Juilliard

The Juilliard School is a performing arts school in New York City that offers courses in Music, Dance, Drama and Interdivisional Liberal Arts.http://www.juilliard.edu/college/college.html The conservatory aims to provide the highest level of artistic education for gifted musicians, dancers and actors from the world over, so that they may reach their highest potential as global citizens, artists and leaders. One of Juilliard's foremost goals is to identify and attract the most talented young performing artists from everywhere and to try to make sure that money is not an issue to their enrollment at the school.http://www.juilliard.edu/about/mission.html

In 1905, Frank Damrosch, a godson of Fransz Liszt and the New York City public school system's head of music education, sought to build a music academy in America to compete with European convervatories in order to put an end to the need for American musicians to leave the country for training. Together with his financial backer, James Loeb, Damrosch established the Institute of Musical Art. They only planned to accommodate 100 students, and they quickly realized that they had grossly underestimated the demand for formal music training.

It would take more than 20 years for the American conservatory to take the name Juilliard. Augustus Juilliard was a wealthy textile businessman who died in 1919 leaving behind what was then the largest single bequest for the advancement of music. In 1924, the trustees founded Juilliard Graduate School. Two years later, the Juilliard Graduate School merged with the Institute of Musical Art to form the Juilliard School of Music. Columbia University professor John Erskine became the unified school's first president. In 1933, Juilliard's Extension Division, now known as Evening Division, was established to offer continuing education for adults.

In 1945, William Schuman, winner of the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Music, became president of Juilliard. Under his administration, he completed the merging of the two schools, founded its Dance Division, established the Juilliard String Quartet and developed the "Literature and Materials of Music" curriculum. http://www.juilliard.edu/about/history.html