Co-productions with London’s Royal Academy of Music and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Program, four first-time conductors, and more than two dozen premieres are among the highlights of the 2011-12 Juilliard performance season, which begins on September 19 with a concert by the Juilliard Jazz Quintet in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. That performance kicks off a season that includes some 700 music, dance, and drama performances. 

This year Jazz Studies celebrates a decade at Juilliard with guest stars Jane Monheit and Joe Lovano as well as a 75th-birthday tribute to faculty member Ron Carter. Historical Performances continues its collaboration with Yale’s early music departments with Haydn’s The Creation. Starting in October, guest conductors including David Afkham, Jeffrey Kahane, Matthias Pintscher, Jayce Ogren, Anne Manson, and Emmanuel Villaume lead the Juilliard Orchestra. Other season standouts include the 27th annual Focus! festival, which celebrates 20th-century giant John Cage; four premieres of works created for the Dance Division plus performances of pieces by alumnus Ohad Naharin, former faculty member José Limón, and Nacho Duato; and fully staged productions by drama students including Noel Coward’s Hay Fever, Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, and alumnus Nathan L. Jackson’s Broke-ology.

THE JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA 

The Juilliard Orchestra’s season gets underway on October 10 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater with conductor David Afkham making his New York debut. On the bill are the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major (soloist to be announced) and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. On October 28 in Alice Tully Hall, Jeffrey Kahane conducts the Juilliard players for the first time in the suite from The Cunning Little Vixen (Janacek/Mackerras), Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major (soloist to be announced), and Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony. On November 5, the ensemble returns to Tully, where Matthias Pintscher makes his Juilliard Orchestra debut conducting his own Osiris, as well as Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole, Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 5, and Debussy’s La Mer. 

The orchestra pairs up with Opera Studies four times this season, for Kommilitonen in November, Gluck’s Armide and a Rossini double bill in February, and Don Giovanni in April. (See Opera and Song for more details.)

Principal conductor and director emeritus James DePreist leads three Juilliard Orchestra concerts this season. On December 5, he conducts Tsontakis’s Perpetual Angelus, Mozart’s “Turkish” Violin Concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony at Carnegie Hall. On March 29, DePreist leads George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, Schumann’s Cello Concerto, and Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony at Tully. He and the orchestra return to Tully on May 24 for the Commencement Concert—Verdi’s Overture to La forza del destino, Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, and Respighi’s Roman Festivals. 

The orchestra’s winds, brass, and percussion sections—led by Jayce Ogren in his Juilliard Orchestra debut—perform Strauss’s Vienna Philharmonic Fanfare and his rarely performed Sonatina No. 2 for 16 Winds, Varèse’s Intégrales, and Stravinsky’s Piano Concerto, on February 9 at Tully. On February 27 at the Sharp Theater, Jeffrey Milarsky conducts works by student composers. 

Director of conducting and orchestral studies Alan Gilbert takes the podium on March 2 at Avery Fisher Hall, leading Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin, composition faculty member Christopher Rouse’s Violin Concerto, and Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps. And on April 18, Emmanuel Villaume conducts Wagner’s Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, and Strauss’s Eine Alpinsinfonie at Fisher Hall.

Programs for concerts on December 15 and May 3, the latter of which is part of Lincoln Center’s second annual TullyScope Festival, had not yet been announced at press time.

JAZZ 

Juilliard Jazz inaugurates its 10th-anniversary season on September 19, when the Juilliard Jazz Quintet will give a concert in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Two weeks later, on October 4, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and the Artist Diploma Ensemble will play Gordon’s music in Paul Hall. On October 25, singer Jane Monheit and the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra take the stage at Alice Tully Hall for American songbook standards by Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and others. On January 24, saxophonist Joe Lovano joins the orchestra, and on February 29, the orchestra plays music by Gerry Mulligan. Both concerts take place in the Sharp Theater.

In March, the Artist Diploma Ensemble performs in Paul Hall on the 19th, and faculty member Ron Carter’s 75th birthday is honored with a Juilliard Jazz Orchestra concert on the 27th. The Juilliard Jazz small ensembles perform in Paul Hall throughout the season. Programs include the music of Horace Silver (November 1), Jackie McLean (November 15), and a to-be-announced mix (December 6). On February 13 and April 16, the small ensembles will play original student compositions. Juilliard Jazz ensembles also perform throughout the year at regular brunches at the Blue Note (131 W. Third St.; starting on September 18) and at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (starting on September 27, with a premiere by Gerald Wilson). 

DRAMA 

The Drama Division season opens with the sixth annual fall Playwrights Festival (September 8-11). It features two works by current students: Mine by Laura Marks and You Are Here by Melissa Ross, plus The Architecture of Loss by Julia Cho (Artist Diploma ’03). A second Playwrights Festival occurs on December 19 and spotlights work by current students David West Read (The Performers) and J.C. Lee (Wicked Fox).

The Division’s fall fourth-year productions begin with Arthur Miller’s seminal All My Sons, directed by Harris Yulin (October 19-23). Broke-ology (November 10-14) is alumnus Nathan Louis Jackson’s acclaimed drama about two brothers who return to their childhood home to care for their terminally ill father; it’s directed by Kent Gash. Noel Coward’s early light comedy Hay Fever, directed by Dakin Mattews, opens December 9 and will be performed through the 12th. 

The fourth-year repertory cycle takes place February 15-26 and starts off with an adaptation of the 18th-century opera Il Mondo della Luna, here called The World in the Moon, which was written by Carlo Goldoni and will be directed by Orlando Pabotoy. Also in the cycle are Athol Fugard’s 1989 My Children! My Africa!, directed by Jonathan Rosenberg, and Circle Mirror Transformation, Annie Baker’s drama set in an acting class, directed by Lila Neugebauer. 

DANCE 

The Dance Division’s 60th season starts off with its annual celebration of student work, Choreographers and Composers Plus (December 1 and 2), in the Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater. It features premieres of works by six third-year choreographers (Jason Collins, Garth Johnson, Ingrid Kapteyn, David Norsworthy, Lilja Ruriksdottir, and Lea Ved) and six student composers. Two weeks later (December 14-18), New Dances: Edition 2011 debuts in the Sharp Theater with four world-premiere commissions, by Monica Bill Barnes, Alex Ketley, Pam Tanowitz, and Alexander Ekman.

The spring dance season opens with Juilliard Dances Repertory (March 28-April 1) in the Sharp Theater. One of the four works is The Waldstein Sonata, set by the late Juilliard faculty member José Limón to the famed work by Beethoven (which will be performed by a Juilliard pianist). Uncompleted at the time of the choreographer’s death, in 1972, the dance was finished by Daniel Lewis (Juilliard faculty 1967-87). The students will also perform Gnawa, by Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato, which has its roots in the music of Spain and North Africa; and a work by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin (’77, dance). 

The Dance Division’s year winds up in the Sharp Theater with two Choreographic Honors concerts (May 18-19) and the Senior Showcase, on May 21, featuring the graduating class.

OPERA AND SONG 

Juilliard Opera’s season begins on November 16 with the U.S. premiere of Kommilitonen, a co-production of Juilliard and London’s Royal Academy of Music. Composed by Peter Maxwell Davies, the work weaves together stories about student-political groups in Nazi Germany, China’s Cultural Revolution, and Mississippi in 1962. It debuted in London in March, and will be performed November 16, 18, and 20 in the Sharp Theater. It is directed by David Pountney, who also wrote the libretto; Anne Manson conducts the Juilliard Orchestra and Juilliard Opera singers. The set and costumes were designed by Robert Innes Hopkins, with puppetry by Blind Summit Theater and choreography by Carolyn Choa. 

In February, Juilliard Opera continues its collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program, begun last year, with Gluck’s 1777 opera Armide. The joint production, conducted by Fabrizio Melano and directed by Jane Glover, will feature singers from both Juilliard and the Lindemann program.

The opera season continues on February 3, 5, 7, and 9 in the Willson Theater with a double bill of one-act operas by Rossini that will be directed by David Paul and conducted by Vlad Iftinca. On April 25, 27, and 29 faculty members Stephen Wadsworth and Gary Thor Wedow will direct and conduct, respectively, Juilliard Opera’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Juilliard Orchestra. 

The 15th annual Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital takes place on December 1 and features Michèle Losier (A.D. ’06, opera studies) accompanied by Brian Zeger (M.M. ’81, piano), the artistic director of Juilliard’s Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts; the annual Vocal Arts Honors Recital will be held on March 22, also at Alice Tully Hall. The New York Festival of Song, directed by Vocal Arts faculty member Steven Blier as well as Michael Barrett, takes place on January 18 in the Sharp Theater. And Juilliard’s Liederabend and Songbook series, which both showcase singers from the Marcus Institute, begin on October 6 and February 20, respectively.

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE 

The Historical Performance program begins its third year on September 27 in Paul Hall with “The Three Fiddlers,” a concert of works by Purcell, Buonamente, Gabrieli, Pachelbel, and others performed by violinists Monica Huggett, Cynthia Roberts, and Robert Mealy; cellist Phoebe Carrai; and harpsichordist Avi Stein; all members of the faculty ensemble Juilliard Baroque. (The program repeats on October 1 in Pittsburgh.) Juilliard Baroque performs all-Bach programs at the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, and at Sleepy Hollow (N.Y.) High School on May 12. The group will also perform an all-Vivaldi bill as part of the Music Before 1800 series on April 22 at Corpus Christi Church, located at 529 West 121st Street in Morningside Heights.

The student ensemble Juilliard415 opens its season on October 15 in the Sharp Theater with Jordi Savall helming works by Muffat, J.S. Bach, Handel, and Rameau. Other guest conductors this season include Ton Koopman (November 12), William Christie (January 26), Richard Egarr (February 9), and Steven Fox with the Clarion Music Society Choir (March 23). Faculty members Monica Huggett (December 2 in Sharp Theater) and Gonzalo Ruiz (April 12 in Willson Theater) will also lead the troupe. And students from the ensemble will give a chamber concert in Paul Hall on December 13.

Juilliard415 will give two faculty-led concerts at the Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium on the Upper East Side (417 E. 61 Street, at York Avenue), with Kenneth Weiss, on October 29, and Monica Huggett, on February 24. Also this season, soprano Emma Kirkby and lutenist Jakob Lindberg will conclude a three-day residency at the School with a public master class on October 26. Historical Performance winds up its season by revisiting its collaboration with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, which began last season. Masaaki Suzuki conducts Haydn’s The Creation with musicians from both schools. Performances will be held at St. Bartholomew’s Church (325 Park Avenue at 51st Street) New York City on April 29 and at New Haven’s Woolsey Hall on April 30.

NEW MUSIC 

On September 24, the New Juilliard Ensemble launches the new music season with four premieres conducted by its director, faculty member Joel Sachs, at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater (see article on Page 3). N.J.E. premieres three more pieces—by Richard Causton, Richard Wilson, and Conrad Winslow (M.M. ’11, composition)—at its November 8 concert in Alice Tully Hall. The ensemble will also celebrate the 75th birthday of alumnus Philip Glass that night with a performance of the composer’s 2002 Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra. The N.J.E. season concludes on April 12 at Tully Hall with five premieres, by Toshi Ichiyanagi, Wei Chieh Lin, Robert Nasveld, Sun Young Park, and faculty member Manuel Sosa.

Axiom, under the direction of faculty member Jeffrey Milarsky, opens its season on October 13 in the Sharp Theater with a program centering on Gerard Grisey’s Vortex Temporum (1995). The group performs works by modernist lions Elliott Carter (a world premiere), Pierre Boulez, and late faculty member Milton Babbitt, at its December 12 concert at Alice Tully Hall under Milarsky’s baton. On February 17, Milarsky again leads Axiom in Wolfgang Rihm’s 50-minute Jagden und Formen (Hunts and Forms) (1995-2001).

The 27th annual Focus! festival pays tribute to John Cage, who would have turned 100 in 2012. The festival runs from January 27 to February 3 and takes place at Sharp Theater, Paul Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. In addition to several performances of vocal, chamber and solo works by Cage and others, there will be performances by the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble (January 30) and New Juilliard Ensemble (February 3). 

FACULTY RECITALS 

The Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recitals, all of which take place in Paul Hall, begin with pianist Seymour Lipkin playing three sonatas by Beethoven (October 11) in celebration of his 25 years on the faculty. Violists Misha Amory and Hsin-Yun Huang give a joint recital (October 21). Other performers in the series include the Juilliard String Quartet (November 28 and February 21), the American Brass Quintet (October 18), and the New York Woodwind Quintet (January 23). The November 10 Saidenberg recital features oboist Elaine Douvas and members of her ensemble, Pleasure Is the Law (flutist Nadine Asin, cellist Darrett Adkins, and Steven Beck playing harpsichord and piano) on a mixed bill including works by Elliott Carter, Ilja Hurnik, Haydn, and Ravel.

OTHER EVENTS

The Pre-College Orchestra, conducted by Adam Glaser, opens its season on November 22 in Alice Tully Hall; subsequent concerts will be held on January 28 and May 26. The Pre-College Symphony, under the baton of George Stelluto, will give three concerts, on December 16, February 25, and May 26. Shih-Hung Young will lead the Pre-College String Ensemble on December 18 and May 14, while Pre-College Chamber Music begins its performance season on December 10 in the Willson Theater. Pre-College vocalists will give three concerts in Paul Hall: of choral works on January 21 and May 7, and of opera scenes on April 28.

Other notable performances this season include Bachauer Piano Competition winners’ recital, by Oskar Jezior and Andrew Tyson, on September 21 in Paul Hall (see article on Page 1) and the Petschek Piano Debut Award Recital on April 23 in Alice Tully Hall (recipient to be announced this fall). The annual student ChamberFest takes place January 16-21 and a few days later, on January 25, Juilliard organists give a recital in Paul Hall. On May 8, the Attacca String Quartet, the new graduate resident string quartet, will give the annual Lisa Arnhold Memorial Recital at Tully Hall. 

Information about these and other Juilliard events is online at events.juilliard.edu.