Bringing Historical Performance to China

This fall, a group of Historical Performance (HP) students, faculty, and staff traveled to China for a tour that included a residency at The Tianjin Juilliard School (TJS) and performances at four venues around the country: the China Conservatory in Beijing, Jiangsu Performing Arts Center in Nanjing, Jinji Lake Concert Hall in Suzhou, and the West Bund Museum in Shanghai. Karin Brookes, administrative director of HP, and several New York (Annemarie Schubert and Nathan Mondry) and Tianjin (Anna Zhukova and Yunbei Liu) students wrote about the experience.

Transformative Days

By Karin Brookes
Studying historical performance, you encounter the paradox of playing music almost exclusively more than 200 years old and often considerably older, while the discipline itself is very recent. Juilliard HP, which was founded in 2009, is the school’s newest department, and while the idea that musicians might use primary resources to research how to play Baroque and Classical music was revolutionary for several decades, it is now accepted practice in much of North America and Europe.

The practice of historical performance remains largely unfamiliar in China, however, and it was with some uncertainty that second-year HP students embarked on program’s inaugural China tour in October. Juilliard415, the school’s principal period-instrument ensemble, takes its name from the pitch commonly associated with the performance of baroque music (A=415). Before traveling to five other cities, the students spent a transformative five days at TJS, marking the first visit from a large Juilliard ensemble since it opened, in 2019.

The centerpiece of the TJS residency was a Juilliard415 concert in front of an extraordinarily attentive, large audience ranging from toddlers to seniors. That was complemented by workshops on theorbo, harpsichord, and baroque flute, with additional coaching sessions and an opportunity for the 13 HP students to share their experience and techniques in a side-by-side rehearsal with TJS students.

Organizing a large ensemble tour requires significant financial, administrative, and artistic resources. The joy of introducing Bach, Corelli, Handel, Rebel, and Vivaldi, all played on historical instruments, with mezzo-soprano Xenia Puskarz Thomas (MM ’22), to new and enthusiastic audiences proved the investment worthwhile.

Karin Brookes is administrative director of Historical Performance

Energy and Eagerness

By Annemarie Schubert
When I decided to attend Juilliard for a master’s in Historical Performance, I thought the program would help me travel around the U.S., to Europe, and maybe to South America. I didn’t expect to have the privilege of traveling to China.

We arrived after a 17-hour flight—the longest most of us had ever taken— bleary and delighted to discover a sign reading COFFEE in bright pink letters, but stymied by our inability to order. The point-and-choose method of ordering we had to rely on throughout the trip mostly served us well. At one point, though, even when a nice gentleman helped me order, the iced milk jasmine tea I wanted ended up being hot tea after my phone kept trying to translate WeChat into German. The tea was delicious, but not quite the right thing for muggy Nanjing.

Playing our instruments, luckily, didn’t entail so much guesswork and chance. Each concert we played—in Tianjin, Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Shanghai—was lively and unique. Because we knew these pieces so well, we were able to be minutely attentive and immediately creative, all the more so since we had five opportunities to play the repertoire. In the opening of the Vivaldi double concerto, Ela [Kodžas, also a second-year master’s violinist] would surprise me by starting differently each night, and I would swoosh to catch her, chasing her up and down the D-minor arpeggio that opens the piece.

I hope our energy and eagerness were palpable and that the audiences felt how much we loved each moment of the repertoire, from the opening steps of my favorite chaconne to the closing sighs of Handel’s “Ombra mai fu.”

Violinist Annemarie Schubert is a second-year Historical Performance master’s student

Something to Savor

By Nathan Mondry
When a harpsichordist goes on tour, for better or worse, you’re encountering a new keyboard at every new venue. Sometimes, you show up and the harpsichord is ready to go. Of course, “ready to go” is a relative term, since even if the touch of the keys is fine and neither string or plectra need replacing, the harpsichordist will tune the instrument at least once, and probably once again after the dress rehearsal. This was the case on our China tour; the instrument at Tianjin Juilliard, a French-style double manual harpsichord, looks, sounds, and is quite new—only three years old.

Other times, you find an instrument with a lot of potential, though you recognize a long day lies ahead in preparing it. One harpsichord offered a nice sound, but with 30 keys whose plectra I had to shave to equalize the touch across the keyboard. And of course, it still needed to be tuned twice. Sometimes an instrument has been tuned too high, so it has to be detuned multiple times, or it has nonfunctional stops. But our final venue had a reliable Klop harpsichord that was fun to play and projected well.

Such is the reality of the traveling harpsichordist. But when all these variations get frustrating, I take stock and remember that I prefer the ups and downs of playing the harpsichord to my previous instrument, modern piano. As part of our tour, Juilliard415 arranged a trip to the Great Wall, one of humankind’s most sublime feats. While I only managed two towers—it’s tough walking!—it made my problems seem insignificant. It’s hard to express the extent of my gratitude to Juilliard415 for all of this. I realize that, with harpsichord variety as with life, there’s hardly a dull day, and you can always find something to savor.

Harpsichordist Nathan Mondry is a second-year Historical Performance graduate diploma candidate

Embracing Different Perspectives

By Anna Zhukova and Yunbei Liu
During Juilliard415’s highly anticipated visit to TJS this fall, we had a packed schedule including a concert, side-by-side rehearsals, a lecture, and master classes. In his lecture on Baroque music as a second language, Robert Mealy, Juilliard’s director of historical performance, helped us grasp the unique interpretations of this form. The discussion highlighted the historical context and stylistic nuances of Baroque compositions, illustrating how varied interpretations can shape the listener’s experience. Afterward, Ken Lam, director of orchestral studies and resident conductor at TJS, talked about the value of adaptability in music, noting that collaboration involves embracing different perspectives. Our dean at TJS, Katherine Chu, spoke about how important it is for musicians to listen to a variety of music to deepen our understanding and enhance our artistry.

One highlight of the visit was the side-by-side rehearsals. We were paired with Juilliard415 musicians as stand partners, playing works by Handel. Juilliard415 lent us historical instruments and bows, demonstrating proper posture and technique. The structure of Baroque compositions is quite simple, with high-register instruments (flute and violin) playing the treble line and low-register instruments (cello, bassoon, etc.) playing the bass line. This requires performers to maintain a high level of unity in their playing, encompassing note shape and length, bow distribution, speed and pressure, sound quality, color, phrasing, direction, dynamics,
and articulation.

Mealy said he hoped the visit would plant a seed of Baroque music in our hearts. Our classmate Yi Luo, a flutist, told us “that seed has already begun to sprout,” adding that “hearing authentic performances of Bach and Vivaldi and experiencing Handel in a side-by-side setting was incredibly valuable.”

Describing Baroque music as a second language symbolizes the cultural exchange that occurred, emphasizing music is a universal language capable of transcending barriers. This visit was a celebration of community, learning, and artistic connection, and we hope it laid the groundwork for future collaborations.

Anna Zhukova (collaborative piano) and cellist Yunbei Liu (instrumental and chamber music studies) are first-year Tianjin Juilliard master’s students