The Dream World of AXIOM

"A Stylistic Mosh Pit of All-American Music"

“I live in a dream world when I conduct AXIOM,” an enthusiastic Jeffrey Milarsky (BM ’88, MM ’90, percussion) says about the Juilliard new music ensemble he has led almost since its inception, in 2006. While he maintains a busy schedule conducting new music all over the world, AXIOM is unique. Since it’s integrated into the Juilliard curriculum, it allows him to give students extended immersion into some of the most demanding scores of our day. And it has been paying off in spades. Even as exacting a musician as Steve Reich (’61, composition) has spoken rapturously of the commitment and precision AXIOM has brought to his scores in recent seasons.

Milarsky also proudly notes that, year in and year out, AXIOM audience members have come to trust his crackerjack young Juilliard players to guide them through a series of carefully curated, deeply thought-provoking programs. This year’s season, which opens November 1, includes three venturesome concerts offering contemporary classics, underperformed works by acknowledged masters, and contributions from living composers Milarsky believes deserve a firmer foothold on our concert stages. Also unchanged over the years is AXIOM’s open-door policy on style. From the fiendish rhythmic complexity of Harrison Birtwistle’s Silbury Air to the mellow, meditative expanses of Philip Glass’ (Diploma ’60, MS ’62, composition) soundtrack for The Hours—each of which are on the bill this month—this year’s programming has something for everyone.

What’s the thinking behind the November 1 program?
The overarching idea is of Igor Stravinsky as a kind of godfather of modern music. We have two pieces of his composed 25 years apart—the Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet and the Élégie for Solo Viola, which is a somber piece, very sad. Writing a solo clarinet piece, a solo viola piece—there’s probably nothing more difficult. You’re completely exposed.

You’re also performing two sets of Stravinsky’s songs that aren’t often heard.
Right, the Three Japanese Lyrics, which are about the coming of spring—they’re the earliest pieces on the program, minimalist and really coloristic. Then you have these wonderful nonsense rhymes [Pribaoutki] for mezzo voice. The Stravinsky pieces are going to lead into each other, two mini-pillars in each half supporting two big pieces, Toru Takemitsu’s Archipelago S. in the first, and Harrison Birtwistle’s Silbury Air in the second.

What about the November 23 concert, which runs the gamut from Elliott Carter to Morton Feldman, and George Lewis to Philip Glass?
That’s a stylistic mosh pit of all-American music. I always want to represent American music. If you look at Pierre Boulez and Darmstadt, it’s easy to get lost in Germanic culture, French culture, because they wrote such tremendously inspired things. But over here, we also had amazing things going on, and not necessarily with all the support that they had in Europe. So you look at this program, you say: “Wow, every piece is so wildly different from the next.” I cannot believe how varied American composers can be. I guess that’s the question for me, for the audience: “What makes them American?”

And looking forward to the February 27 program, you’re featuring Wing and Prayer by Juilliard composition faculty chair Melinda Wagner.
She’s a magical musician. I wanted to make sure that we do a work of hers, because she’s a great American composer, right in our hallways. So I wanted to mix her into a program about color—Takemitsu’s Rain Spell, a delicate variety of colors; Boulez’s Messagesquisse, the widest variety of colors from the same instrument; and Thomas Adès’ Living Toys, which is extreme and wild and liberated. It’s probably intimidating for any living composer to be in between Takemitsu and Boulez, but I love promoting Melinda that way.

This is AXIOM’s 14th season. How did you first come aboard?
I was brought in by [Dean and Provost] Ara Guzelimian, who asked if I could get AXIOM [which was started by students] going on a big, big level. I said, “Absolutely, I’ll do it. My only request is that I really get to rehearse.” In other words, it’s far too important for me—and for the composers, the students—to just get a little taste. I wanted them to get a really big taste. You can’t shortchange these things, and at Juilliard, we take our time. It’s heaven to not have those time restrictions. “No, we need 20 hours of rehearsal for this”—and we get it. And that’s what’s going to be long-lasting with the students—not throwing something together and getting half a taste of Birtwistle, but getting the whole thing.

You’ve done the two big works in the first program, Birtwistle’s Silbury Air and Takemitsu’s Archipelago S., in prior seasons. How have things changed since then?
Now the waiting list to get into AXIOM is long. Now you’re almost expected to come in [to Juilliard] and play Stravinsky and Birtwistle, and I have 18-year-old students in front of me who have never done anything like it, but they’re completely game right from the start. So that’s the change I’ve noticed, that musicians are ready to do anything. Orchestras really do want to do new things today, and these young people are going right into orchestras all around the globe and they’re not fazed at all. It’s all changing, and if we had a small part in that, then I’ll consider us a success—putting all of these incredible Juilliard musicians out into the world, who are passionate about it all. Man, I feel good just saying that.

Matthew Mendez, a critic and musicologist with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, is working on his doctorate at Yale and received a 2016 ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award for outstanding music journalism