Music institute hits right note

Young musicians of the Juilliard Orchestra perform at a concert in New York on Jan 24, 2017. Photos provided to China Daily

Tianjin Juilliard School on track as resident faculty appointments completed, Chen Nan reports.

As he stepped down as the president of the Juilliard School, the New York-based performing arts conservatory, in June, Joseph Polisi, the school's sixth and longest-serving president, has fulfilled his vision of the school's global expansion - the Tianjin Juilliard School.

On Nov 15, the Juilliard School in New York announced the resident faculty for the Tianjin Juilliard School and that applications for the pre-college program for musicians aged 8 to 18 are now open.

The school's graduate studies programs, which offer US-accredited full-time master's degrees in orchestral performance, chamber-music performance and collaborative piano, will launch in fall 2020, coinciding with the official opening of the new building.

In addition, the school will offer an instrument-training program, adult education and public performances.

"Having this program in China means that the Juilliard School has a global presence," says Polisi, 71, in Beijing, the day before the announcement of the resident faculty for the Tianjin Juilliard School.

"It will be our first campus outside New York, which will offer an authentic Juilliard experience for students. It's an important part of our global strategy."

Polisi, who is a bassoon player and took his position at Juilliard in 1984, now serves as the chief China officer and the president emeritus of the Juilliard School.

The new school is located in the Yujiapu Pilot Free Trade Zone in the Tianjin Binhai New Area, a one-hour high-speed train journey from the capital. It is designed by the US architecture firm Diller Scofidio and Renfro, the same company responsible for the 2006-09 expansion of Juilliard's New York home at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

According to He Wei, the artistic director and dean of the Tianjin Juilliard School, the resident faculty members of the Tianjin Juilliard School have played in the world's top symphony orchestras, taught at prestigious conservatories, and won awards as soloists and chamber musicians. They include Harbin-born double bassist Zhang Daxun, American violinist Julia Glenn and Chinese-American pianist Alvin Zhu.

"We've spent a year on the recruitment of our resident faculty members of the new school, and the final 21 teachers, who stood out after 10 rounds of interviews, came from seven countries," says He, the Chinese-American violinist, who was born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for more than 20 years. He will also teach violin and chamber music at the Tianjin Juilliard School.

Speaking about the pre-college program which is on Saturday, he says it allows students to travel and spend a weekend in Tianjin.

As for the three programs for graduate studies, he says they are all focused on collaborative musicianship, and are different from those at the Juilliard School in New York.

"This is because young Chinese musicians have solid technique as soloists, but they also need to play together as a team."

The Juilliard School, founded in New York in 1905, has trained some of the world's best artists, including Van Cliburn, Renee Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma.

The school has enrolled students from China since the 1920s. And now, 30 percent of the students at the Juilliard School in New York are from outside the United States.

Currently, students from China form the largest single group of overseas students in the school.

The Juilliard School was introduced to its partners in Tianjin in 2011. And the cooperation was announced by Polisi when China's first lady, Peng Liyuan, visited the Juilliard School in New York on Sept 28, 2015, during a weeklong visit to the US by Peng and her husband, President Xi Jinping.

Speaking about the Tianjin school, Polisi says: "It will be a new hub for the entire region and a new destination for people who want to experience music."

He adds that the resident faculty members of the new school will form as an ensemble, presenting concerts and recitals worldwide, which is just like the renowned Juilliard String Quartet, the school's classical string quartet founded in 1946.

Separately, Polisi says the school aims to train "complete musicians", which means that it requires students to be involved in working in communities, such as hospitals and seniors' centers, playing music for patients and the elderly.

"We do not just want to train the younger generation to be musicians, but also to produce efficient and happy young people," says Polisi.

"It's great to play music at concert halls. But it's also meaningful to play music at children's hospitals."

Musicians must play music that makes people happy and brings hope, Polisi adds.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

Teenagers in a rehearsal of the pre-college symphony of the New York-based music school.

A sketch of the Tianjin Juilliard School.