Everyone is cordially invited to come to Morse Hall on March 25 at 6 p.m. for what should be a more frequent event at Juilliard: a concert of music by two composers who are on the Literature and Materials of Music (L&M) faculty. The program will feature Behzad Ranjbaran’s String Quartet, Six Caprices for Violin Duo, and Moto Perpetuo for flute and piano, as well as my own Wind Quintet, Two Motions in One Movement for solo piano, and Suite for Two Cellos. Included among the performers will be the Aristos Quartet; Ariel Winds; violinists Ray and Amy Iwazumi; cellist Jesús Castro-Balbi; flutist Alice Dade, pianist Ron Regev, and Vasileios Varvaresos, and other artists.

This recital seeks to continue and expand a tradition of presenting music by L&M faculty members in close collaboration with students, colleagues, and occasional guest performers. Students in these classes have always known that many of the members of the L&M faculty are active composers. Eric Ewazen’s Tuba/Bass Trombone Concerto and Michael White’s Viola Concerto have both been played by Juilliard ensembles and soloists in recent years. Last year, the Ariel Winds presented a program of works by entirely by L&M composers. And this past fall, the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble performed the first movement of Black Madonna, a Cantata in 13 Parts, written for the ensemble by L&M department chair Edward Bilous.

The L&M program, as envisioned by the late William Schuman, passionately advocates teaching music theory in a way that emphasizes the links between the works of the repertoire (the literature) and the principles and building blocks (the materials) that composers employ to create their compositions. Schuman’s conception underscores the relevance of music theory for performance and composition, an idea that is especially suitable and meaningful at a school like Juilliard. In accordance with this notion, virtually all L&M faculty members have traditionally been and continue to be practicing musicians, either composers or performers, rather than music theorists. I believe that this is a major distinction of our L&M faculty—and therefore, for them to have a frequent and vital musical voice in our concert season is a wonderful and natural integration of the entire chain of music-making at Juilliard, spanning the study of the literature to the writing of new compositions and their performance. This is a highly meaningful way to display the role that music theory can play in training the musicians of the future. The L&M experience comprises not only the analysis of the great masterworks of the canon and the teaching of harmonic and contrapuntal compositional procedures, but also the presentation of our own faculty’s original compositions in concert settings. After all, these compositions are, without a doubt, the clearest, most powerful, and most sincere expression of our musical selves and of what the study of music ultimately means to us. Can you think of a better way to speak to your students?

Composer Samuel Zyman has been a member of the L&M faculty since 1987.