Juilliard: A History (Music in American Life)

Rating:
Summary: A Major Contribution
Review: Congratulations on a major contribution to American music. I read "Juilliard: A History" with admiration for its fine scholarship and courage in writing about contemporary events and still powerful people with such honesty.

Rating:
Summary: A Major Contribution
Review: Congratulations on a major contribution to American music. I read "Juilliard: A History" with admiration for its fine scholarship and courage in writing about contemporary events and still powerful people with such honesty.

Rating:
Summary: SYNOPSIS
Review: In this first comprehensive history, Andrea Olmstead takes us behind the scenes and into the practice rooms, studios, and offices of one of the most famous music schools in the world.

The roster of Juilliard faculty and their students reads like a veritable who's who of the performing arts world. The music school has counted Josef and Rosina Lhevinne and Olga Samaroff Stowkowski among its faculty, with students such as Richard Rodgers, Van Cliburn, James Levine, Leontyne Price, Miles Davis, and Itzhak Perlman. The dance faculty has included Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow, and the venerable Martha Graham, while bright lights like Robin Williams, Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, and Mandy Patinkin have emerged from the youngest department in the school, the Drama Division.

What is it really like to be immersed in the rarefied, ultracompetitive conservatory atmosphere of Juilliard? Olmstead has pored over archival records and ephemeral material and conducted dozens of unprecedented interviews to paint a true picture of the school's private side and the accomplishments and foibles of its leaders. Through its various incarnations as the Institute of Musical Art, the Juilliard Musical Foundation, the Juilliard School of Music, and The Juilliard School, stormy directorships and controversies have left their mark: Augustus Juilliard's multi-million-dollar bequest in 1919, the expensive move to the Lincoln Center complex, and countless episodes of power-brokering, arrogance, intimidation, secrecy, and infighting. Balanced against these are the vision, dedication, talent, and determination of generations of gifted teachers, students, and administrators.

For nearly a century, Juilliard has trained the artists who compose the elite corps of the performing arts community in the United States. JUILLIARD: A HISTORY affirms the school's artistic legacy of great performances as the one constant amid decades of upheaval and change. Juilliard's magnificent accomplishments are the most precious and sparkling gems in the crown of America's performing arts.

Rating:
Summary: At long last-almost a bull's eye
Review: Olmstead's book is long overdue. While the research appears thorough and the writing professional, there's at least one outright mistake. Olga Samaroff (Stokowski) never taught at the Curtis Institute, rather the Philadelphia Conservatory in the same city. She also implies that the Institute of Musical Art was the equal of the Juilliard Graduate School. All you have to do is compare the faculty and the student body prior to the merger to see that JGS was indeed where the hotshots were concentrated. I have personally concluded that the book is reliable in reporting on the post World War II Juilliard but take her account of its early years with a grain of salt. This is understandable since most of the "old guard" are now deceased. Still, a valuable reference for those of us in the field.

Rating:
Summary: An inside job...
Review: The name Juilliard has been held synonymous with classical music training for so long that it is surprising that no-one has taken a potshot at it. This book is neither for or against Juilliard, but rather an appraisal of its strengths and weaknesses through a look at its history. The chapter on drama, containing so many references to now-household names, might be of particular interest to the casual reader. Dancers may be interested to find out why their department was forced to compete with another school in their own building. Musicians, whether they attended Juilliard or not, will find a lot of Olmstead's observations titillating. A good read, and a lot of insight from someone who worked there.