Frederick Kiesler (far left), Juilliard’s scenic director from 1933 to 1957, constructing the set of Der Freischütz (1946). Juilliard donated 31 of his opera designs to the New York Public Library which displayed them in an exhibit in 1941. (Photo by Harvey Weber, Graphic House)

1910 The November 10 issue of The New York Architect, a national magazine dedicated to the interests of architecture and the allied fine arts, was devoted entirely to the new building of the Institute of Musical Art (Juilliard's predecessor institution) at 120 Claremont Avenue.



1941 November 14 through December 10, the New York Public Library sponsored the exhibit "Ten Years of American Opera Design at the Juilliard School of Music," which celebrated Juilliard's donation of opera designs by Frederick Kiesler, the School's scenic director from 1933 to 1957. The exhibit documented the 31 operas designed by Kiesler and his pupils for Juilliard from 1931 to 1941. Five of the 31 were first performances: Louis Gruenberg's Jack and the Beanstalk (libretto by John Erskine, 1931); George Antheil's Helen Retires (libretto by Erskine, 1934); Robert Russell Bennett's Maria Malibran (libretto by Robert A. Simon, 1935); Albert Stoessel's Garrick (libretto by Simon, 1937); and Beryl Rubinstein's Sleeping Beauty (libretto by Erskine, 1938).

World renowned as a pioneering architect, sculptor, and painter, Kiesler created dynamic sets for Juilliard productions such as Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz (1946), Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex (1948), Benjamin Britten's The Beggar's Opera (U.S. premiere, 1950), Richard Strauss's Capriccio (U.S. premiere, 1954), and Mozart's Idomeneo (N.Y. premiere/second U.S. production, 1955). An experimentalist who bridged the functional with the revolutionary, Kiesler won public acclaim for imaginative structures including his 1920 homes cantilevered out from masts like suspension bridges, his 1923 design of the first "space stage," also known as "theater in the round," and his 1952 egg-shaped Endless House. After his tenure at Juilliard, Kiesler directed the design laboratory of the Columbia University School of Architecture. His last major project was the Shrine of the Book, which houses the collection of Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem.



1958 November 12, Roy Harris, Ulysses Kay, Peter Mennin, and Roger Sessions led a forum discussion on the topic "Music in Russia Today."



1985 November 1, alumnus and Tony Award-winning director and producer Gregory Mosher visited Juilliard for an informal discussion with drama students.

Jeni Dahmus is Juilliard's archivist.