Office of Admissions Blog

by Corey Dorris, 3rd-year actor

Before I came to Juilliard I heard so many things about the school. Many of them were myths and rumors, but many of them were true and made up what contributes to the school’s reputation. I heard that it’s really tough with a really busy schedule. I heard that it’s really hard to get into. I heard that the students are all great and talented and competitive. All of this is true. But what I didn’t hear about (and was genuinely surprised by) was the amazing student life. There are departments, programs, and staff here solely for the purpose of the student life outside of classes. And they help create a community and an actual college experience that are often overlooked when people talk Juilliard’s great reputation.

One department that probably over half the student body participates in is Educational Outreach. They have a ton of programs, from teaching to performing, that encourage students to participate and engage with New York City. Some students teach to middle schoolers on Saturday mornings. Some students take summer trips to Detroit and Utah to teach master classes or do community service. One thing I’ve done over the last two years is participate in the Gluck Community Service Fellowship. It’s a program for students to form performance groups and perform all over the city in places such as nursing homes, hospitals, and teen shelters. Sometimes after the performance, we stay to talk with the audience members and they tell us about a favorite song, or a grandchild who sings and dances, or things they do in the arts. One time a lady came up to us crying because we had performed a song from her favorite musical.

Another program I’ve participated in is The New Orleans Project, which is led by the Office of Student Affairs. Every year, a group of 20-30 students raise money to go to New Orleans over Spring Break and teach master classes, help build houses with Habitat for Humanity, and teach creative arts classes to students at the local YMCA. The program started 7 years ago because a Juilliard dancer wanted to help her hometown, New Orleans, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Since then, Juilliard has been back to New Orleans every year! I went two years in a row and was surprised at how many of the students from the YMCA remembered my name! Even though we were only there for one week, it proved that we really do make a difference, and that every bit helps. Evey year we hear from the person who runs our Habitat for Humanity site that we put them ahead of schedule on the house we help to build!

Not only are Gluck and The New Orleans Project outreach opportunities that help Juilliard give back to the community, but they help make a community at Juilliard. I’ve met some of my best friends through them! My performance group for Gluck hangs out before and after our performances; and through all the meetings and preparations for the trip, I met some of my best friends during The New Orleans Project that I otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance to meet. Juilliard has a reputation because of all the things you hear about it: the classes, the rehearsal schedule, the competitiveness. But what I never heard about was its amazing community and student life. Those are qualities that should definitely make students want to come and study here!

by Raquel Gonzalez, M.M. – Voice

My third year at Juilliard I joined the Gluck Community Service Fellowship.  I had sung at nursing homes while in high school but didn’t really have much true outreach experience.  I got involved with GCSF after hearing about it from my upperclassmen colleagues. I thought it would be a great opportunity for extra performing opportunities and to be able to perform for people within the city who might not otherwise have access to any type of performing art.

My first group consisted of myself (a soprano), a cellist, and two dancers. A motley crew to be sure.  Because of the size of our group and the space we required, most of our performances our first year took place in the outer boroughs–Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx.  Furthermore complicated by our conflicting and ever-changing rehearsal schedules within Juilliard, most of our performances took place on our one mutual day off: Sunday afternoons.

Our strange group offered certain limitations as far as repertoire was concerned, but for each performance we strove to find a new way to make cello and the human voice serve as an inspiring and exciting scene partner for the magic our dancers created. We performed a lot of Bach, Handel, and Mozart, but found ways to work in some golden age standards and even holiday tunes for our December performances. Our two dancers would improvise to Bach preludes, Mozart arias, and anything else we would decide to throw at them.  Assembling the program for each performance really tested our creativity and ingenuity, but the end of a successful performance was always incredibly rewarding. We worked this way for two years together, and then my former group mates graduated and moved on. I graduated and stayed at Juilliard for my M.M., continuing in the fellowship program with a different ensemble – for which repertoire was much easier to assemble.  Myself, a collaborative pianist, and two more singers make up my current group.  We perform at nursing homes, homeless shelters, psychiatric treatment facilities, and hospitals in the five boroughs.  Our mission? To entertain.

Now, this concept may seem strange to anybody who is training at a conservatory, learning to be always critical of your own work. Though audiences at Juilliard are always seeking entertainment, it is our keen ability as performing artists to imagine the highly critical (nonexistent) dialogue taking place in the minds of our audiences. This is a finely-tuned method we artists use to cause ourselves maximum grief. As soon as we convince ourselves that our audience does, in fact, want to be entertained, we are freed.

Now, Juilliard is not an inherently critical or scary place. On the contrary. But this is the place where we are trying to become our best selves, and–as I said–we like to freak ourselves out. But that is not a requirement (or recommendation) for being a successful performer! And the minute we get away from school, we remember that people WANT to enjoy what we do! Especially people for whom our performances are novelty, are exciting, are NEW.

Selfishly, GCSF serves as a place to remind ourselves why we do what we do when we have worked ourselves to exhaustion and talked ourselves in circles. And the people in the audiences at these various facilities? They feel that, too. These performances serve as an outlet, an escape, a remedy, or as sheer entertainment for the audiences we meet. I have had long discussions with residents at nursing homes about the history of the Metropolitan Opera, or the lineage of bassists in the New York Philharmonic. I have been serenaded by a man at an HIV/AIDS treatment center singing his own composition. I have seen an unresponsive child in a pediatric facility open her eyes and lock them on me as I sang.  And I have had a man in a psychiatric treatment center come up to me after a performance and say, simply, “That made me feel so much better.” And the same was true for me.

by Martin Bakari, M.M. – Voice

Some of the most enriching experiences I have had at Juilliard have been through Educational Outreach’s Morse Fellowship. I was particularly drawn to this fellowship because it not only allows Juilliard students to teach in elementary, middle, and high schools in the city, but it also gives them the freedom to regularly plan and present their own lessons and units as lead teachers. As a Morse Fellow, I am currently teaching general music to 4th and 5th grade boys at the George Jackson Academy in the East Village, and the experience has provided me with great joy and fulfillment.

What I love most about being a singer is having the opportunity to share with others the art that has had such an incredible impact on my life. As a teacher, I am able to do the same thing in a different but equally impactful way. Each week, I get to share with my students musical artists and genres that have had a significant influence on me and the music world as a whole. As my students are still at a relatively young and impressionable age, I often have the pleasure of exposing them to important artists and pieces for the very first time and they receive them with refreshingly open minds.

In our opening unit, we discussed the phenomenon of sound and pondered the age-old question of “What constitutes music?” In our exploration of some of the non-traditional sounds that can be found in new music, I was able to introduce my students to works by some of my favorite modern composers in John Harbison, Leonard Bernstein, and John Cage, and the kids got to compose a piece of their own using random objects found in the classroom. In our blues unit we discussed the origin, form, major artists, and influence of the genre, and each student wrote and performed his own blues song about what was presently getting him down. A unit on the male singing voice allowed us to explore the bass, baritone, tenor, and countertenor voices in various genres including jazz, country, rock, opera, R&B, and musical theater, and gave us the opportunity to examine and enjoy performances by such greats as Luciano Pavarotti, Nat King Cole, Paul Robeson, Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney.

In preparing and teaching these lessons, I have been able to learn even more about the musicians and genres that I love while introducing my students to some of the greatest artists and pieces in recorded history. I still remember the first time I watched a production of West Side Story, heard John Coltrane improvise, watched Michael Jackson perform, and listened to a Mahler symphony. These experiences left me forever changed. To have the opportunity to give these and similar experiences to young people is truly a gift and a privilege.

by Jenna Pollack, 4th-year dancer

Do you remember being told, “Oh dear, if you keep crossing your eyes like that they are going to stay that way”?  Though I must defend funny face-making and the great GIFs they become, I do try to keep my own to a minimum.  Why?  Because the underlying, hard truth behind your Grandmother’s scare tactic is that habits stick.  I believe that the same rule applies in the studio: if you glue your eyes to the ballet mirror- or the script, or the score- they will stay that way.  Well, not your eyes per se, but the intention behind them.   And, contrary to popular belief, in order to reach your artistic potential you must stop practicing once in a while . . . and practice other things.

I have found teaching to be one of many excellent outlets for this. While everyone at Juilliard works hard to get better, The Office of Educational Outreach provides opportunities for students to work hard at bettering the lives of others.  I’ve found this to be one of the school’s secrets to making some of the world’s most talented performing artists. And not only does the teaching fellowship give me crucial skills to better market myself upon graduation, but the stipend lets me take out much smaller student loans.

On Saturday mornings I join one of my dancer classmates to The Children’s Storefront in East Harlem.  We arrive to a handful of the most adorable fourth and fifth graders, and for two hours we lead them through ‘dance class’.  But they aren’t like Juilliard classes. While certainly used, we keep codified French terms to minimum.  We explore new physical coordinations, play games, improvise, and create movement together.  We go across the floor improvising what it feels like to be different animals and different seasons.  We speak complete conversations to each other with our own created movement vocabulary, like the South African gumboot dancers.  We talk about the idea of ‘theme and variations’ and, after watching George Balanchine’s version, ask them to create their own contemporary remix. We watch Beyoncé’s ‘Countdown’ music video and learn the real Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker choreography. We ask the students to work together to generate movement phrases that are put together for a performance for their friends and family.  And week after week, I learn what it means to be a successful dancer from these students.

At the end of last semester one of our students asked about the upcoming winter break:

“So when do we come back to dance class?”

“After the holidays, in January!” I replied.

“What about when school ends in the spring?” her voice a near shrill.

“Well, dance class will go on a summer vacation with school.”

“Ugh, NO!  I want dance class to go on forever!”

I share this not to toot our horn, but to illustrate just how much a weekend activity- whether it be dance or basketball or a music lesson- is a vital outlet for young minds, and especially those targeted by Juilliard’s outreach programs.  They are so important in developing one’s identity, and with different standards from the regular classroom. Extracurriculars refresh what it means to learn and, more importantly, to be successful.

Dance class, as with most extracurricular activities, is a way for our students to express themselves, to push their own boundaries in a safe space, to try out new skins and voices.  Our students make important discoveries about themselves as their confidence grows with exercises big and small.

One of my favorite moments these past two years as a Children’s Storefront teacher was at a student performance last semester.  The father of a girl named Chyna had just returned from prison. He had been locked up for almost the entirety of his daughter’s life.  Chyna was still on cloud nine from his arrival the week before, and performed the best I’ve ever seen her dance knowing he was in the audience.  She has always had a phenomenal work ethic and attitude, and I am so happy that her father could be there to witness her success.  I am deeply moved to think how important of a moment that was for their relationship, and I love seeing him pick Chyna up from class every week now.

For me, teaching these students also solidifies what I (think I) know about dance.  I am re-inspired when they make their “different music can change the same dance!” epiphanies.  I am reminded of the importance of patience when a girl builds coordination to turn in the matter of a few weeks.  I am grateful for our diverse individuality when I give the boys their own steps.  And so I’ve begun to build better habits, habits of character, that I can bring back to the practice room.

Before coming to Juilliard I already knew that the arts were wildly underestimated as a crucial part of a child’s development.  But what I’ve learned since is that teaching them is also wildly underestimated as a crucial part of an artist’s development.

Take alumnus Adam Driver from HBO’s hit series Girls who, in addition to being a total rock star, co-founded Arts in the Armed Forces while at Juilliard.  In an interview last month with the Juilliard Journal Adam talked about the compatibility of his school work with his nonprofit organization: “In a way, it’s [entrepreneurship] the most gratifying thing to work on because not only is it beneficial to have a project where the focus isn’t about you, but it’s also about using the craft as a service. As an actor, there’s nothing that sucks more than feeling that what you’re doing is irrelevant, and I feel like I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a lot of projects that seem very relevant and active and have a point of view and that reminded me that it’s a service.”

So though you don’t have to believe me, you should definitely believe Adam Driver.  I mean, just look at his goofy face.

by Teresa McKinney, Director of Educational Outreach

Educational Outreach at Juilliard provides many opportunities to gain experience teaching in schools and community organizations throughout New York City.  The true benefits of this type of work are not fully realized until students explore and get involved in the teaching and interactive performance experience offered through the Educational Outreach department.

We often ask our Educational Outreach Fellows the question, “how does teaching impact your artistry?”  Some tell us that teaching in the community helps them become a stronger artist and gives them a better understanding of how to communicate their artistry to the public.  Others say they become more aware of how people receive what the fellows are communicating through their performance. Even when performing for children, they find the honesty of the young audience “refreshing” and keeps them on their toes.

Providing interactive performances in schools, healthcare facilities and other partnering organizations have enabled the Juilliard student fellows to hone their skills in deconstructing artistic concepts for a wide range of audiences. These various settings provide the Juilliard student with an opportunity to develop in the areas of public speaking, improvisation, and adapting to diverse performance and teaching environments.

Juilliard’s Educational Outreach Fellows are ambassadors of arts education and represent what is so great about The Juilliard school.  These students have a spirited desire to develop and share their gifts to a global audience.  Whether it be a school, hospital, nursing home or community arts organization, it is our goal in Educational Outreach to provide opportunities for our fellows to refine their skills as a performer and advocate for the arts.

Our teaching and interactive performance opportunities are best described in the voice of some of our Educational Outreach Fellows….

by Patrick McGuire, M.M. Cello

It’s been five years since I auditioned for the undergraduate program at Juilliard but I still remember the intense excitement and nervousness that I felt that day as if it were yesterday. It was the last of five college auditions I took that year and, having been practicing the repertoire for almost nine months, a climactic moment at the end of many hours of hard work. It was exciting to think that I’d be able to show the fruits of my labor in that audition, but also nerve-wracking to think about everything that might go wrong in my playing. My audition was back-to-back with a good friend of mine from the same high school. What if he got in and I didn’t? And, after preparing for so long, what if I had a memory slip or made a careless mistake?

Looking back now, I realize that I was too concerned with the outcome of the audition in the moment and not concerned enough with having fun and making music. Fortunately, a bizarre and unexpected experience in the audition room helped me to get outside of my head and into a normal mental state to play music.

Three days before I’d played an audition at a different school, and it was BAD. Even though I felt totally fine in the moments leading up to the audition, as soon as I walked into the audition room–a computer lab, strangely enough–I panicked. It felt like my arms were playing the cello and my mind was in a completely different place. One of the panelists starting dozing off, and another got up and sat down at one of the computers. After it was over, I nearly ran out of the room and hoped I wouldn’t see any of the panelists again for awhile. Then I realized that one of them also taught at Juilliard, and that he might be on the Juilliard audition panel.

Three days later I walked into the audition room at Juilliard and, sure enough, he was there. I chose to ignore the situation and hoped that he wouldn’t recognize me. I sat down, adjusted my endpin, and took a deep breath. I was about to start with a Bach allemande when I heard from across the room, “Are you Patrick McGuire?”

Yes. It was really happening. I said yes and hoped for the best. But then he went on to ask, “Are you Irish?” Well, yes, I am, so I said so.  “You don’t look Irish.” I’m also Italian, and I said so. Everyone else seemed content with that answer, but then he said, “You don’t look Italian, either.” I didn’t really know what to make of the situation, but it was pretty funny. I would have never expected to have had that conversation in my Juilliard audition and, for whatever reason, it helped me loosen up and to stop thinking about everything that could have gone wrong. My advice for anyone auditioning at Juilliard and other schools is to get out of your head and just let yourself be you.

by Arianna Körting, B.M. Piano

Hello fellow Juilliard applicants! It is less than a week until  auditions begin!  It is such an accomplishment to have made it this far into the audition process, and you only have one last big step left to go. It seems only yesterday when I felt the exact same way as all of you do right now: stressed, nervous, excited, etc. Although acceptance to Juilliard is mostly dependent on the audition, I would like to take some time to give you a bit of audition advice so that you might find your audition experience at Juilliard much less scary and death-defying than you thought.

The moment I walked into the audition room, the Piano faculty members were sitting at a long table. We graciously greeted each other with smiles and I immediately made my way to the piano and sat down. At that moment, one of the jury members told me to begin with any piece I preferred. The best part of the audition process (for Piano) at Juilliard is that applicants are given the opportunity to choose the first piece to play. When I heard of this, I felt relieved because I knew I would be able to put my best foot forward with a piece that I was fully comfortable with. For me, the first couple minutes of any audition are very crucial because I am still in the process of adapting to the feel of the piano. I advise audition pianists to take some time to choose a piece out of their audition repertoire that is the most comforting to play; I decided to play my Bach Prelude and Fugue. Some of you may be thinking that the showiest and most difficult piece in your repertoire is best to begin your audition. If you feel it is your strongest piece, go for it! If not, then I would suggest starting with the piece you feel you will play the best.

After playing through a bit of my first piece, they stopped me and requested for me to play another piece from my audition repertoire list. The rest of my audition was solely based on what the faculty decided to listen to, as will be the same for your audition. The jury may stop you and have you play whichever pieces they deem necessary to get the full glimpse of your artistry. To my surprise, the jury asked me to play the beginnings of each piece in my proposed repertoire except one. What they choose for you all to play is based on the combination of the pieces you have prepared for them along with what they feel like hearing from you. Be prepared for anything!

Here are some additional tips about preparing for your audition that you might find useful:

Make sure to get enough rest two nights before your audition date. For me, it is nearly impossible to get a good night’s rest the night before auditioning. That is why it is best to catch up on sleep two nights before so that you feel fresh and ready to go.

I always make sure to eat a banana at least an hour before my audition because it contains Vitamin B and potassium to help calm my nerves – just a thought!

Lastly, play with much confidence and from the heart. Whenever I perform in front of a jury, I keep in mind that I am there to produce beautiful music and the jury members are there to soak it in and enjoy. Take the faculty on a fantastic journey through the various contrasting pieces you have in store for them. Showing your passion for this great art is definitely a crucial part in winning the interests of the audition jury.

Carpe diem and best of luck to you all!

by Elliott Hines, M.M. Voice

Greetings and congratulations on your invitation to a live audition!  Your hard work has already begun to pay off and you should be excited about the opportunity to get up and perform the music that you love.

That being said, sometimes you get up to perform the music you love and you bring dishonor and shame to the composer who wrote it, and possibly your family, friends, and neighbors. ;D

My name is Elliott Hines and I am a first year M.M. Voice student studying with Ms. Edith Wiens and a native of Houston, TX.  The majority of my undergrad experience was very extensive in choral and early music.  Coming to Juilliard was, and has been, an exciting opportunity to be pushed out of my comfort zone which, in effect, has pushed me to be even better than I thought I could be.

My Juilliard audition was my very last audition.  This was right during tech week of the opera at Oberlin and I had just sung another audition two days before.  I was…exhausted.  There would be no tears shed for the end of traipsing across the country and figuring out creative ways to keep my suit unwrinkled in my carry-on bag.  Nevertheless, I was very excited about this audition and had prepared the LARGE repertoire list to the best of my ability.

The morning of my audition, I met with the wonderful collaborative pianist who would be playing my audition (ADVICE: If Juilliard says, “You can meet with your pianist beforehand”, DO IT. PAY THE 30 DOLLARS AND DO IT. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT).  I brought him a separate binder with all my music, double sided, no bass notes chopped off, and clean.  We spent about 30 minutes just setting tempi for the 9 pieces and, more specifically, working out the fancy fireworks I was going to do on my Handel aria, should they pick it.   Now I was just ready to go and sing my face off and get into Juilliard!

Most of the other guys around were super friendly and supportive of one another, which was great.  I got out on stage an opened with Duparc “Le Manoir de Rosemonde” which went splendidly.  They then asked for Grieg “Zur Rosenzeit” which went ever better!  I had done my 2 pieces and if I didn’t get it, then at least I know I had sung well!

The panel began to speak amongst each other and was debating a 3^rd piece for me to sing: a Stravinsky aria or an obscure Handel aria.  They decided on the Handel after me describing the aria to them.  This is where I started to sound TERRIBLE.

I got way too excited about this aria and was pushing it way too fast for me to sing.  There was a point where my voice was singing but I was not present in my body and I just knew that the sounds coming out were BAD.  I was singing super pushed, not singing HALF of the coloratura notes, and couldn’t breath. I stopped, nervously laughed out loud and asked, “Can I try that again?!”

Awkward….

Thinking that the restart would help me get back in it, I only sounded worse and worse. I missed ALL of the cadenzas that I had so carefully planned with the pianist out of sheer nervousness, I cracked a couple of times, and acting…not even in existence.  There was NO WAY I was getting in.

The thing to remember though is that the audition panel UNDERSTANDS.  They have all been there. They are all human and have had bad days and performances, too.  It doesn’t make you a bad artist or a bad person or mean that you didn’t work hard enough.  As important as those 15 minutes are, and as important as it is to do your very best and present yourself in the best way possible, mistakes happen and IT’S OKAY.  You’re auditioning to come to SCHOOL and LEARN, and they want to help you.  If your audition isn’t perfect, PLEASE trust that they see your POTENTIAL and not your hiccups.

My advice:

1. Do music you love.
2. Be completely prepared
3. Rehearse with your pianist beforehand and bring nice copies of your music.  You will not regret it.
4. Be nice to the people around you!  You’re all in the same boat just trying to do your best.  Support each other.

by Daniel Chmielinski, B.M. Jazz Studies

The drive from Chicago to New York City is about thirteen hours. Since flying was out of the question due to the large double bass coming along for the trip, we decided to take on the thirteen-hour trek. With the car loaded up and my dad in the driver’s seat, we set off; only 900 miles between me and the audition that my entire musical career had been leading up to. It was Juilliard, the big one.

It was the last stop on the college audition tour, and by far the most challenging. With only about 40 students in the entire program, I felt my chances of getting in were slim at best. Lots of thoughts run through your head on a drive of that nature. You really hope that you perform at the top of your ability and leave absolutely everything you have on the table. You hope that all of your hard work pays off and that you don’t let nerves hinder you. Mostly though, you just hope that it goes as smoothly as possible.

When I arrived, I immediately recognized most of the other bassists auditioning. In an age focused so heavily on social media, you are incredibly in tune with the “who’s who” of your age bracket. You know who has won what audition, who has been featured in what bands and who has won what competitions. You may never have met them in person before, but you know who they are. Being that they only called back 9 of us, this was quite intimidating.

I threw myself in the practice room and waited to be called in. I didn’t have much time though, as I was called in not long after I finished warming up, cursing the fact that my last name starts with a C as I headed towards the room. (Why couldn’t it have been Zhmielinski?) Immediately, my heart began to race as I was greeted by 15 faculty members sitting behind a table only a few feet from where I was supposed to stand, in a rhythm section with Helen Sung on piano and Luca Santaniello on drums. As they began to introduce themselves one by one, I wanted to yell “Yes! I know who you all are!  I have your records; I’ve seen you in concert. This is really unnecessary.” But with each name, the tension grew.

And then, somehow, my attitude completely flipped. My incredible state of nervousness had transformed into incredible excitement. I was excited at the thought that I could have the opportunity to work with all these incredible musicians on a daily basis. I was about to play the music I loved with a world-class rhythm section for a group of people whom I had admired for years. It was then that I realized that they were on my team. It became solely about the music at that point. My ego shut off, I heard “start whenever you’re ready,” and I began to play.

It would be a lie to say that the audition was not tense. It most certainly was, but somehow the previously stated rationale got me through it. I knew that I was giving it my all, and whatever happened afterward was not a reflection of how I performed, but rather how they perceived it. I knew 110% was coming out of my instrument, firing on all cylinders, and that was that. You don’t think, “Gosh I really hope they’re enjoying this” in the moment, you just go for it. It is a surreal experience.

I was fortunate enough to get my acceptance letter a month later, and am currently living out the dream playing the music I love and learning from people who are some of the finest jazz musicians and educators in the world. Whether the letter said yes or no, I knew that what I left in that room was me. I gave them who I was as a musician, as a person, and as a student. And as chance would have it, they liked me.

by Monia C. Estima, Associate Director for Music Admissions

Admissions is! (Well…almost.) While you’ve been practicing, we’ve been preparing all of the materials necessary to audition about 1300 music applicants over 7 days. So I suppose we’ve all been kind of busy, gearing up for that first week of March, eh?

Next week, you’ll read audition stories from some of our current music students, but there’s one audition story to which the average individual may not give any thought—the faculty’s. “What’s there to think about?” you may ask. “They’ll ask me to play a bit and then they’ll send me on my merry way, right?” Well, that’s just part of the story.

Sure, you step into your audition room, smile big at everyone, and do your best to knock their socks off. What you don’t know is how big they’re smiling back at you. (It may not be immediately apparent, but trust me: they’re smiling in their hearts.)  (I promise.) What you don’t know is how excited they are to meet you. What you don’t know is that they want to love you. Juilliard’s music faculty, who are among the most dedicated and caring teachers I’ve known in all my years in higher education, share your passion for music, and they are ready, willing, and eager to be WOWED by you.

So just before you cross the threshold of your audition room, remember that you’re about to do the thing you absolutely LOVE, and when you do what you love, there’s nothing at all to fear. The faculty at your audition want you to do well, as do all of us here at Juilliard, including our current students, who hope they’ll have the opportunity to work with you next year.

We’re all rooting for you.

(PLUS, we’ll have bananas and chocolates waiting for you at the check-in table in Larkin Lobby, and if that ain’t love, I don’t know what is.)

PS: For those about to ROCK—I salute you.