Finding Mary Anthony Cox is difficult. An extremely busy woman who favors face time over cell phones and e-mail, she works a hectic three days per week at Juilliard before flying home to northern Vermont, where she lives with her husband. But finding her is well worth the effort; she is a true delight. As Juilliard's head ear-training faculty member, she has made a remarkable contribution to the School, bringing immense wisdom and vitality, as well as a fascinating personal history both in the United States and abroad.

Cox hails from Alabama and a strong heritage of educated, musical women. Her maternal great-grandmother taught all of the grandchildren how to play the piano as soon as they were able, and ran a boarding school. "She was a strong woman," says Cox, "and anyone I have ever met who worked with her was of the highest quality." Cox's own piano studies began with her mother when she was 5. "It was something I did without thinking about it. I was getting over being sick and was bored and asked to be taught," said Cox, "so she taught me." Her mother, the overseer of a Birmingham school music program, was an able teacher, having studied piano in France in the 1920s with Isidore Philipp and Robert Casadesus.

Mary Anthony Cox

When Mary Anthony Cox was 10 years old, she and her mother began sojourning annually to a summer music school in Great Barrington, Mass., run by the French duo-pianists and teachers, Robert and Gaby Casadesus. During World War II, the couple kept their school alive by moving it from France to the United States. After the war, when the Casadesuses returned home, Cox and her mother traveled every summer to Fontainebleau in Paris to study with them. Cox eventually stayed in France to study harmony and analysis at the Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique in Paris, at the invitation of Nadia Boulanger. She was only 15. "It was quite an adjustment," she recalls, "to go from having daily assignments in high school to preparing for one lesson per week. I had to produce enough work to keep Ms. Boulanger busy for an hour, so she wouldn't run out of something to look at." While she was in Paris, Cox also studied solfège with Annette Dieudonné and continued her piano studies with Robert and Gaby Casadesus.

After studying for nearly 10 years in Paris, Cox returned to the United States for good. She attended the Aspen Music Festival, where she met Rosina Lhévinne. At Mrs. Lhévinne's suggestion, she auditioned at Juilliard and subsequently studied for six years with Mrs. Lhévinne, earning both her bachelor's and master's degrees. In her second year of the master's program, she earned a teaching fellowship, and her years studying harmony, analysis, and solfège in France paid off. "My mother," Cox says, "had a definition of luck: she said it was 'being in the right place at the right time, with the right skill.' As luck would have it, I started teaching ear training [solfège] when it was just being established as a separate class at Juilliard." Cox enjoyed the work so much that she has been at Juilliard ever since, sharpening the aural skills of music students for nearly four decades.

Cox attributes her longevity in ear training to the social dynamic between the students and the teacher. "Classes are groups of people," she explains, "and groups of people have personalities. I'm a reasonably gregarious person, so by nature, it's a good fit." That does not mean, however, that an ear-training class with Mary Anthony Cox is a social occasion. She is known for a highly disciplined teaching style. "I am responsible for someone learning something," says Cox, "so I have to appear stricter than I am by nature. Our class is not where you discuss philosophy, but where you do it." Accordingly, Cox maintains a classroom atmosphere conducive to learning, meaning there is no talking, no slouching, and no sleeping. Some students appreciate her methods, some do not—but few have less than deep respect for her. "She's this school's most magnificent educator," says master's student Gary Gatzke (who earned his bachelor's degree last May). "She gets you to work and is all about getting it done. But she's that teacher who wants everyone to succeed. She really cares," says Gatzke. Cox hesitates to remark upon changes she has witnessed in Juilliard students over the years, but does say, "The real pleasure is seeing someone doing something in April that they couldn't do in September. That has not changed."

Sharpening the aural skills of music students for nearly four decades.

Cox has made Juilliard her professional home, a choice that includes a four-and-a-half-hour commute to and from her Vermont residence every week. She explains that commuting has been a part of her life for more than 30 years, so she's used to it. While teaching at Juilliard, she has also shared her skills (at various times) with the Curtis Institute of Music, Dartmouth College, and the University of Montreal, necessitating countless hours on planes and trains between New York, Montreal, and Philadelphia. She was forced to trim her commitments, however, when she met her husband. "It became clear," said Cox, "that I was going to marry a man from Vermont, a man with cows and fields and farm machinery, so I opted to stay at Juilliard."

Practicality aside, Cox deems Juilliard different from other institutions in what it can offer students: "There is the stimulation of the city and the availability of people who can contribute to the educational environment at Juilliard." She also cites Juilliard's remarkable and esteemed older faculty. "There are faculty members here," she says, "who are 80 and 90 years old. We can't afford to lose them—they know too much," adding, "Juilliard is a special place in that way."

In the small pockets of time her schedule allows, Cox also directs an ensemble called the Craftsbury Chamber Players, named for its location in her resident town of Craftsbury, Vt. The group consists of nearly 25 musicians, many of whom are Juilliard alumni, and they perform in groups of 7 to 10 people during the summer. For practicality and entertainment's sake, Cox hosts many of the musicians at her own house. "By an accident of fate, I have a rather large house, and my husband doesn't mind cooking," she says wryly. She finds satisfaction in organizing the ensemble because it is a different kind of work. "Putting the programs together," says Cox, "puts me in touch with new music, so the process is always new and exhilarating." Cox says that she ultimately favored chamber music over a life as a solo performer because she likes to collaborate. "Traveling as a pianist is too solitary, too lonely."

In the few remaining moments the year will allow her (i.e., during jury week), Cox and her husband fly to France for a week, which they have done for 13 years. There she reunites with old school chums and joins friends on expeditions around the countryside. Though brief, the trip is a vital part of Cox's year. "It gives me the energy to get through the rest of the year, the summer, and fall," she explains.

Though commitments fill her life, Mary Anthony Cox gives the impression of someone who has only one: to be doing what she is doing at that very moment. And for that, her students, colleagues, and friends are extremely lucky.

Meredith Gordon is a development associate in the Office of Alumni Affairs.