Juilliard Announces Details of Weeklong Focus Festival, January 23-28, Tracing the Development of Early 20th-Century American Music

Juilliard Announces Details of Weeklong Focus Festival, January 23-28, Tracing the Development of Early 20th-Century American Music

Focus 2022 | The Making of an American Music, 1899-1948

All Performances to be Livestreamed Via Juilliard LIVE; Tickets to Focus 2022 Are Free With Online Ticket Reservation

NEW YORK––Juilliard announces additional programming details for its annual Focus festival—January 23-28, 2022—which this year traces the emergence of a genuinely American musical culture between 1899 and 1948 through classical, modernist, Broadway, ragtime, and jazz. Six performances—by the New Juilliard Ensemble, conducted by festival director Joel Sachs; the Juilliard Orchestra led by guest conductor Mei-Ann Chen; and chamber ensembles—take place in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater and Alice Tully Hall. The opening night of Focus was rescheduled from January 21 to 23 to align festival rehearsal schedules with the one-week delay in the start of in-person work for Juilliard’s spring semester. All other dates remain the same. Reserved tickets to all Focus 2022 events are free, and events will be livestreamed through Juilliard LIVE on the school’s website.

“I have long been fascinated by the sudden emergence of truly American compositional voices in the early 20th century,” said festival director and conductor Joel Sachs. “This period of rapid development in American music can often go unnoticed because the contemporaneous events in European music were so dramatic. I envisioned this year’s Focus festival as a reflection and celebration of the entire spectrum of music at that time, including popular music and the burgeoning field of American modern dance.”

Focus 2022 opens with Sachs leading the New Juilliard Ensemble in a program of rags by Joplin in contemporaneous theater orchestra versions; two of Ives’ Ragtime Dances; Varèse’s Octandre; Cowell’s Sinfonietta; and Crawford Seeger’s Three Songs to Poems by Carl Sandburg (with soprano Britt Hewitt as soloist). Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 3, “The Camp Meeting,”completes the program on January 23 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

A highlight of the Focus 2022 chamber music presentations is Juilliard dance faculty member Terese Capucilli’s restoration of Martha Graham’s Deep Song set to the original music by Henry Cowell, performed on January 25. Deep Song premiered in 1937 and was originally choreographed and performed by Graham; it was reconstructed by Graham for Capucilli in 1988 with a different score of Cowell’s because the score for Deep Song was lost at the time. This Focus 2022 performance will feature Cowell’s modular score, which he called Canto Hondo, using in the original realization by Louis Horst, who was Graham’s music director. Cowell’s original “elastic” materials were meant to be pieced together as the choreography evolved. Music by Cage, Piston, Sessions, and Copland round out this program in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

A roundtable discussion about publishing work by American composers precedes the January 25 performance and begins at 6:30pm. Moderated by Sachs, the panel includes Kathryn Knight, president of Edition Peters/U.S.; Ed Matthews, director of promotion at G. Schirmer/AMC; Todd Vunderink, director of PeerMusic Classical; and Deirdre Chadwick, executive director of BMI Classical.

Three additional chamber concerts will take place on January 24, 26, and 27 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater:

January 24 offers Babbitt’s Three Compositions for Piano; Kirchner’s Duo for Violin and Piano; Nancarrow’s Trio No. 1, for Clarinet, Bassoon, and Piano, and Rhythmic Study No. 3a, Boogie Woogie for player-piano, which will be heard from a recording; Thomson’s Eight Portraits for Violin Alone; Beach’s String Quartet in One Movement, Op. 89; and Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever,” in Vladimir Horowitz’s arrangement.

The January 26, the program includes Persichetti’s Sonatine for Organ Pedals Alone; Wolpe’s Two Pieces for Piano; Carter’s Sonata for Cello and Piano; William Grant Still’s Incantation and Dance for oboe and piano; Menotti’s “Monica’s Waltz” from The Medium; and a survey of ragtime to jazz featuring Blake’s “Charleston Rag,” Mary Lou Williams’ “Drag ‘Em,” James P. Johnson’s “Carolina Shout,” and Ellington’s “Come Sunday.”

On January 27, music from Broadway is featured in a wide-ranging program including McPhee’s Balinese Melodies transcribed for modern flute and piano; Carl Ruggles’ Organum, for two pianos; Barber’s Adagio from String Quartet, Op. 11; Horatio Parker’s Festival Prelude, for organ; Ives’ Variations on “America,” for organ; selections from Lou Harrison’s Six Sonatas for Cembalo or Piano; Hovhaness’ Mihr, for two pianos imitating an orchestra of kanoons; Irving Berlin’s “Play a Simple Melody” from Watch Your Step; Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are” from Very Warm for May; Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top” from Anything Goes; Richard Rodgers’ “People Will Say We’re in Love” from Oklahoma; and Gershwin’s Variations on “I Got Rhythm,” for two pianos.

The Focus festival closes on January 28 with a concert in Alice Tully Hall by the Juilliard Orchestra, led by guest conductor Mei-Ann Chen. The program includes Joplin’s Overture to Treemonisha; Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with violinist Timothy Chooi as soloist, and Ives’ Symphony No. 2.

Complete programming information follows.

VENUE AND TICKETING INFORMATION

The Juilliard performance calendar—at juilliard.edu/calendar—always has the latest schedule updates for both in-person and streamed performances as well as scheduled premieres for the growing on-demand schedule.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

To be admitted to in-person performances, audience members must have tickets, wear masks, and show proof of vaccination, which will be accepted via any of the following free mobile apps: CLEAR Health Pass (Apple or Android); New York State Excelsior Pass; or the New York City COVID Safe App (Apple or Android). In addition to these apps, vaccination cards along with government-issued photo ID will also be accepted, but audiences should be warned that this may cause delays, and any one of the above apps is strongly preferred. More information and the latest updates are available on the Box Office web page.

All performances will take place under Juilliard’s stringent health guidelines for the safety of students, faculty, staff, and audience members.

Juilliard’s livestream technology is made possible by a gift in honor of President Emeritus Joseph W. Polisi, building on his legacy of broadening Juilliard’s global reach.

About Joel Sachs
Joel Sachs, founder and director of the New Juilliard Ensemble, performs a vast range of traditional and contemporary music as conductor and pianist. As co-director of the new music ensemble Continuum, he has appeared in hundreds of performances in New York, nationally, and throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He has also conducted orchestras and ensembles in Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, El Salvador, Germany, Iceland, Mexico, Mongolia, Switzerland, and Ukraine, and has held new music residencies in Berlin, Shanghai, London, Salzburg, Curitiba (Brazil), Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (U.K.), Helsinki, and the Banff Centre (Canadian Rockies). One of the most active presenters of new music in New York, Sachs founded the New Juilliard Ensemble in 1993. He produces and directs Juilliard’s annual Focus festival and, since 1993, has been artistic director of Juilliard’s concerts at the Museum of Modern Art. A member of Juilliard’s music history faculty, he wrote the first full biography of the American composer Henry Cowell, published by Oxford University Press in 2012. Sachs often appears on radio as a commentator on recent music and has been a regular delegate to international music conferences. A graduate of Harvard, Sachs received his PhD from Columbia. In 2011, he was made an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard for his work in support of new music and received the National Gloria Artis Medal of the Polish Government for his service to Polish music. In 2002, he was presented with Columbia’s Alice M. Ditson Award for his service to American music. He has recorded for Naxos and other labels. On May 28, he will give a recital in Oban, Scotland, featuring Charles Ives’ Piano Sonata No. 1 and music by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Aaron Copland, and Henry Cowell.

About Mei-Ann Chen
Praised for her dynamic, passionate conducting style, Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen infuses orchestras with energy, enthusiasm, and high-level musicmaking, galvanizing audiences and communities alike. Music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, Chen began her tenure as chief conductor of Austria’s Recreation Grosses Orchester Graz at Styriarte this past fall after two seasons as the orchestra’s first principal guest conductor, making her the first female Asian conductor to hold this position with an Austrian orchestra. She has been the first artistic partner of Houston’s River Oaks Chamber Orchestra since 2019 and has been artistic director and conductor of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Festival since 2016. A compelling communicator and an innovative leader both on and off the podium as well as a sought-after guest conductor, she has appeared with distinguished orchestras throughout the Americas, Europe, Taiwan, the U.K., and Scandinavia, and continues to expand her relationships with orchestras worldwide (more than 110 to date). Honors include being named one of 2015’s top 30 influencers by Musical America; receiving the 2012 Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras and the 2007 Taki Concordia Fellowship, founded by Marin Alsop; winning first prize in the 2005 Malko Competition (she remains the only woman in the history of the competition, which began in 1965, to win first prize); and garnering ASCAP awards for innovative programming.

About The Juilliard School
Founded in 1905, The Juilliard School is a world leader in performing arts education. The school’s mission is to provide the highest caliber of artistic education for gifted musicians, dancers, and actors, composers, choreographers, and playwrights from around the world so that they may achieve their fullest potential as artists, leaders, and global citizens. Under the leadership of President Damian Woetzel since 2018, Juilliard is guided in all its work by the core values of excellence; creativity; and equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB). Juilliard is committed to enrolling the most talented students regardless of their financial background.

Located at Lincoln Center in New York City, Juilliard offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, drama (acting and playwriting), and music (classical, jazz, historical performance, and vocal arts). Currently more than 800 artists from 43 states and 44 countries and regions are enrolled in Juilliard’s College Division, where they appear in more than 700 annual performances in the school’s five theaters; at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and David Geffen halls and at Carnegie Hall; as well as at other venues around New York City, the country, and the world. The continuum of learning at Juilliard also includes nearly 400 students from elementary through high school enrolled in the Preparatory Division, including its Music Advancement Program (MAP), which serves students from diverse backgrounds often underrepresented in the classical music field. More than 800 students are enrolled in Juilliard Extension, the flagship continuing education program taught both in person and remotely by a dedicated faculty of performers, creators, and scholars. Beyond its New York campus, Juilliard is defining new directions in performing arts education for a range of learners and enthusiasts through a global K-12 educational curricula and graduate studies at The Tianjin Juilliard School in China.

Juilliard Focus Festival Performance and Livestream Calendar
January 23-28, 2022

Please refer to the Performance Calendar at juilliard.edu/calendar for the most up-to-date livestream schedule and ticketing information for in-person performances. At this time, in-person audiences must wear masks and provide proof of vaccination to attend Juilliard performances.

Tickets to all Focus 2022 events are free and must be reserved in advance.

All Focus 2022 performances will be livestreamed.

Focus 2022 | The Making of an American Music, 1899-1948

Friday, January 23, 2022, 7:30pm, Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Focus Festival | New Juilliard Ensemble
Joel Sachs, Conductor
JOPLIN
  “Maple Leaf Rag”
  “Sugar Cane—A Ragtime Two-Step”
  “The Ragtime Dance”
IVES Ragtime Dances Nos. 1 and 2
VARÈSE Octandre
COWELL Sinfonietta
CRAWFORD SEEGER Three Songs to Poems by Carl Sandburg
IVES Symphony No. 3, “The Camp Meeting”

Monday, January 24, 2022, 7:30pm, Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Focus Festival | Chamber Concert
BABBITT Three Compositions for Piano
KIRCHNER Duo for Violin and Piano
NANCARROW Trio No. 1 for Clarinet, Bassoon, and Piano
NANCARROW Rhythmic Study No. 3a, Boogie Woogie
THOMSON Eight Portraits for Violin Alone
BEACH String Quartet in One Movement, Op. 89
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA “Stars and Stripes Forever,” arr. Vladimir Horowitz

Tuesday, January 25, 2022, 6:30pm, Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Focus Festival | Pre-Concert Roundtable: Publishing American Composers
Kathryn Knight, President, Edition Peters/U.S.
Ed Matthews, Director of Promotion, G. Schirmer/AMC
Todd Vunderink, Director, PeerMusic Classical
Deirdre Chadwick, Executive Director, BMI Classical (Broadcast Music Inc.)
Joel Sachs, Moderator

Tuesday, January 25, 2022, 7:30pm, Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Focus Festival | Chamber Concert
CAGE from Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano
PISTON String Quartet No. 3
COWELL-GRAHAM Deep Song for solo dancer with oboe, clarinet, and percussion
Recreated to the original score, directed and staged by Terese Capucilli
SESSIONS From My Diary, for piano
COPLAND Sonata for Violin and Piano

Wednesday, January 26, 2022, 7:30pm, Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Focus Festival | Chamber Concert
PERSICHETTI Sonatine for Organ Pedals Alone
WOLPE Two Pieces for Piano: Pastorale and Con fuoco
CARTER Sonata for Cello and Piano
STILL Incantation and Dance for oboe and piano
MENOTTI “Monica’s Waltz” from The Medium
From Ragtime to Jazz:
  BLAKE “Charleston Rag”
  WILLIAMS “Drag ‘Em”
  JOHNSON “Carolina Shout”
  ELLINGTON “Come Sunday”

Thursday, January 27, 2022, 7:30pm, Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Focus Festival | Chamber Concert
MCPHEE Balinese Melodies transcribed for modern flute and piano
RUGGLES Organum, version for two pianos
BARBER Adagio from String Quartet, Op. 11
PARKER Festival Prelude, for organ
IVES Variations on “America,” for organ
HARRISON from Six Sonatas for Cembalo
HOVHANESS Mihr, for two pianos imitating an orchestra of kanoons
A Broadway sampler:
  BERLIN “Play a Simple Melody” from Watch Your Step
  KERN “All the Things You Are” from Very Warm for May
  PORTER “You’re the Top” from Anything Goes
  RODGERS “People Will Say We’re in Love” from Oklahoma
  GERSHWIN Variations on “I Got Rhythm,” version for two pianos

Friday, January 28, 2022, 7:30pm, Alice Tully Hall
Focus Festival | Juilliard Orchestra
Mei-Ann Chen, Conductor
Timothy Chooi, Violin
JOPLIN Overture to Treemonisha
PRICE Violin Concerto No. 1
IVES Symphony No. 2

Subject to change. Current as of January 7, 2022.

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