Second semester at Juilliard

They test us in rhythm and hearing exercises at every intonation lesson. In music theory, we have progressed from renaissance music to baroque music. We will be composing a baroque-style fugue in the latter part of the semester, having learned the theory and how to properly write such a fugue in the first part. In addition, one of my subjects is “Introduction to Music History,” and we study the entire history of music from the beginning in ancient Greece to the modern day. We took quarterly tests in all subjects this week. For music history, the test covered mostly broader knowledge and listening to music from eras up to the baroque period. In music theory, we had to do a harmonic analysis of Bach’s Mass in B minor and an overall analysis of one of his famous Fugues.

In the first half of the semester, I enrolled in an orchestra that rehearsed Smetana’s Bartered Bride, led by one of the world’s greatest conductors, Maestro James Levine, who has been the music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York for forty years. This has been my most valuable orchestra experience to date, in addition to being a great experience. During the first rehearsals, still without soloists and the choir, we did not really click because nobody was used to his gestures and we didn’t know what they meant. At subsequent rehearsals, having explained what each gesture means, he witnessed unprecedented improvement in our performance.

The Bartered Bride was not set in the National Revival period as usual, but in the 1940s, making it perhaps more comprehensible for the American audience. This is the first year of cooperation between the Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School. Every year, the school will stage an opera with the soloists, director, costumes, and set provided by the Metropolitan Opera. In all, we did three very successful performances and James Levine was visibly and intensely enjoying the Czech music.

This was also the time when the London Symphony Orchestra came to our school, along with world-famous conductor Maestro Valery Gergiev. This is another program where a world-renowned orchestra rehearses on the school’s premises and students can attend the rehearsals for free. These experiences are immensely important for us. Seeing and hearing these artists, and the commitment and intensity of their rehearsal work, is an invaluable lesson.

Our spring holiday starts on the 1st of March. I was invited to Santa Fe. I will play a recital there together with New Mexico’s best pianist. We will perform J. Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 and Tchaikovsky’s three virtuoso pieces in a concert hall with a brand new piano, and we will be the first to “test drive” it. During the week, I will also participate in a one-week workshop with children from the New Mexico School for Arts orchestra, which will culminate with a joint concert in Albuquerque. This holiday I will have to practice hard, because my teacher told me this week that he had entered me in the Orchestra Competition as a representative of his class, and the best students will vie for the position of a soloist with the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, playing J. Brahms’ violin concerto. Only one of us can win, but I was happy that Mr. Dicterow chose me at all, because every teacher has a limited number of entrants and first year students usually do not get this chance.

And after the holidays there will be just a few weeks before the final tests in all subjects, and I also have to think about the summer. I am trying to obtain a scholarship for the Summer Master Class led by Professor Vítek of OberlinCollege&Conservatory.