Aaron Severini | Life After Juilliard

Postcards From Juilliard Alums

It has been four years since I graduated from Juilliard, where I studied music composition, and I have been lucky to work on many meaningful projects, including most recently writing music for a documentary about the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York and music for a new theatrical production about opera singer Sissieretta Jones, who made history as she took to the main stage at Carnegie Hall (a project spearheaded by the late Jessye Norman). Before Juilliard, I was a dancer with New York City Ballet, and along with composing, I have been focusing on music education for dancers. As an NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts Fellow in 2019, I made that my research topic, and I am honored to be the incoming music teacher at the School of American Ballet (SAB) this fall.

When I was a student at SAB in my teens, Jeffrey Middleton, a talented pianist and gifted educator, was the music teacher, and he inspired me to follow my interest in music composition even as I entered the world of professional dance. Since graduating from Juilliard, I have reflected on things like this that impacted my life. Moving forward, I am excited to be rejoining SAB as an educator and sharing my passion for music and dance. Here’s to paying it forward.

Aaron Severini (BM '15, MM '17, composition)