Juilliard415 Hits the Berkeley Early Music Fest

Juilliard415 has now been out to the Bay Area a few times, and our students have become true audience favorites. Last fall we took most of our crew to play a special concert on Philharmonia Baroque’s concert series at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, and in November several of our recent grads will be featured in a Philharmonia concert of double concertos alongside their West Coast mentors. It’s great for our students to be recognized as emerging professionals, and it’s wonderful for the audiences to see a new generation of incredible players. Plus, who doesn’t want to spend a few days in California?

This year at the Berkeley Early Music Festival, seven students came along to be featured in a main-stage concert at the festival that brought a huge crowd inside on one of those glorious Berkeley days where it’s almost impossible to imagine doing anything besides going for a long hike.

I have to say, it’s far more stressful to hear one’s students perform than to stand up yourself to play. But despite my sweaty palms and accelerated heart-rate, our students performed spectacularly. I’d put together a challenging program of highly refined French Baroque music that they played with passion, virtuosity, humor, and complete assurance to an enthusiastic ovation. Afterward, among many others, I met a few local Juilliard alumni, including Alex Jones (BFA ’15, dance), who’d found out about the performances thanks to the alumni news.

Juilliard HP was a strong presence throughout the festival. I led three programs, including the spectacular closing concert with Vox Luminis, a Belgian chamber choir that is rapidly developing a near-cultlike following internationally; the choir also gave an amazing concert of Handel with J415 last fall. And several of our students were also featured with other ensembles. Violinist Alana Youssefian (MM ’18) had a starring role with the group Voices of Music in a completely outrageous and over-the-top Vivaldi concerto, delivered with tremendous panache and impeccable virtuosity. And one of our first-year violinists, Rachell Wong, joined a distinguished ensemble including Monica Huggett in a great performance of Schubert’s Quartettsatz.

One of the things that really touched me about the Berkeley experience was how many audience members commented on not only how well our students played but also how open, friendly, and approachable they were after concerts and in general. I’m happy to report that our students really seem to get the fact that they are their own best ambassadors for this music: they understand that classical music in America is about bringing this art to people who may not necessarily realize they really need to hear it. Their own performances were brilliant, stunning, and also deeply moving: it’s beyond wonderful to see this music come to life as vividly and as persuasively as possible. I came away energized and inspired by what we do at Juilliard and thrilled that our students are making a difference in the musical life of America.

Robert Mealy is the director of Juilliard’s Historical Performance program