Juilliard begins to unveil the results of two years of major construction and redevelopment this fall, as the School launches a performance season of more than 700 events showcasing its students, faculty, and special guest artists. The new main entrance and June Noble Larkin Lobby will reopen this month, along with the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office, in its new location in the lobby. Other new spaces that opened this month include the Sidney R. Knafel Admissions Suite and the Morse Student Lounge. Juilliard concerts will return to the newly transformed Alice Tully Hall in February 2009, with an opening-night gala on the 22nd that includes the Juilliard Orchestra and conductor David Robertson.

Highlights of the season include world premieres of new orchestral works by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Bruce MacCombie; a concert conducted by Alan Gilbert, as part of a citywide Bernstein commemoration; two full-length operas and an evening of one-act operas; commissioned premieres by four innovative choreographers as well as an evening of distinguished repertory; four fullystaged productions featuring the fourth-year drama students; a celebration of new music from California; and the return of William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.

The offerings get underway on September 25 with a Sonatenabend program in Paul Hall at 6 p.m. that features Juilliard’s collaborative pianists performing sonata repertoire with other student instrumentalists, followed by the first concert of the New Juilliard Ensemble’s 16th season, under the direction of Joel Sachs, on September 27 at 8 p.m. in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater (see related article).

ORCHESTRA CONCERTS

Conductor Nicholas McGegan leads the opening concert by the Juilliard Orchestra on October 2 at 8 p.m. in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater (see related article). The program includes Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”); Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 (with a student soloist to be announced); Handel’s Concerto Grosso in B-flat Major, Op. 3, No. 2; and Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”). James DePreist, Juilliard’s director of conducting and orchestral studies, will wield the baton on October 10 in the Sharp Theater in a program of Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. The orchestra makes two Carnegie Hall appearances: the October 27 program features the world premiere of Juilliard alumna Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Symphony No. 5: Concerto for Orchestra and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (conducted by James Conlon); the December 12 concert features music by Enesco, Prokofiev, and Corigliano (conducted by DePreist). Maestro DePreist will also conduct a program on February 17 at Avery Fisher Hall that features the premiere of a work by former Juilliard Dean Bruce MacCombie, and on May 21 in Alice Tully Hall, for the commencement concert that will feature works by Sallinen, Grondhal, Schubert, and Hindemith.

New York Philharmonic music director-designate and Juilliard alumnus Alan Gilbert leads a program of Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish”) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) on November 24 in Avery Fisher Hall, as part of Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds, a citywide festival celebrating the 90th anniversary of Bernstein’s birth and the 50th anniversary of his appointment as music director of the New York Philharmonic. This season’s lineup of guest conductors also includes David Atherton (November 20 in the Sharp Theater); David Robertson (in two concerts on February 22 and 26 in Alice Tully Hall); Ludovic Morlot (April 6 in Alice Tully Hall); Emmanuel Villaume (April 20 in Alice Tully Hall); and faculty member Jeffrey Milarsky, who leads the annual concert of new works by Juilliard student composers on April 30 in Alice Tully Hall.

JAZZ

Juilliard Jazz welcomes a number of new faculty members (see article), including Ted Nash, who leads the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra (as its new conductor) in the music of Andrew Hill on October 16 in the Sharp Theater. The music of Terence Blanchard will be highlighted on February 2, when Blanchard conducts the orchestra in the Sharp Theater. An additional Jazz Orchestra concert will take place on April 16. The Juilliard Jazz Ensembles will be featured in concerts on October 1 (“Blues in the Church,” with guest artist Mulgrew Miller), November 3 (Artist Diploma ensemble), December 9 (“Jazz Emergent I”), January 20, February 24 (music of Woody Shaw), March 23 (Artist Diploma ensemble), and April 27 (“Jazz Emergent II”), all in Paul Hall.

DRAMA

The Drama Division’s 41st anniversary season—its third with Jim Houghton at the helm—kicks off with Molière’s The Misanthrope, translated by Richard Wilbur, directed by Lucie Tiberghien and featuring fourth-year students. The play runs October 22-26 in the Stephanie P. McClelland Drama Theater. This classic satire of the hypocrisies of 17th-century French aristocracy remains enormously appealing for its wit and insight. Lanford Wilson’s Burn This follows, on November 13-17, directed by Pam MacKinnon. Commissioned by the Circle Repertory Company in the 1980s, Wilson’s explosive drama taps into the pain that follows the collision of love and loss, as well as the cost of aspiring to be an artist. Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, set in 1936 in a small house outside an Irish village in Donegal County, will be offered December 11-15, in a production directed by Ethan McSweeny. Concluding the fourth-year offerings on February 12-16 is The Greeks, Part Three: The Gods, the final installment of John Barton and Kenneth Cavander’s three-part adaptation of Greece’s mythic history that weaves together the works of Aeschylus, Euripides, Homer, and Sophocles. The production will be directed by Brian Mertes, who directed both previous segments.

DANCE

Juilliard’s Dance Division, under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes, opens its season at Dance Theater Workshop October 1-4, as nine student dancers help celebrate choreographer and Juilliard alumnus Lar Lubovitch’s 40th anniversary season by performing in his North Star, set to music by fellow alumnus Philip Glass. Juilliard’s entire fourth-year class of dancers will join the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company on November 5 and 9 to perform North Star and Whirligogs (set to music by Berio), on the opening and closing nights of the company’s season at City Center.

New Dances: Edition 2008 features four world premieres, each commissioned from an innovative choreographer for a class of Juilliard’s dancers. The performances, on December 10-14, will showcase new works by Sidra Bell (for the first-year dancers), alumnus Darrell Grand Moultrie (for the second-year class), Johannes Wieland (third-year dancers), and Larry Keigwin (fourth-year).

Juilliard Dance Repertory will be presented March 25-29 in the Sharp Theater, featuring works by acclaimed choreographers. To be performed are Lubovitch’s North Star, Mark Morris’s Gloria (set to Vivaldi’s work of the same name), Twyla Tharp’s The Fugue, and a new work by Israeli choreographer and alumnus Ohad Naharin.

Other spring dance events include the annual Senior Dance Production, to be presented in the Clark Theater in the Rose Building, April 23-26, as well as Choreographic Honors (May 15-16) and the Senior Dance Showcase (May 18), both in the Sharp Theater.

OPERA AND VOCAL ARTS

Two fully-staged productions will be presented by the Juilliard Opera Center this season in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, as well as a concert version of an opera by John Adams as part of the annual Focus! festival. The J.O.C. begins its season November 12, 14, and 16 with Trilogy, featuring three one-act portraits of marriage, conceived and conducted by James Conlon, realized by Darko Tresnjak, and directed by James Marvel. The three operas are Mussorgsky’s The Marriage, based on the comedic social satire by Gogol; Ernst Krenek’s Heavyweight, or The Pride of the Nation, a farce about European culture between the world wars; and Benjamin Fleischmann’s Rothschild’s Violin, after a short story by Chekhov.

A concert version of John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer will conclude the Focus! Festival on January 31, conducted by the composer and directed by Edward Berkeley. For its spring production, the J.O.C. will present Verdi’s Falstaff on April 22, 24, and 26, conducted by Juilliard alumna Keri-Lynn Wilson and directed by Stephen Wadsworth. All performances are in the Sharp Theater.

The New York Festival of Song has collaborated with Juilliard for the past three seasons; their joint concert this year—Latin Lovers, an evening of South American and Cuban song—takes place on January 14 in the Sharp Theater. Liederabend and Songbook concerts will showcase student singers throughout the year—the former in Paul Hall on October 16, November 13, December 11, February 12, March 26, and April 30; the latter in Morse Hall on November 6, January 29, March 19, and May 14. The Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital takes place on March 20 in Alice Tully Hall, and the annual Vocal Honors Recital will take place on March 24 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.

FACULTY RECITALS

The American Brass Quintet opens the Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series on October 7 in Paul Hall. Pianist Seymour Lipkin celebrates the 60th anniversary of his winning the Rachmaninoff Piano Competition with a concert on October 20, for which he will be joined by pianist Robert McDonald, violinist Ronald Copes, violist Samuel Rhodes, and cellist Joel Krosnick. Rhodes presents his own recital on October 23 in Paul Hall. Other concerts include the New York Woodwind Quintet on March 18 in Paul Hall, and the Juilliard String Quartet in two recitals (April 7 and April 15), both in Alice Tully Hall. Bassoonist Judith LeClair and flutist Robert Langevin conclude the series on April 29. All faculty recitals are in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater except where noted.

CHAMBER MUSIC

Juilliard’s eighth annual ChamberFest will feature eight performances—five in Paul Hall (January 12-15 and 17) and three in the Sharp Theater (January 14, 16, and 17). Juilliard’s graduate string quartet-in-residence, the Biava Quartet, will give the annual Lisa Arnhold Memorial Recital on May 4 in Alice Tully Hall. In addition, chamber music concerts by student ensembles will be offered at the Society for Ethical Culture on November 18, December 4, December 8, and in Alice Tully Hall on March 26 and April 28.

OTHER EVENTS

The 2009 Focus! festival, titled “California: A Century of New Music,” will showcase works from early 20th-century radical composers (Henry Cowell, John Cage, and Lou Harrison)  through the many illustrious members of the next generation (Morton Subotnick, Roger Reynolds, John Adams, Robert Erickson, Leon Kirchner, and Terry Riley) to the younger composers of today. The festival’s six concerts (January 23-31) take place in the Sharp Theater, opening with the New Juilliard Ensemble and concluding with the aforementioned concert performance of The Death of Klinghoffer.

Among the many other events to be held this year are concerts by Axiom in the Sharp Theater (October 13), Miller Theater (December 13), and Alice Tully Hall (March 30); the Bachauer Competition Winners’ Recital (by pianists Yoonjung Han and Naomi Kudo) on October 15 in Paul Hall; a concert by the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble on March 31 in Alice Tully Hall; the Jerome L. Greene Concert (on a date to be announced); and the William Petschek Piano Debut Recital on May 5 in Alice Tully Hall. For complete coverage and up-to-date information on these and other performances, see our online calendar of events at www.juilliard.edu/calendar.