The Juilliard School to host first of two week-long residencies with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, March 31-April 4, 2008

Approximately 15 Juilliard Singers and Instrumentalists to Perform in Public Master Class After Coachings, Lectures, and Demonstrations; Second Educational Residency Takes Place January 2009

JUILLIARD TO DEVELOP GRADUATE LEVEL HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CURRICULUM
FOR MUSICIANS WITH CLASSES TO BEGIN FALL 2009

The Juilliard School announced today that noted early music expert, performer, musicologist and teacher William Christie and members of his highly praised early-music ensemble, Les Arts Florissants, will collaborate in week-long residencies at Juilliard during the next two seasons.  Up to 35 Juilliard student instrumentalists and singers will audition for Mr. Christie and members of the ensemble during the next several days for the first of those residencies.  Approximately fifteen of those students will be selected to participate in individual lessons, ensemble coachings, lectures, and private and public master classes taking place Monday, March 31 through Friday, April 4, 2008, at Juilliard, concentrating on the repertoire of Charpentier and Lully. 

The residency week concludes with a public master class at Juilliard on Friday, April 4 at 7 PM in the School’s Paul Hall (enter Juilliard at 144 W. 66th Street) with limited free tickets available March 21 at the Juilliard Box Office.  An additional highlight of Mr. Christie’s and Les Arts Florissants’ 2008 residency is a Thursday, April 3 concert at 7:30 PM at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.  Tickets for the concert, which is presented by Carnegie Hall in partnership with The Juilliard School, will be available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office. For information see http://www.carnegiehall.org/.

 In addition to conductor and harpsichordist Christie, the well-known members of Les Arts Florissants who will join in the April 2008 residency are:  Paul Agnew (voice), Florence Malgoire and Ada Pesch (violin), Serge Saïtta (traverso), David Simpson (cello), and Kenneth Weiss (harpsichord). Most have worked with Mr. Christie in his recent educational projects in France, known as Le Jardin des Voix. This marks the first time that Mr. Christie and his ensemble musicians have been part of a pedagogical residency in the United States. Funding is provided by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, The E. Nakamichi Foundation, and The Florence Gould Foundation.

Auditioning musicians will be drawn from currently enrolled students attending Juilliard, almost all of whom have been trained exclusively on modern instruments, but are interested in learning period techniques. The same number of musicians will participate in a second Les Arts Florissants residency, in January 13 – 18 of 2009, with auditions taking place the November prior (2008). 

The residencies are a first step toward Juilliard’s development of its own graduate program in Historical Performance, with musicians entering in the fall of 2009.  The two year cycle gives Juilliard a generous period during which they will identify an artistic director, acquire appropriate period instruments, and develop faculty who will be expert in various performance practices.   

In announcing the pair of residencies, Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi stated, "The Juilliard School is honored to begin this historic relationship with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Mr. Christie and his colleagues represent the highest artistic and scholarly standards in the performance of works from the Baroque and Classical periods. It is Juilliard's intent to work with him and his colleagues in bringing their artistry and expertise to Juilliard and the United States in the years ahead.  In this way we will jointly establish a foundation upon which the future study of historically informed performance will flourish at The Juilliard School and around the country." 

Les Arts Florissants Founding Director William Christie also commented, “The training of young singers and instrumentalists, sharing with them our knowledge, experience and love of 17th and 18th century music, has been a vital part of Arts Florissants life for many years. The contacts forged between my ensemble and major European schools of music, most importantly with the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur, where I taught from 1981 to 1996, have enabled us to work directly with young musicians during their student years. Many former students now perform regularly with the Arts Florissants. It is a deeply satisfying thought that the Arts Florissants, founded almost 30 years ago by an American expatriate should be invited by the Juilliard School, America¹s most prestigious musical institution, as artists in residence. For me, it is a return home; a full circle has been made. All of us are honored and delighted to become new partners with our Juilliard friends in this exciting new venture. The creation of Juilliard early music programme will hopefully place the Juilliard School amongst the most important centers for 17th and 18th century performance practice.”

William Christie
William Christie, harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist and teacher, is the inspiration behind one of the most exciting musical adventures of the last twenty-five years. His pioneering work has led to a renewed appreciation of Baroque music in France, notably of 17th- and 18th-century French repertoire, which he has introduced to a very wide audience. Born in Buffalo (New York State), William Christie studied at Harvard and Yale Universities, and has lived in France since 1971. He acquired French nationality in 1995. The major turning point in his career came in 1979 when he founded Les Arts Florissants. Major public recognition came in 1987 with the production of Atys by Lully at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

William Christie has an increasingly busy operatic career and his collaborations with renowned theatre and opera directors are always significant events in the musical calendar. William Christie is equally committed to the training and professional development of young artists, and he has nurtured several generations of singers and instrumentalists over the last twenty-five years. Between 1982 and 1995, Christie was a Professor at the Paris Conservatoire, with responsibility for the early music class. He created an academy for young singers in Caen, called Le Jardin des Voix, whose first three sessions, in 2002, 2005 and 2007, generated a huge amount of interest in France and elsewhere in Europe as well as in the United States.

Les Arts Florissants
The vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Arts Florissants is one of the most renowned and respected early music groups in Europe and around the world. Dedicated to the performance of Baroque music on original instruments, the ensemble was founded in 1979 by William Christie, and takes its name from a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Les Arts Florissants have been largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in France in 17th-century French repertoire as well as in European music of the 17th and 18th centuries more generally. This was repertoire which had, for the most part, been neglected but which is now widely performed and admired.
Since the acclaimed production of Atys by Lully, it has been in the field of opera where Les Arts Florissants have found most success. Notable productions include works by Rameau (Les Indes galantes, Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Boréades, Les Paladins), Charpentier (Médée), Handel (Orlando, Acis and Galatea, Semele, Alcina, Hercules…), Purcell, Mozart and Monteverdi. For fifteen years, Les Arts Florissants have been artists in residence at the Théâtre de Caen. The ensemble also tours widely within France, and is a frequent ambassador for French culture abroad (it is regularly invited to the Brooklyn Academy, the Lincoln Center in New York, the Barbican Centre in London and the Vienna Festival).

The Juilliard School
Since opening in October 1905, Juilliard has set this country's standard for education in the performing arts. Juilliard became one of Lincoln Center original constituents in 1968, having already added a Dance Division (1951) and Drama Division (1968). In 2001, Juilliard broke new ground by adding its first program in jazz studies. Juilliard’s second century has begun with a major expansion of it facilities, adding 39,000 square feet of state-of-the-art studios, theaters, rehearsal halls, centers for music technology and writing/communication. A secure facility for storage and use of the priceless Juilliard Manuscript Collection – which includes many important Baroque and early Classical items – is an important part of the current renovation. The School continues to grow with and respond to the needs of a thriving cultural community in the U.S. and abroad, its student body drawn from 47 states and 50 foreign countries.