Performance Opportunities On- and Off-Campus | Student Blog

Now that we’ve crested the hill leading up to spring break, the end of the school year is looming—two more months to fit in as much practice, rehearsing, and studying as we can before the semester ends!

I love this time of year because life becomes as vibrant and unpredictable as spring itself in New York. The graduating classes are busy putting together final recitals and performances, midterms are giving way to finals, and it even hit 40 degrees the other day—shorts weather! As silly as it may sound, I think the warm(er) weather and gradual shift from winter to spring is waking all of us up from hibernation. There’s a new sense of energy and determination floating around as we prepare for the final stretch of the school year.

I have a lot to look forward to as well. Just today, I played in an orchestral reading of a new symphony by Jon Batiste (BM '08, MM '11, jazz studies), which was a completely new and exciting process. Many of my fellow music majors are preparing for their graduation recitals and have asked me to play in a variety of chamber pieces with them. I also work with some of the Juilliard Pre-College musicians to perform student composers’ pieces, and I play in the Pre-College ensembles. Since it’s almost outdoor-gathering season as well, my classmates and I might even have the chance to perform at weddings, bar mitzvahs, or dinner parties. Through a fellowship program at school, I am in a chamber group with two dancers and a guitarist, and we will be performing at various locations in New York over the next few months—from hospitals to nursing homes to homeless shelters—and introducing new audiences to both contemporary and classical music. Getting off the stage and into more intimate, collaborative settings to share art with new faces is one of my favorite things. I have several more orchestral performances, and I’ll be soloing with an orchestra in a few weeks as well. All of the music majors will finish off their semesters with juries, where they perform for and are evaluated by their instrument’s faculty. It’s our equivalent of performance “finals”—and then it’s the end of the year!

I am so fortunate to have so many performance opportunities, and I love having such a variety of them to look forward to. Especially in a freelance-rich city like New York, I’ve had the chance to perform in so many more settings than just the traditional stage orchestral one. It’s opened my eyes to new possibilities in music; I have an understanding of the trajectory of instrumental music as it evolves into today’s style, and I've been able to experiment with the possibilities of this field beyond the traditional classical music career path. Getting to play in so many different settings and for so many different people has encouraged me to be a more flexible, creative musician—sometimes we walk into a performance with a specific program in mind but have to completely change course mid-piece if somebody requests a certain song or if the audience doesn’t like this piece or if we’re playing outside and our music blows away in the wind! It’s also helped me explore new genres of music, collaborate with new people, and make new friends and connections. I’m so grateful for the infinite possibilities that music offers, and that I get to a part of the process!