Although the New Juilliard Ensemble has earned a reputation by presenting music from the farthest corners of the world, one of its central functions is to serve the Juilliard compositional community. The ensemble has performed works by Juilliard's composition faculty (although this has not been easy, since our colleagues have produced very few compositions of a suitable instrumentation). An even more important function, however, is the ensemble's service to Juilliard's composition students.

Klaus Ager Photo by Nelo Auer

Every year, in the early spring, the New Juilliard Ensemble issues a call for scores from the student composers. They are invited to submit any composition that represents the composer's strengths, regardless of the instrumentation. Submissions are anonymous: Their identity is hidden by the familiar apparatus of coded names, some of which are so inventive that they could form an entertaining compositional prelude to a concert. This "blind" audition seeks to discover one or more composers with the kind of imagination that can stimulate and challenge players who like their music unusual. The level of compositional polish is rarely an issue: The Juilliard composers have a remarkably high level of technical accomplishment.

Although the announcement of this process includes the disclaimer that the ensemble does not guarantee to select a student, in fact, in the nine years of the auditions, there always has been at least one student who seemed ready for the job. Last spring's crop was particularly strong, and three composers were selected. Their works will be heard for the first time this month on the concluding concert of the New Juilliard Ensemble's season.

Kati Agocs

Fortunately, all of the pieces were completed on time (though two of the composers requested a little leeway for some improvements and, in one case, a brief coda). While it would be expected for a composer to finish a composition that will be premiered by an excellent, dedicated group at a major concert venue, in fact, I have more than once had to postpone a premiere because the piece was not ready. Those who attend New Juilliard Ensemble concerts regularly may recall the case of Indonesian composer Tony Prabowo's N.J.E.-commissioned opera The King's Witch, which had to be postponed twice, largely because of the intervention of Indonesia's political chaos in the lives of the librettist (at the time, a leading journalist of the opposition to the Suharto dictatorship) and the composer (who was beaten up by soldiers in front of the arts center in Jakarta for no obvious political or artistic reason). Two compositions by major European figures that were to be premiered during the current season have also been postponed. Strangely, with the exception of one composition that never materialized, it has been the works for which funded commissions were available that have been delayed; those pieces that composers wrote for the pure pleasure of writing for the New Juilliard Ensemble have been completed on schedule!

The composers selected this year are a D.M.A. student, Kati Agocs, and master's degree candidates Jonathan Keren and Dinuk Wijeratne. They offer an excellent geographical sampling--Agocs from Canada, Keren from Israel, and Wijeratne from Sri Lanka. All were given the same restriction of instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, percussion (one or two), harp, piano, and string quintet. A few additions were permitted, but only after discussion with me; one or two subtractions were also allowed, but the basic size was meant to be about 15 players. The reason for the restriction is doubly practical. The primary factor is the size limit of the New Juilliard Ensemble, which is intended as an ensemble of soloists rather than an orchestra in the usual sense, but not a chamber group. The reason for the latter is that the United States has very few opportunities to hear music for true "sinfonietta," but many excellent contemporary chamber ensembles. As to the upper limit in size, I always try to avoid compositions that have sectional string writing, unless each instrument has an individual part. In addition, adhering to the general size of the numerous similar ensembles around the world, such as the London Sinfonietta, increases the possibility of additional performances.

Jonathan Keren Photo by Lisa Yelon

Such an ensemble poses a serious problem of scoring, however: balancing a string quintet against a group of up to eight winds and brass, to say nothing of piano and percussion, can be a challenge. It was interesting to see how these composers responded. Two of them elected to write a piece with a featured instrument. Keren's project almost immediately became a cello concerto. While Agocs's Apollonia is not a concerto, it has a featured role for the harpsichord. (This was a pleasant surprise, because one of our harpsichord majors has been extremely eager to participate in the N.J.E.) In general, the conceptions of the pieces seem to have arisen from the instrumentation, which has so many possibilities for grouping and regrouping the instruments to form a kind of chamber music kaleidoscope within a large ensemble.

The Juilliard premieres form the first half of the program. (I would have preferred to have them distributed throughout the year, but all three composers felt that they needed the maximum time.) The second half of the program is the American premiere of Agnus Dei, for two narrators, chamber orchestra, and tape, by the Salzburg composer Klaus Ager. Agnus Dei evolved over about 15 years (1978-1993), turning from a radio collage to a ballet score and finally into a concert work. It is fortunate that this piece was not a recent commission, since Klaus Ager only recently stepped down as chief executive of the Hochschule Mozarteum, after presiding during the period when the school's principal building was closed after being deemed a "sick building," leaving its administration scrambling to find adequate quarters in that small Austrian town. I serious doubt that Mr. Ager had the peace of mind in those years to write such a composition.

New Juilliard Ensemble Alice Tully Hall Tuesday, April 15, 8 p.m. For ticket information, please see the calendar. Read a related article: More New Sounds From the Composition Department

Agnus Dei is based on a story by Francisco Tanzer, a fascinating man who was born in Vienna, educated in the United States after fleeing the Nazis, and then, after serving in the American Army in World War II and the post-war occupation of Germany, finally settled in that country whose former brutality had so altered his life. A businessman by profession, he has collaborated with many composers, including three of the leading composers of the former U.S.S.R., Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Alfred Schnittke. Agnus Dei recounts a wartime story of a German officer and a young French woman in Nazi-occupied Paris, who fall into a love that fate would not allow. In Ager's setting, however, the story is suggested rather than recounted: He has used only fragments of the original text, which communicate only the general mood of a situation in which a relationship was doomed to failure.

This concert brings to a close the New Juilliard Ensemble's 10th season, one which included four concerts beyond its normal season of four at the School. Two, in New Jersey, were part of a Siemens Corporation project to provide positions as artists-in-residence for composers of the Silk Road. Another was a program of Japanese-American connections at the Why Note Festival in Dijon, France (previewed in New York), and the fourth was a major appearance at the Lincoln Center Festival, in music by Chinese composer Guo Wenjing and Chinese-American Bright Sheng. The ensemble will participate again at the Lincoln Center Festival on July 15, with a concert of music by the Italian master Salvatore Sciarrino.

Joel Sachs, a faculty member since 1970, is director of the New Juilliard Ensemble and the annual Focus! Festival.