A Thoroughly Modern Spring

Friday, Mar 01, 2024

Juilliard Journal

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The photo captures a vibrant orchestral performance in progress inside a modern concert hall. The musicians are seated in a semi-circular arrangement on stage, surrounded by wood-paneled walls that reflect the colorful, abstract light patterns projected above them, creating a dynamic and festive atmosphere. A conductor is visible at the forefront, leading the orchestra. The audience, seated in the curved balconies and the main floor, is attentively watching the performance in a well-lit, packed venue.

MAP and Philharmonic musicians in last spring’s Composing Inclusion performance in Geffen Hall

By Kevin Filipski

The Juilliard spring music season features exciting and challenging works whose composers range from Bach, Mozart, Debussy, and Bartók to present-day composers, among them many alums and students. Here are just a few highlights of some of the newer music that will be presented.

The Juilliard Orchestra’s annual Composers Concert in February, conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky (BM ’88, MM ’90, percussion), featured a quartet of world premieres by winners of last spring’s orchestra composition competition. The students and their works are Jiaqi “Jacky” Liu (Crossing), Sofia Ouyang (As if sharing a joke with nothingness), Matthew Schultheis (Governing Forces), and Christian Wray (Broken Records). Works by student composers Christopher Armstrong and Danae Venson were premiered in February as part of the Arts and Society Series in a concert called Claiming Your Space: A Celebration of Black Music at Juilliard.

The New Series, led and curated by the dean and director of the Music Division, David Serkin Ludwig (Graduate Diploma ’02, composition), began last season as an exploration of the music of our time through interdisciplinary collaboration. It continues this spring with a program called The Mad King (Mar. 25 and 26), which brings together a trio of works anchored by Peter Maxwell Davies’ 1969 monodrama, Eight Songs for a Mad King. The performance also includes Kaija Saariaho’s From the Grammar of Dreams (1988) and Arnold Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon (1942–43), is directed by Mary Birnbaum (faculty 2011–present), and features drama and music students as well as projections created by the Center for Innovation in the Arts.

On April 8, AXIOM, led by Milarsky, performs three works of impressive sonic and geographic breadth: Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Hrím (2010); Estonian Arvo Pärt’s double concerto, Tabula Rasa (1977); and Hungarian György Ligeti’s fiendishly intricate Violin Concerto (1992).

Juilliard Orchestra in the midst of a performance, with Marin Alsop energetically leading the ensemble. The conductor, positioned in the center, is dressed in a dark suit with their arms raised, baton in hand, expressing passion and command. The musicians, focused and playing their instruments, are arrayed in a traditional orchestral setup on the stage of a concert hall. The audience fills the theater, witnessing the event in a well-lit and grand venue, which adds to the formal and prestigious atmosphere

Alum Marin Alsop returns to conduct the final Juilliard Orchestra concert of the season

This spring, the Preparatory Division is also featuring contemporary as well as traditional work including the second year of Composing Inclusion, a joint partnership with the New York Philharmonic and American Composers Forum that’s funded by the Sphinx Venture Fund. The idea behind the project is for composers from historically underrepresented backgrounds to create “flexible” or adaptable scores in collaboration with both young and seasoned musicians. On April 20 in David Geffen Hall, the Pre-College Orchestra will perform alongside members of the New York Philharmonic in Composing Inclusion world premieres by composers Nicolás Lell Benavides and Andrés Soto. The Pre-College Orchestra will reprise those works on May 25.

On May 4, the MAP Wind Ensemble, String Ensemble, and Orchestra will make their Alice Tully Hall debuts in a program that includes an orchestral commission by MAP composer in residence Marcus Norris. Also on May 4, the Pre-College Symphony will perform Stella Sung’s Loco-Motion (2011); The People’s Awakening by Mary D. Watkins, a co-commission by Juilliard and Interlochen; an oboe concerto by competition winner Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda; and other works. Leading this performance will be Kalena Bovell, assistant conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

For its April 2 Carnegie Hall concert, the Juilliard Orchestra, led by David Robertson, director of conducting studies, will perform several Notations (1945) of Pierre Boulez (faculty 1972–75), alternating between the original piano versions and the later orchestral works.

And rounding out the season, on May 23, Marin Alsop (Pre-College ’72; BM ’77, MM ’78, violin) conducts the orchestra in classic 20th-century works by Strauss (Don Juan) and Bartók (Concerto for Orchestra) as well as the world premiere of a work Juilliard commissioned for this concert, from Hilary Purrington (MM ’15, composition).

Kevin Filipski is Juilliard’s program editor

A version of this article also appears in the February Playbill and appears here by permission