By AUDREY AXINN

Juilliard students and faculty members Lionel Party and William Purvis have a chance to collaborate in an evening devoted exclusively to the performance of Baroque music on November 6, when the second annual Jerome L. Greene concert takes place in Alice Tully Hall. Mr. Greene, who died in 1999, was a highly esteemed member of Juilliard's board of trustees for 14 years. He created the Jerome L. Greene Scholarship Fund in 1985, and his widow, Dawn Greene, has continued to offer generous scholarship assistance to students in all three divisions of Juilliard through the Jerome L. Greene Foundation. While Mr. Greene loved all classical music, he was particularly fond of works in the Baroque and Classical styles. It is fitting, then, for Juilliard to honor his memory with a concert focusing on the music he loved best.

Lionel Party directed and performed at the first Jerome L. Greene concert on April 10, 2003. (Photo by Nan Melville)

The Jerome L. Greene concert, which is under the direction of Lionel Party, offers a special haven at Juilliard for repertoire that is not so easy to incorporate into students' conservatory training, and offers students a chance to present the results of their efforts in a world-class hall. Clara Lee, a cellist who performed last year and is eagerly anticipating this year's concert, explains: "I love Baroque music and I find myself hungry to play it. I'm really happy to have the opportunity to do this at Juilliard." Typically, the instrumentation of a concerto grosso ensemble requires 6 to 12 players—too small a group for orchestra concerts and too large to work easily as a chamber-music ensemble. The Greene concert features several such works, including J.S. Bach's "Brandenburg" Concerto No. 3; Corelli's Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 1; and Handel's Concerto No. 3 in F Major, for double choir of wind instruments. The program also includes several smaller-scale works: Pachelbel's famous Canon and two works by Purcell: his Trio Sonata in G Minor and the Chacony.

Jerome L. Greene Concert: An Evening of Baroque Music Alice Tully Hall Thursday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m. For ticket information, please see the calendar.

The increasing popularity of performing Baroque works on period instruments has, ironically, also contributed somewhat to a decline in the frequency that Baroque repertoire is performed in many music schools. Performing Baroque music on period instruments, long established in Europe, has been steadily gaining momentum in North America. While Boston remains the main hub of historical performance activity, period orchestras and chamber music series are thriving in Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto, and increasingly (with the New York Collegium and several period chamber-music series) in New York City. With period performance firmly entrenched, presenters and performers are thinking twice before programming Baroque works on modern instruments. The fact that period performance requires period instruments poses a real challenge to music schools dedicated to training musicians on modern instruments while also seeking to offer the broadest possible training that enables students to make the most of all the opportunities awaiting them after they graduate. Although this dilemma has no easy answer, here at Juilliard the Jerome L. Greene concert offers students the chance to hone their understanding of the Baroque style, certainly a good foundation for anyone interested in performing Baroque repertoire on either modern or period instruments.

Please join us for this special opportunity to celebrate the memory of Jerome L. Greene and explore Baroque performance at Juilliard.

Audrey Axinn teaches in the chamber music and collaborative piano departments.