by JENI DAHMUS November 2001

Ned Rorem with performers from Juilliard and the Curtis Institute of Music. The schools held a joint concert on the occasion of Rorem’s 65th birthday. (Photo by Peter Schaaf)

1931 November 12, Sergei Rachmaninoff gave a recital in celebration of the opening of the Juilliard Graduate School’s building at 130 Claremont Avenue, directly adjacent to the Institute of Musical Art. The concert program included Beethoven’s Sonata in D Minor, Opus 31, No. 2; Chopin’s Sonata in B-flat Minor, Opus 35; and Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in F-sharp Minor, Oriental Sketch, and Variations on a Theme of Corelli.

1947 In a scrimmage before the season opening on November 8, the Juilliard basketball team defeated the West Side Presbyterian Church Cagers by 31 to 30. Only five members of the regular squad participated, as the game was announced spontaneously by Physical Education director and coach Kenneth Seixas. Later that season Juilliard’s team competed against Union Theological Seminary, Fordham Frosh, Hunter College Men, 73rd Street Presbyterian, Columbia Pharmacy, Jewish Theological Seminary, and Cooper Union.

1962 November 19, Srimati T. Balasaraswati presented a demonstration and performance of Bharata Natyam, the classic dance style of South India. Balasaraswati was the leading exponent of the style and the first dancer ever awarded the Golden Lotus, her country’s highest honor. Robert E. Brown narrated the presentation with accompaniment by Balasaraswati’s troupe: K. Ganesan, dancemaster; S. Narasimhulu, voice; T. Ranganathan, mridangam (South Indian drum); S. Dhanalakshmi, tamboura (drone instrument); and, T. Viswanathan, flute. Juilliard sponsored the program in cooperation with the Asia Society.

1978 November 4, Welsh harpist Osian Ellis gave a master class in Paul Hall. Ellis was closely associated with Benjamin Britten, who wrote several works with harp for Ellis, including the Suite for Harp (1969).

1988 November 4, students of Juilliard and the Curtis Institute of Music held a joint concert of Ned Rorem’s vocal chamber music in Alice Tully Hall to celebrate his 65th birthday. The event marked the first performance collaboration between the two institutions. Coached by Mr. Rorem himself, the ensembles performed Mourning Scene, Ariel (five poems of Sylvia Plath), Seven Songs (set to poetry by Hillyer, Reothke, Spenser, Goodman, Stein, and Bishop), Women’s Voices, and The Santa Fe Songs (12 poems of Witter Bynner). Mr. Rorem’s long association with both schools dates to the early 1940s when he attended Curtis. He continued composition studies under Bernard Wagenaar at Juilliard, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1946 and a master’s degree two years later, along with the $1,000 George Gershwin Memorial Prize in composition.

Jeni Dahmus is Juilliard’s archivist.