Juilliard School

World leader in performing arts education

Top Classical, April 2022
Juilliard School, formerly Juilliard School of Music, is an internationally renowned school of the performing arts in New York U.S.  

The school began as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, when it took up residence at the corner of 12th Street and Fifth Avenue. In 1919, Augustus Juilliard, a wealthy textile merchant named, died, leaving a will containing the largest single bequest to further music education that was unseen up until then.  

The trustees of the bequest founded the Juilliard Graduate School in 1924 to help worthy music students complete their education. Juilliard was thus immortalized in 1924 through a new institution called The Juilliard Graduate School, funded by his bequest under the auspices of the Juilliard Foundation. In 1926, the Graduate School and the Institute of Musical Art merged to become the Juilliard School of Music. 

Designed as a place to nurture extraordinary talent, The Juilliard School has produced scores of distinguished graduates who include legendary pianist Van Cliburn; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; conductor Leonard Slatkin; contemporary actors Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Samira Wiley, and Michael Urie; and Jon Batiste, bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Since 1968, Juilliard has been the academic constituent of Lincoln Center. Juilliard continues to represent the finest in performing arts education. 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 40 states and 38 countries and regions are enrolled at Juilliard, where they appear in over 700 annual performances in the school’s five theaters. 

The first overseas campus of New York’s Juilliard School, the Tianjin Juilliard School is now a reality. The school welcomed its inaugural class of graduate students on September 14. In the fall of 2020, the school’s postgraduate studies program was launched, offering three collaborative majors-orchestral studies, chamber music and collaborative piano. The Tianjin Juilliard’s new campus buildings will also officially open at the same time. 

If you’d like to find out more, the documentary on the history of the school, named “Titled Treasures of New York: The Juilliard School” features the remembrances of current and former alumni and instructors. It was produced by PBS and it includes comments from world-renowned artists such as violinist Itzhak Perlman and trumpeter and music educator Wynton Marsalis. The film captures the school’s rich history of teaching, learning, and performing, from its inception to its relocation to Lincoln Center.