♫ ♫ ♫ [fast orchestral music and foreign singing]
BRIAN ZEGER: The unique thing about the training at
Juilliard's Marcus Institute is we're able
to have a completely individualized course of study to find out who each
singer is as an artist and help shape and develop that artistry.
MARY BIRNBAUM: We believe in crafting a performer
who knows what kind
of art they want to make and knows how
to go out into the world and make that
art and is unrelenting about their
pursuit of artistic greatness.
KATERINA BURTON: The faculty is incredible they're always
there for you, even somebody that you are
not studying with—if you ever have a
question you can always turn to anyone
in this building and they're gonna do
everything they can to help you.
ÄNEAS HUMM: Our voice teachers, they take care of our
vocal health, our technique, our breathing, and our coaches are there for language
issues, rhythm issues, musical questions...
Working with them is so rewarding
because, when you work over a longer
period of time on a piece of music, you really feel the change.
ZEGER: We actually have just over 60 singers total,
so the approach to learning here is extremely individualized.
We know what our students are up to
to a really minute degree because
none of them are anonymous to us.
We can really track their development
and customize it to how that student's changing.
EDITH WIENS: The education we offer here at Juilliard is truly second to none.
It is arduous, it requires real discipline, but don't tell me our
profession doesn't, you've got to know on
every note what we're doing, so it's the
training to be specific that is what I find at Juilliard.
ZEGER: I'm very proud of the fact that there's
really no barrier between undergraduate
opportunities and graduate opportunities.
A capable singer who's ready to do something can perform at any level.
We really mix all of our programs in all of our productions as needed.
WIENS: The performance opportunities are insanely marvelous,
and it doesn't matter what you're good at
there are performance opportunities going from cabaret through American
songbook to our four operas to the Liederabends to the live streamings—
everything is represented.
OLIVIA MCMILLAN: One of the most special things about being a part
of Vocal Arts is that I've been able to sing in many different styles.
The technical training here has given me a
platform to explore other genres like so
many of our alumni do that's been really
important to my creative development, my
development as a vocalist technically,
and even my development as a human being.
BIRNBAUM: Each student is given roles that we hope
will stretch them and encourage them to
blossom further as an artist.
We really relish the opportunities to work with
our students in creating productions that we believe are full of life.
BURTON: I was very fortunate to be Mrs. Grose
in our production of Turn of the Screw and that
was an incredible experience because that was the first time that I really
had a chance to be able to work with a costume department and a makeup
department and to work with a director and staging it was the real thing, and it
gave me a taste of what it's like to be in a professional company.
ZEGER: One of the things we've been able
to develop is a whole network of professional companies
that has included the Metropolitan Opera, the Chicago Lyric, the Vienna State Opera,
Bavarian State Opera Munich, Frankfurt, Geneva, Zurich...
Each year we have extraordinary luck with
placing our students into professional contracts with those companies.
HUMM: Going into the professional world now, I really feel
knowing how to learn a score of music a whole opera and knowing how to prepare
this on my own is a big plus because nothing can ever shock you again.
MATTHEW PEARCE: Once you step foot into Juilliard,
you are in the public eye,
which is really, really fantastic because I have sung concerts and had
people come up to me and say,
"Hey, I saw you in this, I saw you in this, I saw you in this."
WIENS: The professional preparation is so keenly geared to what is needed.
The language study, the dramatic study,
the coaches all are preparing people not for
the school we're preparing them for life.
ZEGER: For me as an educator, one of the most
exciting things about being here is watching someone enter the building from
where ever they come from, either for four years of
an undergrad program or two years of a grad program and seeing that enormous
change that can happen.
MCMILLAN: Coming in I had this voice and I knew that it was good
enough to get me into this school, but I didn't know what to do with it.
Working with incredible faculty and the
coaches and my teacher, I feel like I have
finally found my voice and I was put here
for a reason, I deserve to be here,
and I do have a story that I want to tell that deserves to be told.
PEARCE: I remember when I first knew that
I was coming to Juilliard, I ended up standing outside of
the glass panels out by Alice Tully Hall,
and just thinking, "This is unbelievable."
To be right in the heart of it, to be able to look across the street
and see the Met, to look across and see David Geffen Hall, to have all the
opportunities...it's a dream!
You can't even imagine what that's like until you come here.
♫ ♫ ♫ [fast orchestral music]
[applause]