Books about Juilliard from Amazon.com

The Juilliard School is known throughout the world for its training programs in music, dance, and drama. Martha Graham, José Limón, John Houseman, and members of the Juilliard String Quartet taught there. Van Cliburn, Miles Davis, Robin Williams, Kevin Kline, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Leontyne Price are just a few of Juilliard's celebrated students. Now, in this sparkling portrait-conceived as a companion to an American Masters documentary scheduled to air this fall on PBS-the public gets an up-close, in-depth look inside this legendary institution.

This intimate pictorial study offers page after page of fabulous photographs, clippings, notes, and posters, supplemented by informative captions and quotes by famous alumni. Juilliard is a lively tribute to the continuing excellence of this famed conservatory that, in its 97-year history, has set the standard for education in the performing arts..
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The Artist as Citizen is a compilation of Joseph W. Polisi's articles and speeches from his two-decade tenure as president of the Juilliard School. His writings focus on the role of the artist in American society as a leader and communicator of human values. The extended prologue includes Polisi's recollections of his early days at Juilliard and the selection process that resulted in his appointment as the school's sixth president. Also included is a discussion of the important role that Juilliard plays in the workings of Lincoln Center. Polisi makes a strong point that "there should be no dividing line between artistic excellence and social consciousness." He contends that the traditional "self-absorbed artist" is the wrong model for the arts in America in the 21st century..
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The stress and anxiety which performers experience at auditions and concerts can be managed through the use of many and varied techniques, here explored in a comprehensive book by oboist-composer Stuart Dunkel. Written as a practical guide for immediate use, in language free of confusing psychological terminology, The Audition Process offers a compendium of approaches as presented by other musicians, psychologists, and athletes.

The principal problem areas that one must confront, before and during an audition, are presented in four wide-ranging topical sections.

I. The psychological adaptations to the stresses encountered. This includes understanding how the self operates, the pressures encountered, the indi vidual fears that must be addressed and the self-consciousness that precludes distraction.

II. The reality of the music business. This section encompasses methods of dealing with criticism, failure, jealousy, the realization that one's self-worth is no t directly related to how well one's work is accomplished.

III. Coping techniques and strategies. The focus here is on performance preparation, including understanding and managing feelings, utilizing self-talk, improving concentration, relaxing, using humor as an outlet for anxiety, adopting better nutritional habits, and the proper use of medications. IV. Successful outlooks and attitudes for auditioning. Here, Dunkel explores modes of confidence-building, suggestions for viewing an audition as a pos itive experience and how one's unique individuality can give strength and power to a performance..
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It proved its value repeatedly over the years, but John Ardoin's 1987 Callas at Juilliard mysteriously slipped out of print some time ago. Callas conducted 23 two-hour opera master classes in 1971 and 1972; Ardoin transcribed and arranged these working sessions on more than 70 arias. Far from the stereotypical self-serving diva putting in a personal appearance, Callas was remarkably practical and specific in her observations. Recurrent themes include diction (particularly the expressive uses of consonants) and the necessity of finding a natural flow for the accents of the words, scrupulously applied to the rhythms of the notes. Callas offered her own ornaments, cadenzas, alterations of word placement, and even cuts; all of these are supplied in musical notation among the copious musical examples in the book. Although she might have been expected to concentrate on soprano repertoire, Callas in fact covered not only arias for all of the other voice categories but also duets (from Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, Cavalleria Rusticana). Often what Callas asked for was more easily said than done, and the overriding impression is of how exacting the profession really is. (Fans of the Terrence McNally play Master Class will be interested to know that Callas actually was conversant with the tenor arias in Tosca.) Amadeus Press deserves lasting gratitude for restoring this volume; it is to be hoped that someone will rescue Ardoin's 1974 study Callas, written with Gerald Fitzgerald, which is still the best book about the performer's art. --William R. Braun.
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