TIANJIN – About 14 years ago, Joseph Polisi, then president of The Juilliard School, started imagining how to take its famous music conservatory into the future. In 2020, his vision became reality, when Tianjin Juilliard School (TJS) in China opened its doors to its first incoming class of 38 graduate students.
“Juilliard always welcomed students from around the world,” said Polisi, who has served as chief China officer for Juilliard since stepping down from the presidency in 2018. “But we weren’t a global institution. We expected everybody to come to us as opposed to going to them. Asia really jumped out as an opportunity area. One has to remember that about 14 years ago, China was emerging not only as an economic power but also as a political power.” After much research, the board zeroed in on Tianjin, the port city for Beijing, with a population of more than 15 million.
Architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, which won acclaim for its 2009 expansion of The Juilliard School’s Lincoln Center facility, designed the one-building campus in Tianjin. The next task was to find Juilliard-quality faculty willing to teach in China. “There was enormous interest internationally,” said Polisi. “We have teachers from France, Hungary, Korea, the United States, Russia, and China, of course. It’s been wonderful to see the extraordinary talent that has come to our faculty.”
The Tianjin school, under the leadership of executive director and CEO Alex Brose and artistic director and dean Wei He, broke ground in 2017. By 2019, enough of the building was completed for Juilliard to launch a pre-college division for children ages 8-18, and soon there will also be continuing education classes. Both programs have parallels at Juilliard.
Despite similarities to Juilliard in New York, the Tianjin campus has a distinct mission. It confers only a master’s of music degree focused on ensemble playing, with majors in orchestral studies, chamber music, or collaborative piano. “All three areas are needed in China, especially chamber music,” said Polisi. “Chamber music is not as widely taught or performed in China as one would think.”
About half of the incoming class is from China. There are plenty of specialized music schools in China that cater to soloists. “We’re not a competitor,” said Polisi. “And I think our Chinese partners and our conservatory colleagues are seeing that now.” Among those Chinese partners is the Tianjin Conservatory of Music. TJS set up a program with the Tianjin Conservatory granting a dual master’s degree, and there are plans for the schools to exchange master classes.
TJS’ specialty in ensemble playing was the deciding factor for some students. Pianist Jinzhao Xu, a native of China studying chamber music at TJS, completed his undergraduate degree in California. “San Francisco Conservatory has a good chamber music learning atmosphere,” he said. “I realized that I really like it, sometimes more than solo performance. I wanted to find a school that included a chamber music program. Not just a course, but a major.” TJS provides that immersion: “I rarely practice solo pieces now.”
He was invited to TJS by Xiaohan Wang, with whom he had studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing when he was in middle school. Wang joined TJS’ faculty, and Xu is glad he came along. “Here they have such a great faculty,” said Xu. “Their playing and their teaching methods are both so good.”
Texas-born oboist Bethany Lawrence already held a master’s and DMA from the University of Texas at Austin, but her curiosity was piqued when a friend mentioned that Juilliard oboe chair Elaine Douvas was looking for candidates to study in Tianjin. Lawrence finds that TJS has an original approach to orchestral studies. “This course is more about the collaborative aspect of music-making and trying to make things work in a larger ensemble setting,” she said. She likes the practicality of what she’s learning. “Here, the research course was directed towards how to use information better to enhance your performance, and how to connect more effectively with the people you’re playing with.”
It’s also thanks to Douvas that Scott Bell, an oboist with the Pittsburgh Symphony for 28 years, joined the faculty. The biggest change for him is his identity as a teacher. “I’m not an orchestral player anymore who does some teaching on the side,” he said. “I am enjoying how my life frees me up to spend more time with my students, and I do think I’m seeing a result from that.”
Bell said he found a certain symmetry in taking a position overseas. “When I started my musical career, I worked and lived for one year in Mexico, and it was one of the best years of my life,” he said. “I thought, why not bookend my working life by having another out-of-the-United States experience? It has not disappointed.” During a Zoom interview from his high-rise apartment, he positioned his laptop to show off the glittering lights of Tianjin.
Violin professor Weigang Li enjoys looking at the the Haihe River through the window of his TJS teaching studio. “It’s like a Manhattan view,” he said. “The new campus is like a dream school just landed in Tianjin.” As a violinist in the Shanghai String Quartet, Li was enthusiastic when Joseph Lin, former first violin of the Juilliard Quartet, discussed making the Shanghai Quartet a major presence at TJS. Li had been living in America for 30 years, teaching at Montclair State University in New Jersey. His quartet considered coming to Tianjin a few times a year. But between his mother’s failing health in China and the start of the pandemic, suddenly it made sense for him to be a full-time resident faculty member at TJS.
Li and all his fellow faculty play in the Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble. As Polisi explained, “It’s somewhat akin to the creation in 1946 of the Juilliard String Quartet, a performing ensemble that represents our standards. They can be as large as 20 members or as small as a piano trio. Because there’s been no international touring for a year, the Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble has been very sought after in China as one of the few international ensembles to perform.”
The school is also committed to creating performance opportunities for the students. That was tricky at first, said Lawrence: “In the fall semester, the international students were still trying to get to China, and the building wasn’t completed. So in January we had a full-week performance intensive where we had three orchestra concerts and about five different chamber music concerts.”
Performance spaces in the new building include a recital hall, a black box, and a 690-seat main concert hall. This last inspires raves from faculty and students alike. As Li put it, “You can sit in the last row and you feel you’re in the fifth row. I’ve played in close to a hundred concert halls in China, and this is the best.”
To help the students get ready for performing, TJS provides 86 practice rooms, lining bridges that arch above the lobby. Even when the school reaches its expected enrollment of 220-240, that’s an impressive ratio. And the soundproofing meets the highest standards. Li joked, “There could be a murder, and no one would know.”
Whereas most schools are stuck with worn-out pianos, TJS’s equipment is a dream come true. “We have over 100 brand-new Steinway pianos, which is amazing,” said Xu. “The string and woodwind players have their own instruments, but the piano students have no choice.” Bell said the Steinway in his teaching studio is dwarfed by the size of the room. “There’s a sitting area, a reed area, a lesson area, plus the piano. It’s almost like having a studio apartment.”
But the school is more than just its facilities, said Polisi: “It’s almost like our faculty are part of a boarding school. They’re there all the time, at eight in the morning and at nine at night. It’s a wonderful interaction.” Bell has noticed a lunchtime tradition developing. “There’s a seating area with tables in the main lobby. What most people do is order something off a food app. You get to hang out with the other faculty and the students and show curiosity about what they’re eating today. The ritual of eating food in China is so huge.”
The hope is for the whole city to become part of the community, although COVID has delayed that connection. “The first floor was designed to be almost completely open to the public,” said Li, “so they can walk in and enjoy the inside of the building. Now there’s a sign: ‘We apologize that this public space is not open to the public right now.’”
Polisi is particularly excited for the opening of Juilliard Imagination, a high-tech public center that will welcome concertgoers and schoolchildren to explore the performing arts. He was inspired by Pierre Boulez’ description of the Pompidou Center in Paris. “I came up with creating a digital space, and we are partnering with Sony. You can experience music in a way that I think is unique in the world.” Offerings will include digitized musical manuscripts and a chance to sit in the four chairs of a string quartet, experiencing the music from each player’s perspective.
Connecting with the larger community presents some language challenges. While the school is conducted in English, faculty and students all study Mandarin. The oboist Lawrence, who tutors her fellow students in English, acknowledges the hurdle of tackling a new writing system. “I started studying Chinese really seriously after a point just because I wanted to be able to read without someone helping me.”
But for all the adjustments required, Lawrence is pleased with her choice to study in Tianjin. “The timing couldn’t have been better for me to be out of the States and be in a new place. And I really do feel like I’m able to build some momentum in my career.”
Bell is proud to be in on the ground floor of this endeavor. “I just want to do everything I can to make this school a success,” he said. “It’s kind of amazing when you start something completely from scratch and then the students show up.” For Li, teaching in Tianjin builds on a legacy: “I was a graduate of Juilliard 30 years ago. Now I feel like I’m holding the flag and passing it down to the next generation.”
Anne E. Johnson is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Her arts journalism has appeared in The New York Times, Classical Voice North America, Chicago On the Aisle, and Copper: The Journal of Music and Audio. For many years she taught music history and theory in the Extension Division of Mannes School of Music.
