Juilliard recruits a Met player as Dean
mainThe trombonist Weston Sprott has been appointed dean of Juilliard’s preparatory division.
Here’s what the press release says:
Sprott will work closely with President Damian Woetzel, Provost and Dean Ara Guzelimian, Pre-College Artistic Director Yoheved Kaplinsky, and MAP Artistic Advisor Anthony McGill on developing the department’s vision, expanding recruitment efforts, and broadening the reach of Juilliard’s preparatory programming. His appointment will begin May 15, 2019, and he will remain a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, which he joined in 2005.
Inspired choice!!
He’s awesome. Nice pick!
I don’t know him but he certainly has a distinguished background: graduate of Indiana U. and Curtis. 14 years of experience on the Met orchestra; teaches at Julliard.
He is featured as one of the faculty in the PBS documentary, Some Kind of Spark, about the music program for low income young students at Juilliard. Highly recommend watching it, very inspiring. Can see it online, I believe. I just happened to catch it on my local PBS station this weekend.
It’s interesting that Europeans can fill the ranks of orchestras like the Vienna Phil, Berlin Phil, La Scala, the Concertgebauw, the Gewandhaus, the Czech Phil, etc, etc, etc, without any elite schools. The Europeans also produce far more international soloists. And yet everyone studies together. No one gets a privileged education.
Elite in terms of quality or price?
Of course there’s privileged education there as well, unless you believe in meritocracy, which would undermine your own argument about USA’s top schools being privileged too.
Actually, in continental Europe there is little difference between universities and music schools. Students mostly go and study at their local institution.
You mean like L’ecole Superior De Musique de Paris? Certainly an elite school.