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Bicontinental Mini-Festival of New Music Gets Underway By JOEL SACHS
An exciting joint project of the New Juilliard Ensemble and the Royal Academy of Music's Manson Ensemble will begin when eight students and two faculty members of the Academy land in New York on October 16, and climax with performances in Paul Hall on October 22 and at the Royal Academy on October 29.
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| Simon Bainbridge (Photo by Andrew Palmer) |
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This bicontinental mini-festival of new music has been gestating since the spring of 2003. Juilliard's President Joseph W. Polisi had gone to London to discuss a joint concert of the Juilliard Orchestra and the Royal Academy of Music's orchestra that would conclude the BBC Proms concerts on September 2, 2005, and kick off the Juilliard Centennial. While in London he met Simon Bainbridge, chairman of the academy's composition department, who had suggested in general terms a kind of pre-centennial collaboration. As it happened, Simon was coming to New York a few weeks later, and over lunch he broached the idea of combining resources for a mini-festival of music by Juilliard and R.A.M. composition students. Having lived in London on and off for about six years, I consider it my second home, and agreed about as quickly as my brain cells could transmit information.We tossed ideas back and forth, balancing desires and probable costs, music and logistics. Eventually we decided to propose a project in which three composition students from each school would write short pieces that would be performed in both New York and London. Our dream was a joint ensemble, comprising students of the New Juilliard Ensemble and the Academy's Manson Ensemble, that would play in both cities. Obviously, it would be cheaper to have each school give an independent project, but that route would destroy the idea of a cooperative venture.Dr. Polisi was immediately attracted to having an ensemble drawn from both schools, and having the visiting students take advantage of classes and teachers in the host institution. Since the project would not take place during the tourist season, air fares would be relatively inexpensive. Of course, sponsorship would have to be found; the costs could not come from Juilliard's operating budget. Nevertheless, he empowered me to negotiate directly with Curtis Price, the principal of the Royal Academy. As it happened, I was going to London only two weeks later, and found Mr. Price eager to meet.Just before going to the Academy to meet Mr. Price, Simon Bainbridge and I took advantage of the great improvement in London's coffee bars to review our position. Knowing that funding is an enormous problem for British educational institutions, I suggested that we start with the cheaper proposal, in which only the composers would travel and the concerts would be given only by the host school's ensemble. Based on Mr. Price's reaction, I would know whether to move on to propose the joint performances.
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| Joel Sachs (Photo by Hiroyuki Ito) |
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As it happened, Curtis Price—an American with a sense of vision and energy that makes him an excellent counterpart to Dr. Polisi—saved me a lot of trouble. Once I had finished proposing the modest version of the plan, he immediately said that we should be grand about it, and create the joint ensemble. He felt strongly that the visiting students should have the opportunity to attend any classes they wished, and to have lessons with teachers at the host school, to feel a part of the host institution.The matter was therefore settled very quickly, and we spent two more hours chatting about the financing of education in the U.K. and U.S.; the state of music, old and new; politics; and everything under the sun. When I got back to New York, Dr. Polisi immediately approved our plans.Simon and I felt that the project should take place as soon as possible, lest it lose momentum. Originally, we planned to begin the week of October 10, so that Simon and the students would be in New York for the press conference announcing Juilliard's Centennial. But that would have meant the Juilliard contingent would be going to London when the academy was in a holiday week. We settled on beginning rehearsals October 17, performing in Paul Hall on October 22 and in London on October 29. We also agreed to unify the program by selecting one "masterwork," asking the composition students to study it and write their own response to it. Based on its length, instrumentation, and our sheer love of it, we settled upon Webern's Concerto, Op. 24, scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, trumpet, trombone, piano, violin, and viola. Since nine players would require an unequal number of performers from the two schools, we decided to add cello to the new pieces.
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New Juilliard Ensemble/Manson Ensemble
Paul Hall
Friday, Oct. 22, 8 p.m.
Free event; no tickets required.
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The composition departments then set out to pick the students who would participate. Juilliard's composers picked Justin Messina, Nico Muhly, and Sean Shepherd; the Royal Academy picked Robert Broadley, Adam Melbin, and Yuka Takechi. When the choices were made back in February, nobody noticed that all three Juilliard composers would be graduating! Fortunately, Justin Messina returned to our D.M.A. program—but Sean Shepherd, who was also admitted to Juilliard's doctoral program, accepted an impossible-to-decline offer from Cornell; Nico Muhly will be freelancing in New York. Both of them have guaranteed that they will be available to participate fully in the project. The Juilliard performers, all of whom worked hard in N.J.E. last year, are Tianxia Wu, French horn; Kirk Ferguson, trombone; Aaron Wunsch, piano; Nadia Sirota, viola; and Elinor Frey, cello. The Manson Ensemble members are Paul Skinner, flute; Catriona MacKinnon, oboe; David Rowden, clarinet; Heidi Sutcliffe, trumpet; and Thomas Gould, violin.Each school will house its visitors in guest facilities, providing access to its cafeteria, and ground transportation. What remains is to make music—and that will be no easy matter, for there will be seven pieces to learn before the New York performance on October 22. One of the performers commented to me that she was very excited: With all those rehearsals and a performance in New York, there should be very little to do the following week in London except enjoy the city. Alas, she did not reckon with Simon and me! We had already concluded that, if the rehearsals in New York are effective, we would use the week in London to record the students' pieces for a commemorative CD on the R.A.M.'s label. We should soon know whether the plan is practical: as of this writing (August 30), the three Juilliard pieces have been delivered, and once we have the academy's pieces, we'll know how difficult our task will be. The two weeks will be exciting, but they will not be easy!Joel Sachs, director of the New Juilliard Ensemble and the annual Focus! Festival, has been a faculty member since 1970.
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