker Tristan Cook.

The Emerson’s discography includes the complete string quartets of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bartók, Webern, and Shostakovich as well as multi-CD sets of major works of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Dvorák. To celebrate the final season, Deutsche Grammophon expanded and reissued its box set of the quartet’s complete recordings. One addition was The New York Recital, recorded live with Evgeny Kissin at Carnegie Hall. Other recent releases include the three Schumann quartets (Pentatone) and the quartet’s final CD, Infinite Voyage, a collaboration with Arnhold Creative Associate Barbara Hannigan on works by Schoenberg, Hindemith, Berg, and Chausson.

As part of its mission to keep the string quartet form alive and relevant, the Emerson commissioned and premiered works from esteemed composers and partnered in performance with leading artists. In addition to Kissin and Hannigan, they include Emanuel Ax (Pre-College ’66; Diploma ’70, Postgraduate Diploma ’72; faculty 1990-present), Yefim Bronfman (’81, piano), Leon Fleisher, Renée Fleming (’86, voice/opera), James Galway, Edgar Meyer, Menahem Pressler, André Previn, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Isaac Stern.

In 2013, cellist Paul Watkins joined the original members after the departure of David Finckel (faculty 2012–present). The quartet has always balanced teaching and performing and continues to be in residence at Stony Brook University; the members are also distinguished professors at NYU.

Commencement-Related Events

Tianjin Pre-College Commencement
May 19
Tianjin Juilliard Concert Hall
Speeches by Ivan Cheah (’87, violin) and cello student Yunting Chiang

Senior Dance Graduation Concert
May 20 at 7:30pm
Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Juilliard Orchestra Commencement Concert
May 23 at 6pm
Alice Tully Hall
Conducted by Marin Alsop (Pre-College ’72; BM ’77, MM ’78, violin)

Tianjin Juilliard School Commencement
May 24 at 10am
Tianjin Juilliard Concert Hall
Speeches by Jaap van Zweden (’80, violin) and senior leadership as well as performances by student artists

The Juilliard School Commencement
May 24 at 11:30am
David Geffen Hall
Livestream at juilliard.edu
Speeches by senior leadership and performances by student artists

Preparatory Division Commencement
May 25 at noon
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Livestream link by invitation
Speeches by Isabel Hagen (Pre-College ’09; BM ’13, MM ’15, viola) and artistic leadership as well as performances by students

Pre-College Commencement Concert
May 25 at 7:30pm
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Livestream at juilliard.edu
Adam Glaser (Pre-College ’88) conducts the Pre-College Orchestra

See juilliard.edu/calendar for information and tickets for New York events