Cort Roberts | Life After Juilliard

Postcards From Juilliard Alums

It has been a little over two years since I graduated from Juilliard, on a sunny day in May 2019. I still live in NYC, and I look fondly on my alma mater each time I pass by—life after has been nothing short of a roller coaster. Since graduating, I joined Ensemble Connect, a fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, and the Weill Music Institute (the next performance takes place March 15). The program has been a dream come true, with plenty of amazing performance opportunities as well as a commitment to community engagement, teaching, and entrepreneurship. As an Ensemble Connect fellow, I’ve been working as a teaching artist at P.S. 200 Benson elementary school in Brooklyn. The creativity of my young students (even during remote learning!) leaves me inspired and fulfilled, and we are so grateful to be exploring music together in person this year. With weekly professional development seminars covering a range of topics, Ensemble Connect has also been an amazing place to foster the diverse skill set necessary for a 21st-century musician.

In 2019, I joined the Brass Project, a sextet dedicated to commissioning new music from composers with distinct 21st-century perspectives. We’ve shared our music across the country, and we enjoy a good deal of community engagement and school outreach too. I definitely have the entrepreneurial bug, so it has been a pleasure to be building something meaningful together with my colleagues. In the last couple years, I’ve also been pursuing my DMA at Stony Brook University, and I expect to finish in the fall. Life since Juilliard has flown by, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Cort Roberts (MM '19, horn)