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President Polisi Wins 2 Arts Education Awards By IRA ROSENBLUM
Joseph W. Polisi, the president of The Juilliard School, is to receive two arts education awards in December. He has been named Musical America's 2005 Educator of the Year, and will be given the New York Youth Symphony's 2004 Theodore L. Kesselman Award for Arts Education, an honor he will share with The Juilliard School itself. Both awards will be presented to him in ceremonies at Carnegie Hall."I am enormously honored to be chosen for these two awards," President Polisi said. "I share these honors with all the members of the Juilliard community who have made this great institution the caring and productive school that it is. As always, we will continue to work towards making the Juilliard educational and artistic environment that much better in the time ahead."
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| President Joseph W. Polisi teaching his gratuate studies class. (Photo by Henry Grossman) |
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In choosing President Polisi as Educator of the Year, Sedgwick Clark, editor of the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts, the award's sponsor, said that the publication was recognizing the "invaluable impact that Joseph Polisi has had on the performing arts in New York, the United States, and around the world.""We wanted to honor Joseph for his 20 years as president of The Juilliard School in the year of its centennial, for everything he has done to revitalize the School," Mr. Clark said. "Under his leadership, Juilliard has by all reports become a friendlier place to study. The student body is more international now. His strong belief in the importance of an all-around education has led to the creation of a full-fledged liberal arts curriculum. The campus has been modernized considerably, resulting in a more welcoming ambience."Among President Polisi's other major accomplishments, Mr. Clark lauded the construction of the Meredith Willson Residence Hall at Lincoln Center in 1990, which provided a more typical college experience by giving music, dance, and drama students greater opportunities to interact. He also mentioned the establishment of the Jazz Studies program in 2001, the development of wide-ranging community outreach programs, and a capital campaign that is well on its way to reaching its $150 million target as highlights in President Polisi's tenure.Barry Goldberg, the executive director of the New York Youth Symphony, said: "This school—practically the nation's brand name in the development of young musicians, actors, and dancers—and the extraordinary leadership for over 20 years of its president, Joseph Polisi, have served as leaders in the education of the young talent which informs and populates performing arts throughout this country ... The Kesselman Award calls attention to individuals and institutions which have nurtured young people in the arts, and Juilliard and Dr. Polisi have accomplished that brilliantly." Born in New York City, Joseph W. Polisi grew up with firsthand knowledge of what it takes to be a performer. His father was principal bassoon with the New York Philharmonic and his mother a dancer. Dr. Polisi himself holds three graduate degrees in music from Yale and still performs as a bassoonist. Before becoming Juilliard's president in 1984 at age 36, he served as a dean at the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. He also holds degrees in international relations and political science, and his book, titled The Artist as Citizen, published by Amadeus Press, is due out in January 2005.Educator of the Year is one of several awards given by Musical America to noteworthy musicians. The publication's highest honor, Musician of the Year, was first established in 1960. Since then, many of the 20th century's foremost artists have been honored with the award, among them several distinguished Juilliard alumni, including soprano Leontyne Price (1961), violinist Itzhak Perlman (1981), conductor James Levine (1984), the Juilliard String Quartet (1996), and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (2004). In 1992, four new awards categories were added: composer, conductor, instrumentalist, and vocalist; later, ensemble, accompanist, and educator awards were also established. Dr. Polisi is only the second person to receive Educator of the Year since it was introduced in 2001. The first recipient was the late Dorothy DeLay, a prominent member of Juilliard's violin faculty from 1948 until her death in 2002. The Kesselman Award for Arts Education was established by the New York Youth Symphony in 1995, in honor of Theodore L. Kesselman, president of the New York Youth Symphony's board of directors from 1985 until his death in 1994. Previous winners include Juilliard composition faculty member John Corigliano (2003) and violinist and alumna Midori (1997).President Polisi will be presented with the awards on two consecutive days at Carnegie Hall. On Sunday, December 5, Juilliard alumna and flutist Eugenia Zukerman will present him with the Kesselman Award at a New York Youth Symphony concert conducted by Juilliard alumnus Paul Haas. The following evening, Dr. Polisi will be honored at Musical America's annual award presentation, at which time the publication's other award recipients will be announced. Articles profiling the 2005 winners will appear in the annual Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts.
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