By JANE RUBINSKY

How do you top a centennial season? Juilliard faces this challenge as it launches its second century with a new performance season. More than 700 events will showcase the talents of dance, drama, and music students and faculty (along with special guest artists) on the School's public stages this year. Among the highlights will be a community sing of the Mozart Requiem on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, two Bartok programs marking the 60th anniversary of the Juilliard String Quartet, productions of operas by Offenbach and Mozart, an exploration of contemporary Hungarian music, new works by an exciting range of choreographers, and the first season of plays under the newly appointed director of the Drama Division, James Houghton.

James DePriest will conduct the Juilliard Orchestra in four concerts this season. (Photo by Georg Anderhub, Lucerne Festival)

The public performance season opens on September 11 with a community sing of Mozart's Requiem in Carnegie Hall at 12:30 p.m., commemorating the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, featuring the Juilliard Orchestra and Choral Union conducted by Judith Clurman (see article). Pianists Michael Bukhman and Ran Dank will perform on September 13 at 9 p.m. in Paul Hall, as this year's victors of the annual Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. The performance will be broadcast on WQXR radio with host Robert Sherman (see article). Also this month, students from Juilliard's collaborative piano department will join other student instrumentalists for a program of sonata repertoire on September 28 in Paul Hall at 8 p.m. September 30 marks the launch of the New Juilliard Ensemble's 14th season, with a concert at 8 p.m. in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater conducted by Joel Sachs (see article).

The Juilliard String Quartet will celebrate its 60th anniversary with three recitals. (Photo by Nan Melville)

Guest conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski leads the first concert by the Juilliard Orchestra on October 5 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, in a program that includes his own Music at Night, as well as Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No. 4 (with a student soloist to be announced) and Brahms's Symphony No. 1. Other guest conductors this season include George Manahan, who will lead an all-Russian program on November 13 in Alice Tully Hall; Murray Sidlin, conducting contemporary works in Alice Tully Hall on December 14; Andreas Delfs, returning to conduct in Avery Fisher Hall on February 16; alumnus Andrew Litton, who leads the orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall on April 4; and faculty member Jeffrey Milarsky, who conducts a program premiering student works in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater on May 4. Juilliard's director of conducting and orchestral studies, James DePreist, will wield the baton on October 12 (in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater), December 4 and February 20 (both in Alice Tully Hall), and May 23, the annual commencement concert, in Avery Fisher Hall, an all-Beethoven program, featuring the Ninth Symphony, for which the orchestra will be joined by the Juilliard Choral Union.

The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra presents "Sing, Sing, Sing," an evening of music by "King of Swing" Benny Goodman, on October 10 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Other concerts in the Jazz Orchestra's lineup this season include "A Tribute to Legends of Jazz" on February 27 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, and "Back to Basics," featuring the music of faculty member Wynton Marsalis, on April 10 in Alice Tully Hall. Juilliard Jazz Ensembles will present "House Party Starting," featuring the music of Herbie Nichols, on October 3; "Jazz Emergent," two evenings of original student compositions, on November 6 and April 16; "From Danzon to Mambo," exploring the Afro-Cuban tradition, on December 4; and "New Orleans: Now" on February 12. All ensembles concerts are in Paul Hall.

The Drama Division's season of productions featuring fourth-year students kicks off with a Playwrights Festival on September 9-11 (see article). Three works by Juilliard playwriting fellows Kara Corthron, Adam Rapp, and Adam Szymkowicz will be presented. In the Drama Theater, the first production of the season will be Ibsen's A Doll's House on October 25-29, directed by Mark Nelson. Shakespeare's R&J, Joe Calarco's clever adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that was an Off-Broadway hit and won a Lucille Lortel Award in 1998, will follow on November 16-20. The action centers on four boys in a Catholic boarding school; as they immerse themselves in a production of the Bard's famous tragedy, their lives begin to mirror those of the characters in unexpected ways. The production will be directed by Erica Schmidt. Brooklyn playwright Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel will be presented on December 14-18, directed by Leah C. Gardiner. Originally co-commissioned by Baltimore's Center Stage and South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif., this award-winning drama examines the barriers of race, class, and society, as well as the intricacies of power and love. Concluding the fourth-year productions on February 15-19 is The Greeks (Part One: The War), John Barton and Kenneth Cavander's adaptation of the first part of a trilogy relaying Greece's mythic history that weaves together the works of Aeschylus, Euripides, Homer, and Sophocles. The production will be directed by Brian Mertes.

The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra opens its season in October with a program of music by Benny Goodman. Other Jazz Orchestra concerts are "A Tribute to Legends in Jazz" in February and works by Wynton Marsalis in April. (Photo by Hiro Ito)

The popular Composers and Choreographers Plus showcase opens the Dance Division's season on December 8 and 9 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, featuring performances of the best student choreographic work of the fall semester. The season continues with New Dances at Juilliard: Edition 2006 on December 14-17, presenting all 90 student dancers in four newly commissioned works, one for each class. This year's choreographers are David Parker (first year), Matthew Neenan (second year), Doug Varone (third year), and Aszure Barton (fourth year).

Spring Dances at Juilliard: Edition 2007 will feature two classics of the repertoire along with a premiere on March 28-April 1 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Twyla Tharp's lighthearted Deuce Coupe with music by the Beach Boys (originally created in 1973 for the Joffrey Ballet) will share the program with Jiri Kylian's moving 1980 anti-war work Soldier's Mass, to music of Bohuslav Martinu, along with a commissioned piece by Susan Marshall with music by provocative New York composer David Lang. Other spring dance events include the annual Senior Dance Production, to be presented in the Clark Theater in the Rose Building on April 26-29, as well as Choreographic Honors (May 18-19) and the Senior Dance Showcase (May 21), both in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Two fully staged classic comedies will be presented by the Juilliard Opera Center this season in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The first is Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers on November 15, 17, and 19. John Pascoe will direct and Anne Manson will conduct this 1874 French parody of the Greek legend of Orpheus visiting the underworld to rescue his beloved Eurydice. The spring production is Mozart's opera buffa La finta giardiniera on April 25, 27, and 29, directed by Jay Lesenger and conducted by faculty member Gary Thor Wedow.

On November 30, soprano Raquela Sheeran and pianist David Shimoni will give the Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital, featuring works by Richard Strauss, Erich Korngold, Fernando Obradors, Osvaldo Golijov, Josef Bardanashvili, Sergei Rachmaninoff, George Gershwin, and Michael Flanders and Donald Swann. Liederabend and Songbook concerts will showcase student singers throughout the year—the former in Paul Hall on October 19, November 2, December 7, February 1, and April 12 and 26; the latter in Morse Hall on October 26, November 30, April 18 (in Paul Hall), and May 3. The annual Vocal Honors Recital will take place on March 27 in Alice Tully Hall.

Juilliard's sixth annual ChamberFest will feature six performances—four in Paul Hall (January 16-19), one in Alice Tully Hall (on January 17), and one in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater (on January 20). Juilliard's graduate string quartet-in-residence, the Calder Quartet, will give the annual Lisa Arnhold Memorial Recital on November 28 in Alice Tully Hall. In addition, concerts by student ensembles will be offered throughout the year in Alice Tully Hall. Dates are October 27, November 20, December 11, February 8, February 26, March 30, and April 9.

Juilliard's 23rd annual Focus! festival celebrates the lively world of Hungarian music since Bartok and Kodaly put their homeland on the 20th-century musical map. "The Magyar Legacy: Hungarian Music Since Bartok" opens on January 26 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, and concludes on February 2 with Diego Masson conducting the Juilliard Orchestra. Other concerts will be offered on January 29-31 and February 1, all in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Hungary's senior composers—the late Gyorgy Ligeti and Gyorgy Kurtag—will be represented, along with younger ones such as Peter Eotvos, Laszlo Tihanyi, Laszlo Vidovsky, and Zoltan Jeney, representing a range of today's styles.

The Juilliard String Quartet celebrates its 60th anniversary with three recitals on the Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series. The ensemble opens the series with the complete quartets of Bartok: Nos. 1, 3, and 5 on November 8, followed by Nos. 2, 4, and 6 on November 10. On March 1, the J.S.Q. honors board chairman Bruce Kovner's recent gift of manuscripts to the School with an all-Mozart program. These concerts take place in Alice Tully Hall. Other concerts on the Saidenberg series will include the American Brass Quintet on October 16 and a woodwind soiree (with artists to be announced) on January 23, both in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The New York Woodwind Quintet will perform on April 5 in Paul Hall.

In addition to its participation in the commencement concert, the Juilliard Choral Union, directed by Judith Clurman, will present a holiday concert on December 20 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater that will include Bach's Cantata Wachet auf, BWV 140, among other works. The chorus will also perform on this year's Jerome L. Greene concert (an all-Bach program) in Alice Tully Hall on February 5. Away from the Juilliard campus, past and present members of the Choral Union will perform at Harvard University as part of a program celebrating Leonard Bernstein on October 12, and the full chorus will appear with the New York Pops on March 16 at Carnegie Hall (with conductor and pianist Marvin Hamlisch) in an evening of music by Richard Rodgers.

The 10th anniversary of Pre-College guitar will be celebrated with a concert on October 7 featuring faculty guitarists Tali Roth and Antigoni Goni, as well as a master class by Sharon Isbin on October 8. Both are in Paul Hall. Among the many other events to be held this year are a concert by Juilliard organists at the Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola (980 Park Avenue) on February 15, the William Petschek Piano Debut Recital on April 19 at Alice Tully Hall, and a tribute to Alice Tully Hall on April 30, featuring David Robertson leading the Juilliard Orchestra in a program that will be broadcast on "Live from Lincoln Center" on the eve of the hall's two-year renovation. For complete coverage and up-to-date information, see our online calendar of events.