April 17, 2003 Contact: Li-Ling Wang, Paula Mlyn, Matt Schicker, and Janet Kessin

Renée Fleming and Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi to Deliver Commencement Addresses

The Juilliard Orchestra, led by Conductor Larry Rachleff, performs Berlioz’ Le carnaval romain, Op. 9, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93, and Samuel Adler’s Viola Concerto with Juilliard Violist Rebecca Albers in the 2003 Commencement Concert Thursday, May 22 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall

On Friday, May 23 at 11 AM in Alice Tully Hall, The Juilliard School awards six honorary doctoral degrees to outstanding artists and cultural leaders at its 98^th commencement ceremony. The recipients are:

• Former principle flutist of the New York Philharmonic and Juilliard’s long-time faculty member Julius Baker;
• Dancer and choreographer Alfredo Corvino, who was one of the founding members of Juilliard’s Dance Faculty;
• One of world’s most sought-after opera singers and Grammy Award winner American soprano Renée Fleming;
• Esteemed jazz pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis, Jr., who has passed his invaluable knowledge and experiences as a modern jazz musician on to many of today’s leading jazz musicians;
• Winner of Tony, Obie, and Drama Desk awards, and one of America’s most honored actresses Marian Seldes;
• Former principal trumpeter of the New York Philharmonic William Vacchiano, who has trained many of today’s leading trumpet artists, including Wynton Marsalis.

Renée Fleming and Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi address to more than 250 graduating actors, dancers, and musicians.

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Flutist Julius Baker, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, was principal flutist of the New York Philharmonic from 1956 - 1983. Mr. Baker studied with The Philadelphia Orchestra’s solo flutist William Kincaid at The Curtis Institute of Music. Upon graduation from Curtis in 1937, he joined the Cleveland Orchestra under Arthur Rodzinski and went on the principle positions with the orchestras of Chicago, Pittsburgh (under Fritz Reiner), and the Columbia Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra in New York City. Mr. Baker is one of the founding members of the Bach Aria Group, with which he had played from 1946-64. He has given performances and master classes throughout North America, Europe, and the Far East. In 1994 he performed in Munich, Germany in celebration of the 200th birthday of Theobald Boehm, the developer of the modern flute. In 1999 and 2002 Mr. Baker was president of the jury for the Leonardo DeLorenzo International flute competitions in Viggiano, Italy. Mr. Baker has been a faculty member of The Juilliard School since 1954 and the Curtis Institute of Music since 1980. Mr. Baker will Receive Juilliard's Doctor of Music Degree.

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Dancer and choreographer Alfredo Corvino was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he received his ballet training and attended the National Academy of Ballet as a scholarship student studying with Alberto Poujanne. Mr. Corvino toured internationally as a member of the Jooss Ballet, and as a soloist with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Later he joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company and subsequently became their ballet master. Other dance companies with whom he appeared include the Radio City Music Hall Ballet, Dance Players, the Herbert Ross Company, the Gavrilov Company, the Classic Ballet Company of New Jersey, the Dance Circle Company, and Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal. As a choreographer, Mr. Corvino has been associated with theRoxy Theatre, the Amato Opera, the Princeton Ballet, the Maryland Ballet, SUNY/Purchase, and the New Jersey Dance Theater Guild, which he directed for ten years. As one of Juilliard’s founding dance faculty members, Mr. Corvino taught at the School from 1952 - 1993. He also was the founder and director of his own school in New York City, The Dance Circle, for 25 years. Mr. Corvino will receive Juilliard's Doctor of Fine Arts Degree.

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A champion of new music as well as the standard repertoire, American soprano Renée Fleming has created many roles for the operatic stage and premiered numerous songs written for her. She has performed with most of today’s pre-eminent orchestras and conductors. Ms. Fleming began her 2002-03 season with a string of opening night orchestral galas across North America, including the Minnesota Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada, as well as her reprisal of Act IV of Otello for the Metropolitan Opera’s Opening Night Gala. Other engagements for the season included her U.S. stage debuts of Bellini’s Il pirata for the Metropolitan Opera, Thas for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, her first-ever Violetta in the Houston Grand Opera’s production of La Traviata, recitals at Belgium’s Theatre de la Monnaie and Berlin’s Deutsche Opera, and a performance with the Bayerischen Staatsorchester. In the fall of 2003, Ms. Fleming will sing Violetta in La Traviata with the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in next season’s Opening Night Gala. Ms. Fleming also has received numerous honors and awards, including the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Republic of France awarded in the summer of 2002, the 1988 Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, the Richard Tucker Award, the George London Prize, the Grand Prix at the International Singing Competition in Belgium, a Fulbright Scholarship to Germany, the 1996 Solti Prize of l'Académie du Disque Lyrique for her outstanding recording artistry, and the 1997 Musical America Vocalist of the Year. Ms. Fleming has been an exclusive recording artist with Decca since 1995. In 1999, she won her first Grammy in the "Best Classical Vocal Performance" category for her recording The Beautiful Voice. Ms. Fleming studied at Juilliard’s American Opera Center with the late Beverly Peck Johnson and holds degrees from the State University of New York at Potsdam and the Eastman School of Music. Ms. Fleming will receive Juilliard's Doctor of Music Degree.

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Jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis, Jr., born in 1934, chose to pursue a career as a modern jazz musician in New Orleans after graduating from Dillard University and serving in the Marine Corps. As a founding member of the American Jazz Quintet, Mr. Marsalis and members of the quintet, including clarinetist Alvin Batiste, saxophonist Harold Battiste, and drummer Edward Blackwell, charted new directions for jazz in New Orleans in the 1950s. At the same time, and for the next quarter-century, Mr. Marsalis provided for his family by holding down more commercial jobs, including leading the house band at the Playboy Club, working in the combo of trumpeter Al Hirt, and teaching music at the high school level. In 1974, he became the director of Jazz Studies at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, an arts high school that drew talented young musicians from all over the city. Among the students who received the benefits of his instruction are Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick, Jr., Donald Harrison, and Nicholas Payton, as well as his own children. Mr. Marsalis will receive Juilliard's Doctor of Music Degree.

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For more than 50 years, Marian Seldes has been regarded as one of America’s most honored and busiest actresses. The daughter of noted critic and author Gilbert Seldes, she began her career as a dancer at the School of American Ballet. By her late teens she decided to switch to acting, making her stage debut supporting Judith Anderson in Medea in 1947. After apprenticing with Katharine Cornell, she made her feature film debut in The Lonely Night (1952). Ms. Seldes created roles in two of Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: A Delicate Balance, for which she won a Tony Award, and Three Tall Women. She also won an Obie Award for her performance in Albee’s The Play About the Baby. Other productions in which Ms. Seldes has garnered great acclaim include: Father’s Day, (Drama Desk award); Isadora Duncan Sleeps With the Russian Navy (Obie Award); Jean Anouilh’s Ring Around the Moon (Obie Award); Dear Liar, a musical salute to Noel Coward at Carnegie Hall; and George Kelley’s The Torchbearers. Her film work includes Affliction, The Haunting, and Hollywood Ending, and her television appearances include Murphy Brown, Mad About You, and Great Expectations. Ms. Seldes recently appeared in the New York premiere of Harry Kondoleon’s Play Yourself, Neil Simon’s 45 Seconds From Broadway on Broadway, and Dinner at Eight at Lincoln Center Theater. Ms. Seldes was a faculty member of The Juilliard School’s Drama Division from 1967-1991. She was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1996. Ms. Seldes will receive Juilliard's Doctor of Fine Arts Degree.

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Trumpeter William Vacchiano, born in Portland, Maine, played in the Portland Symphony during his four years in high school. At age nineteen, he entered the Institute of Musical Arts in New York (later to become The Juilliard School) and studied with Max Schlossberg. In 1935, at age 23, Mr. Vacchiano was appointed principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic, where he remained until 1973. In his long career with the Philharmonic, he performed and recorded with many legendary conductors, including Igor Stravinsky, Sir John Barbirolli, Bruno Walter, Andre Kostelanetz, Sir Thomas Beecham, Arthur Rodzinski, Leopold Stokowski, Charles Munch, Dimitri Mitropoulos, George Szell, and Leonard Bernstein. Globally renowned for his skills as a teacher and for those who have studied with him, Mr. Vacchiano served on the faculty of The Juilliard School from 1935 - 1998. He also taught at other conservatories, including the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music. Mr. Vacchiano will receive Juilliard's Doctor of Music Degree.

On Thursday, May 22 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall, The Juilliard Orchestra, led by conductor Larry Rachleff, gives its final performance of the season in the 2003 Commencement concert. Juilliard violist Rebecca Albers performs as soloist in Samuel Adler’s Viola Concerto. Other works in the program are Berlioz’ Le carnaval romain, Op. 9 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93. Very limited free tickets are required and are available at the Juilliard Box Office starting May 8. The box office, located at 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, is open Monday through Friday, 11AM - 6PM. For more information, please call the box office at (212) 769-7406.

Conductor Larry Rachleff is in his seventh season with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, his twelfth season as professor of conducting and the music director of Rice University’s Shepherd School Orchestra in Houston, and his eleventh as music director of Chicago’s Symphony II, an orchestra made up of members of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra. A frequent guest conductor of other U.S. orchestras, Mr. Rachleff has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Houston Symphony, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In 1993, he was selected as one of four American conductors to lead the Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall under the mentorship of Pierre Boulez. A former member of the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory, where Mr. Rachleff served as music director of orchestras and conductor of the contemporary ensemble, he also served as the conductor of the Opera Theater at the University of Southern California. In 1988, Mr. Rachleff served as the music director of the American-Soviet Youth Orchestra tour. He has conducted and presented master classes at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, the Zurich Hochschule, the Queensland, the Sydney Conservatory Orchestra in Australia, and the Camerata Australia on its tour of Japan. Mr. Rachleff has been guest conductor at various music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, the National Music Camp at Interlochen, the Music Academy of the West, and the National Repertory Orchestra, and is the music director of the Sunflower Music Festival in Kansas. As a proponent of contemporary music, Mr. Rachleff has collaborated with composers such as Samuel Adler, Luciano Berio, George Crumb, and John Harbison.

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Violist Rebecca Albers, 20, a native of Longmont, Colorado, began her musical training in violin with her mother. At age twelve she traveled to Japan and played for Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, founder of his method of violin pedagogy, in the 42nd annual Grand Suzuki Concert, also attended by the Japanese royal family. In the same year, she also performed on viola in the North American String Orchestra at the Suzuki Association of the America’s national conference in Chicago. Ms. Albers has given numerous solo recitals in her hometown in Colorado and played as soloist with the Boulder Youth Symphony, and the Littleton Symphony, Longmont Symphony, and Colorado Symphony orchestras. She has participated in numerous festivals, including Cleveland Institute’s Encore School for Strings, The Perlman Music Program, and the Sarasota Music Festival. In the summer of 2003 she has been invited to attend the chamber music program at the Taos School of Music in New Mexico. Ms. Albers currently is a second-year undergraduate student at The Juilliard School studying with Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang, and is a recipient of the Rhea Cloe and Carl Cloe Memorial Fund Scholarship.