Juilliard hires three composers
OrchestrasHaving fired composition chair Robert Beaser last year for sexual misconduct, the Juilliard School has spread next year’s extra load among three new teachers. They are the well-known Kevin Puts and the less celebrated Valerie Coleman (pictured) and Nina C. Young.
Also signing on in the cello department are ex-grads Zlatomir Fung and Zvi Plesser.
Puts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk6D9M4W4MA
Coleman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46IWYnicc1c
Young: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcRfQIYmWSs
Can they compose some lighthearted divertimenti, tafelmusik and serenades we need it in our dystopian world. Or is it all going to be modern academic noise?
Being a composer today is much like being a photographer: Anyone can be a composer and promote their work.
Very few living composers could write a fugue of any value. But maybe that’s not important anymore. Today, it’s about making a social statement through the music.
Juilliard only hires and retires the best. Congratulations goes to these composers and their future students.
Of the three, I think coleman and Young are the more ‘celebrated’ composers. Young’s recent violin concerto is wonderful.
What a joke. I’m referring to the cello appointments as well as the composition ones.
Juilliard is so severely degraded as an arts institution they might as well give up and call it an entertainment academy.
I’m wondering what basis you have for such a statement… I attended their Carnegie Hall all-French orchestra programme last night conducted by David Robertson (L Boulanger, Boulez Notations, Ravel G minor piano concerto, and La Mer) and it set an extremely high standard. Very demanding programme too. They also have a nice video platform for performances with many good things on demand (juilliard.live).