Student Reflections: Collabrative Pianist Bronwyn Schuman

Reflections on a Year That Could Only Happen at Juilliard

Students wrote about the 2019-20 school year for this digital scrapbook featuring recaps of artistic, academic, and social highlights, top takeaways, surprises, summer plans, and more. Keep an eye out for entries from other students and check out a slide show of photos from the season.

By Bronwyn Schuman

Highlights

• Artistically, one highlight would be preparing for and performing in the Vocal Arts Honors Recital in Alice Tully Hall with Shakèd Bar.

• Scholastically, I have really enjoyed being able to use the skills from my BA in English by writing in my academic classes and also for the Juilliard Journal!

• Socially, a highlight was being able to help start up the Residence Hall Advisory Council, where students can voice their opinions about living on campus.

Top takeaway

To always play how I want to play and to fight against trying to predict the expectations and interpretations of my teachers and audiences. I’m learning that the boundaries of interpretation are not always as defined as I imagine they are, and that it is much better to have to be reined in than to have to be drawn out.

First-year master’s collaborative pianist Bronwyn Schuman, who holds Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale as well as Bernard P. and Leigh M. Seder scholarships, will participate in SongFest in Los Angeles, where she will continue working with her Juilliard teacher, Lydia Brown, as well as with Margo Garrett, Graham Johnson, Kevin Muprhy, and Alan Smith, among others; she'll also take part in Toronto Summer Music, working with Warren Jones

The above is adapted from a special feature that originally appeared in the May 2019 issue of the Juilliard Journal.