Faltering Juilliard hits back with three major signings
mainThe New York conservatory has been losing ground. Curtis, Cleveland and others have been creating the stars of tomorrow.
So Juilliard has dug deep and added three piano powerhouses to its faculty – the British virtuoso Stephen Hough (pictured), Daniil Trifonov’s teacher Sergei Babayan and the Busoni winner Hung-Kuan Chen.
Announcement here.
Unfortunately, the greatest artists are not necessarily the best teachers.
Same goes for academics.
I know the others as pianists only, but Daniil Trifonov loves studying with Sergei Babayan.
There’s more to a conservatory than just piano faculty. Curtis has the highest application rejection rate of any school (including Harvard) in the US. Curtis takes in just enough students to populate one orchestra along with opera, conducting and piano students. It also doesn’t hurt that the superb Philadelphia Orchestra wind and brass leaders teach there in addition to well-respected string faculty.
I agree in terms of the best teachers not always being the finest artists. However, I have been enjoying the CDs of British pianist Christine Croshaw http://www.christinecroshaw.com and her website shows her to be a very forward thinking teacher. She is a professor at Trinity Laban and numbers some of today’s leading younger chamber pianists amongst her students.
Coincidentally, I came across her playing first on a BBC Radio3 programme dedicated to Hummel’s piano music. The station played her blistering account of Hummel’s Rondo Brillante op109 (available to hear in the Discography of her webiste) just before hearing Stephen Hough’s fine account of some Hummel.