Diversity Is Our Strength | Student Blog

While I was walking through the streets of New York on moving day, trying to find my way to school and somewhat tired from my trip from México, which began at 5am with my mother forcing me to get to the airport three hours before my flight (which is funny because Mexicans will be late to absolutely everything except for the airport), I began to reflect on the many things I expected from Juilliard.

I was very excited to finally be in a purely musical environment with people who are the best at what they do. I knew this because New York has become somewhat of a mecca for art and culture that continues to attract the most unique talents from all over the world. This meant that I would soon be immersed in a particularly cosmopolitan section of one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. As soon as I arrived, I heard German, Spanish, Hebrew, French, and Turkish being spoken in the lobby, and I was hooked immediately.

I have always been really keen on observing people and noticing the little nuances that give away the fact that one comes from a different culture. Everyone I have met here has been nice but it is the little differences that give a little spice to life and the whole Juilliard experience. There is a whole world of difference, for instance, in the way in which one of my French friends looked at me in the eye as he firmly shook my hand and introduced himself and the way the very Japanese mother of one of my suitemates looked at me while I introduced myself and immediately offered help in my unpacking. These kinds of things are never taught through words at home; it would seem that each culture has in its blood a very particular way to be pleasant.

But then, after some weeks, of interacting with my new classmates, I began to discover different types of diversity that I was not expecting to. I began to discover that every new person I have met in school has very different reasons to be here. I understood that many of us made sacrifices to be realizing this dream, and having made it this far represents different things for everyone. Many of my classmates had already known Juilliard in some way or another. Some did the Pre-College, some studied at festivals with their current teachers, and others were expected to audition and get in. It is actually surprising how many people were told that getting accepted here was expected of them. It is inspiring to know that our paths have crossed when we come from such different backgrounds. No one ever told me to audition to Juilliard, for example. It had always a personal project of mine, a goal that I was searching to achieve, and I did so on my own in many ways. My parents supported me by granting me the freedom to choose my own path but, since they are not musicians, they couldn’t really guide me. To me, coming to New York was the goal and Juilliard was the only way to achieve it. I didn’t apply to anywhere else because I have always been very stubborn and, thankfully, it worked out in my favor, but the most natural thing would have been to be rejected. Each process has its own merit. I embrace the fact that we each have such different ambitions and inspirations because that is the only way to create truly unique things, by combining talents and personalities. If everyone were like me, we wouldn’t survive the semester and how boring it would be!

As a composer, I can say that bouncing my ideas off of people with unique backgrounds, and mindsets so immensely different from mine enriches my creative process a little bit each day, and I am confident that my interactions with my classmates and our student life are some of the things that will leave the deepest impact on my life and music. I like to think that the art that we produce is a direct result of our environment, and the way things are going, it seems that we will produce some rich and robustly unique art in the next four years!