By LISA ROBINSON

Juilliard celebrates the formidable artistic legacy of composer Peter Mennin, who served as the School's president for the two decades prior to Joseph W. Polisi, in an all-Mennin chamber music concert this month in Alice Tully Hall. The outstanding array of artists scheduled to perform on the program includes Juilliard faculty, alumni, and current students.

Peter Mennin with students in 1982. (Photo by Peter Schaaf)

Juilliard's fifth president (from 1962-1983), Mennin came to the position not just as an experienced administrator, but as one of the most highly regarded and frequently programmed American composers of his time. He had already served on Juilliard's composition faculty for 11 years by the time he became president of the Peabody Conservatory in 1958, a position he held for four years before returning to Juilliard as president.

Born in 1923 in Erie, Pa., Mennin began composing at the age of 7 and went on to study composition at Oberlin College Conservatory for two years before joining the U.S. Air Force (1940-42). He resumed his education at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rodgers and earned both B.M. and M.M. degrees. By the time he received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 1947, Mennin had already achieved considerable success as a composer. In 1945, at the age of 22, he received both the first Gershwin Memorial Prize and Columbia University's prestigious Bearns Prize for composition, and his works had been performed by major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and National Symphony Orchestra.

Succeeding William Schuman, another leading American composer, as president of Juilliard, Mennin ensured the continuing vitality of the School's composition department by recruiting such prominent composers as Milton Babbitt, Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, and Roger Sessions to the faculty. The diversity of styles represented by these appointments reveals an admirable open-mindedness on Mennin's part, and further contributed to the department's strength.

One of the indisputable highlights of Mennin's administration was overseeing Juilliard's relocation from its Morningside Heights building to Lincoln Center, along with the establishment of the Drama Division in 1968 in anticipation of the move. Another notable achievement of the same period was the establishment of the Juilliard American Opera Center in 1969 (although opera was an important component of the School as early as 1929, Mennin established the center specifically for advanced training in opera). In 1972 he established a formalized conducting program with Sixten Ehrling as a noteworthy addition to the faculty. Additional changes to the curriculum under Mennin's administration included replacement of the B.S. and M.S. degrees with B.M./B.F.A. and M.M. degrees, and the institution of a D.M.A. program under the direction of distinguished musicologist Gustav Reese in 1967.

Mennin (far left) teaching a class that included pianist Van Cliburn (first row, second from left).

After 21 years of extraordinary service to Juilliard, Mennin died of cancer in June 1983. Attesting to his profound commitment to the School and its students, an article in the Juilliard News Bulletin (October/November 1983, Vol. XXII, No. 1) related that, "Despite an illness that he had known for months to be terminal, Mr. Mennin continued a daily schedule of meetings, planning and discussions on School matters that continued into the week of his death."

Reflecting on Mennin's legacy, President Polisi notes that "Peter Mennin was an individual of exceptional intelligence and integrity who met the considerable challenges of his job as president with great efficacy and sensitivity. His accomplishments as an administrator are all the more remarkable in light of his continued productivity as a composer. I am pleased that Juilliard will highlight his contributions through various events during the course of its centennial season."

In addition to the October 24 chamber music concert, audiences will have the opportunity to hear one of Mennin's major orchestral works when the Juilliard Orchestra, led by Leonard Slatkin, performs his 1952 Concertato for Orchestra ("Moby Dick") on January 23, 2006, at 8 p.m. in Avery Fisher Hall. The program also features William Schuman's A Song of Orpheus and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60 ("Leningrad").

While his dedication to Juilliard was beyond question, Mennin always identified himself first and foremost as a composer. Wriston Locklair, quoted in Bernard Holland's obituary of Mennin in The New York Times, recalls that "He always introduced himself first as a composer and then as president of Juilliard."

Mennin's compositional output consists of approximately 30 works, including nine symphonies (No. 1 was withdrawn) and a number of other large-scale orchestral works, several choral works, a small number of solo vocal and instrumental works, and chamber music. Stylistically, his music is characterized by long melodic lines, rhythmic momentum, and use of polyphony. He acknowledged Beethoven as an important influence, and described his own music as "strongly architectural." Mainly utilizing large-scale forms, his works are distinguished by their expressive urgency and impeccable craftsmanship, reflecting Mennin's assertions that "music must have drama" and that he was "concerned with having an unassailable technique."

Musicologist and critic Walter Simmons, who will discuss Mennin's music as a guest speaker for faculty member Robert Beaser's Composers' Forum, observes, "The career of Peter Mennin reveals a serious commitment to traditional artistic values, which he steadfastly maintained during a period when such values were under attack. Not only did these principles inform his presidency of The Juilliard School, but they provided a foundation for his compositional output as well. Though not large in number, his body of works—from which pieces of diverting or frivolous character are notably absent—reveals a single-minded focus on his own highly individual expressive content, articulated through an ever-increasing intensification and concentration of means."

Among a number of recordings of Mennin's works, three of the most outstanding were made by prominent Juilliard alumni: Gerard Schwarz, music director of the Seattle Symphony, recorded the Concertato for Orchestra and Symphonies Nos. 3 and 7 (Delos, 1996); Christian Badea recorded Mennin's Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 and Folk Overture with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (New World Records, 1992); and Jorge Mester led the Louisville Orchestra in a recording of Mennin's Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 and Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, with Janos Starker as the soloist (First Edition, 2003).

In terms of his approach to tonality, Mennin's own words offer the most lucid description: "… what I mean by tonality is the stability that one gets in the old works, with Beethoven, Brahms, or whatever. In the 20th century, you can't have the same simplicity of tonality, but you must give the same stability. But again, it's only a means to an end … there's no reason to turn a musical theory into sound, if you don't have musical ideas." (Interview with David Owens in The Christian Science Monitor, July 30, 1981.)

A Tribute to Peter Mennin Alice Tully Hall Monday, Oct. 24, 8 p.m. Free tickets available on Oct. 10 in the Juilliard Box Office.

The wealth of musical ideas that found an outlet in Mennin's chamber music will be vividly brought to life on the October 24th program, which features works from three consecutive decades: the Concertino for Flute, Strings, and Percussion (1944), featuring faculty member Carol Wincenc as the soloist; Four Settings of Chinese Poems (1948) for a capella chorus, performed by the Juilliard Choral Union under the direction of faculty member Judith Clurman; the String Quartet No. 2 (1951), performed by the Calder String Quartet (Juilliard's Lisa Arnhold quartet-in-residence for 2005-06); the Sonata Concertante for violin and piano (1956), with Juilliard alumnus Robert McDuffie (violin) and alumnus/current faculty member Jerome Lowenthal (piano); and the Piano Sonata (1963), performed by Lowenthal.

The last three works were among the numerous commissions Mennin received from prestigious organizations over the course of his career. The String Quartet No. 2 was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and received its first performance by the Juilliard String Quartet on February 24, 1952. Commissioned by the Coolidge Foundation in honor of the League of Composers' 35th anniversary, the Sonata Concertante for violin and piano was premiered by Ruggiero Ricci at the Library of Congress on October 19, 1956, and was later frequently performed by Joseph Fuchs. McDuffie previously performed the work at Juilliard as part of a Festival of Contemporary Music that took place at the School in January 1984. The Piano Sonata was commissioned by Claudette Sorel through the Ford Foundation Program for Concert Artists.

Bärli Nugent, assistant dean and director of chamber music (who was a student at Juilliard during Mennin's tenure), serves as artistic director for the event. She says, "I'm particularly excited about this concert, because students and listeners previously unfamiliar with Mennin's music will come away with a new understanding of his artistic achievements and, I hope, a deeper appreciation for his contributions to Juilliard. The fact that so many different Juilliard constituents are joining forces to perform will make the experience even more meaningful."

Lisa Robinson is senior writer for special projects and proposals in the Office of Development and Public Affairs.