October 26, 2021. Binhai New Area, Tianjin, China.
Tianjin Juilliard College, a highly anticipated Sino-US cooperative education project, announced the official opening of the campus on the same day.
This is the world's top music school Juilliard School's first non-local cooperative education program, and the only overseas branch. As a platform for people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States, this college plays an important role in cultural exchanges and mutual learning between the two countries and in enhancing the understanding and mutual trust of the peoples of all countries. President Xi Jinping's wife Peng Liyuan sent a congratulatory letter to the inauguration of the Juilliard School campus in Tianjin. China-US people-to-people exchanges have opened a beautiful new page in the current complex background.
In the modern Tianjin Juilliard School, the brass band played the first note, the music of "The Horn In Unison" welcomed visitors from all directions, and the inauguration ceremony of the Tianjin Juilliard School campus began. At the end of the song, Joseph W. Polisi, honorary dean of the Juilliard School, waved his hands to salute the Tianjin Juilliard Orchestra, and the second floor audience was surrounded by teachers and students from all over the world, with their eyes shining. Applause and cheers rang out: "We have finally waited for this moment!" Yu Xiang, a member of the Shanghai Quartet, a resident teacher of Tianjin Juilliard College and a musician in the United States, said: "Many of our performers have experienced many years of overseas drift, and last year's three-month teaching experience in Tianjin Julia was very beautiful, last year I decided to officially return to China and come to Tianjin Juilliard to teach, and it is a great honor to witness today." Wang Hongwei, a famous vocal performance artist and vice president of Tianjin Conservatory of Music, was even more excited: "As a partner of Tianjin Juilliard School, we will have the opportunity to share the world's top music teaching in the nearest distance!" Hopefully more people will walk in here. ”
Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, juilliard's first Sino-US cooperative educational project, the world's top art school, has been built over a decade. Previously, students from all over the world have been able to gather in Tianjin under the unremitting efforts of all parties, enjoy high-quality music education normally under the epidemic, and enjoy the happiness brought by the hard-won orchestra ensemble.
How the dreams of American musicians shine into reality
The warm and warm autumn sun shines in the modern and simple atrium of Tianjin Juilliard College, and an old man with silver hair and blue eyes is warmly greeting every guest. He was Joseph M. Joseph W. Polisi is Dean Emeritus of the Juilliard School in New York and Chief Executive Officer for China Affairs.
▲ Polich
Founded in 1905, the Juilliard School is one of the world's top professional art schools, located in the Lincoln Center for the Arts in New York City, USA; it has exported a large number of talents to the world's art field, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Ithzak Perlman and others are famous alumni of the college. Many of the world's major symphony orchestras are from Julia.
In 1983, Joseph W. Polisi became the sixth president of the Juilliard School. A student of political science, he was full of curiosity and yearning for the eastern world, and under his leadership, the Juilliard School became more open and diverse. Polich argues that musicians in the 21st century should not just learn music, but should go beyond the previous definition of an artist and become promoters and advocates of the arts in the communities in which they live. "Only in this way can they effectively show the power of their art to people in all countries and regions of the world." In 2005, on the centenary of the Juilliard School, Pollich also wrote the book "Artists Lead Society", when the dream of "building an overseas campus outside of New York" was born.
Since then, Pollich has led the team to select sites around the world, and a set of data has attracted his attention: "The largest number of international students in the college that year came from China, about 60, and the college had more than 300 Chinese alumni. China is very focused on classical music, cultivating a large number of children who love music, and in China we can recruit students for Asia and the world. "We did a lot of research at the beginning of the project, and our partners, Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and the Chinese government gave us a lot of support in this regard, and finally we decided to build a campus in Tianjin Binhai New Area."
Juilliard's location in Tianjin is no accident.
The openness, pluralism and inclusiveness of Tianjin's modern and contemporary culture have nurtured and laid a unique position for Tianjin in the history of Modern and Contemporary Chinese music: China's first military band appeared in Tianjin; the spread of early military songs and school songs in Tianjin has become a highlight in the history of Chinese music development. Li Shutong's musical achievements in this period have gone down in history. "Tianjin is the hometown of traditional literature and art, and in the development of music education in China, it also has a proud history, and has achieved and witnessed the establishment and development of two high-level music conservatories in China, the Central Conservatory of Music and the Tianjin Conservatory of Music." Cao Xiaoqing, vice president of the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, said this when presiding over the inauguration ceremony of the Tianjin Juilliard College.
At the end of 1949, the new country chose to set up a state-level conservatory in Tianjin, and musicians and music educators from all over the country came to Tianjin one after another. The famous composer and violinist Ma Sicong served as the dean. A large number of musicians grew up working and performing here. Among them were Liu Shikun, Sheng Zhonghua, Zheng Xiaoying, Du Mingxin, Huang Xiaohe, Wu Zuqiang, Guo Shuzhen... It also includes Wang Xin, the most famous author of "Singing the Motherland", Cao Mars, who created "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China", and Shi Guangnan, the "People's Musician".
In 2015, Pollich inaugurated the Juilliard Institute of the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in New York, USA;
In 2017, Polich witnessed the groundbreaking of Tianjin Julia in Tianjin;
In 2019, the first college preparatory department officially opened; (At that time, the campus of Tianjin Juilliard was still under construction, and the school was able to take the lead in teaching preparatory department with the help of its partner, Tianjin Conservatory of Music.) ）
In August 2020, Tianjin Juilliard School was completed with high quality;
On September 14, 2020, Julia's first graduate class opened as scheduled, welcoming students from 11 countries under the epidemic;
In January 2021, the college welcomed 28 visiting students from the Juilliard School in New York, and these Chinese students who could not go to New York to study due to the epidemic could study, rehearse and perform on the Juilliard campus in Tianjin...
After much consultation, the inauguration ceremony of the school was finally scheduled for October 26, 2021. Polich, the 74-year-old, also flew from the United States to Shanghai, China, to strictly implement the "14 +7" entry medical isolation observation. During the quarantine, he kept meeting with the team to plan the future of Tianjin Juilliard College, "We want to lay a good foundation for the development of the next five years." ”
Polich said emotionally: "Tianjin Julia is the crystallization of teamwork, and many people at that time opposed it, believing that this dream could never be realized. When someone says to me that this project is too vast and that it must be difficult to implement, my answer is usually: Instead of cursing the darkness, it is better to light a candle. The faint candlelight in your hand will be a beacon to guide the world, and it will be of great significance. ”
How Tianjin Julia can do "one is not many"
On the evening of October 24, the Concert Hall of Tianjin Grand Theatre.
This was the first time the academy had gone out of the school to sell tickets to the audience, and everyone was moved by the almost full situation.
On stage, the Tianjin Juilliard Orchestra specially selected works by three American, Chinese and Russian composers from different periods, including the highly Chinese-style musical work "Yanhuang Style". After several curtain calls, Chen Lin, head of the conducting department of the Central Conservatory of Music, who served as conductor, had tears in her eyes and celebrated the success of the performance with Polich. She said: "There are several solo parts in 'Yanhuang Style' that are completed by foreign students, the flute chief who imitates the Chinese bamboo flute is from Uzbekistan, the clarinet and British pipe are American students, and the percussion is from South Korea, which requires extremely high aesthetic and philosophical thinking, which shows the results of their study in China this year, which I think has a lot to do with the time they have lived in China." ”
The flute chief, who was praised by Chen Lin one after another, was Alla Sorokoletova, a tall Uzbek girl with blond hair and blue eyes. After the performance, she asked her peers for their opinions on her performance. When she received a positive reply, Ella breathed a long sigh of relief. In order to prepare for this performance, Ella has been trying to figure out the timbre and charm of the Chinese bamboo flute, and the flute solo in the large section of the repertoire is a new challenge: "In order to learn this work, I listened to a lot of excerpts from the Chinese bamboo flute and the national singing method, just to understand the unique charm of the Chinese style. I also record myself while practicing, and the conductor will constantly adjust the way we handle some of our accents, hoping that I can achieve a truly traditional Chinese taste. ”
Today, Ella not only learned Chinese, but also fell in love with the beauty and food of Tianjin, and when the continuous rehearsal performance was hard, she found that the traditional Chinese gua sha and cupping effect were excellent. But Ella's journey to Juilliard College in Tianjin was full of twists and turns.
▲ Ella
In 2019, when she heard that Julia had opened a new cooperation program in China, Ella did not hesitate to sign up and submit an application, focusing on the postgraduate course of chamber music at the Tianjin Juilliard School: "This major is rare in the world and the competition is fierce. Ella, a graduate of Lynn University in the United States, has a wealth of overseas study experience and has also worked for some time in orchestras in the United States and Uzbekistan. While she was waiting for the admission result, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world in early 2020, and Uzbekistan quickly closed its borders; China also announced that it would suspend the entry of foreigners with valid visas and residence permits to China from 00:00 on March 28, 2020.
By then, Ella in Tashkent had received an acceptance letter from the school, and she had received a full scholarship for her outstanding grades – but whether the school would start as scheduled became Ella and her classmates' biggest concern.
At this time, in Tianjin, China, more people are working hard for the opening of the Tianjin Juilliard School. With the improvement of the epidemic prevention and control situation, in mid-August, Tianjin gradually and orderly released visas for resumption of work and production and other necessary personnel to China. Zhao Jianling, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Tianjin Municipal People's Government, recalled: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Immigration Bureau have successively made corresponding adjustments to the policies of inviting foreigners to China, such as inviting foreigners to China, and we are reviewing and inviting foreigners to come to China, grasping a 'current must, the reason is sufficient'."
Seeing that China's epidemic prevention and control situation was stabilizing and visa policies had been adjusted, Tianjin Juilliard College immediately submitted an application to the Tianjin Municipal Foreign Affairs Office – in addition to teachers and students who were already in China, there were 16 foreign students and 37 foreign faculty members waiting to come to Tianjin at that time, including Ella. Each entry officer not only needs to have an invitation letter from a foreigner signed by the Chinese side to come to China, but also undergoes strict review.
Li Wenyuan, Director of the Foreign Affairs Management Office of Tianjin MunicipalIty, is responsible for the Tianjin Juilliard Project: "After comprehensive consideration, in view of the fact that the Tianjin Juilliard Program is an important outcome of the sixth round of Sino-US people-to-people exchanges, in order to ensure that the first postgraduate program is officially launched in the autumn of 2020, our Special Affairs Office issued an invitation letter to 37 foreign faculty members in a timely manner. ”
At the same time, the Foreign Affairs Office of Tianjin Municipality once again coordinated with multiple parties and contacted the Chinese embassies and consulates in South Korea, Hungary, the United States and other countries one by one to ensure that each student's information was accurate: "The first foreign student visa to come to China was issued until the end of August, when all student visas were completed." ”
The moment Ella got her visa, it was less than ten days before the first graduate school year of Tianjin Juilliard College. The administrative teacher at Tianjin Juilliard College assisted Ella to "swipe tickets" online for 24 hours, and finally grabbed a ticket for a transit in Turkey in early October: "I transferred in Istanbul for 17 hours, and then went to Guangzhou to start online classes with everyone." During the quarantine period, the school teacher also called the hotel deliberately, afraid that I would not be used to eating, but the food was really delicious, buns, roast duck, stewed fish. ”
▲ On the winter solstice, Ella (third from left) and her classmates make dumplings together, provided by Ella herself
At the end of October 2020, when the first 39 graduate students from 11 countries were finally safely released from quarantine and gathered in Tianjin, Bu Yiming, CEO of Tianjin Juilliard School, described this hard-won reunion as "having a chance to meet thousands of miles": "Many performances have been cancelled or suspended this year due to the epidemic, and most of the orchestras in New York are now in suspension; but in Juilliard Tianjin, our teachers and students can rehearse and perform together." We emphasize the close cooperation and ensemble between musicians, if we don't bring everyone back, we won't have flute students this year, no oboe students, half of our cello students won't be able to come to the piano room, our student band won't be able to teach, rehearse and perform, so we have to bring all the students to Tianjin. ”
▲Bu Yiming
Saturday Conservatory How 10-year-olds go to college preparatory
At Tianjin Juilliard College on Saturday, 10-year-old Tian Xinmu carried a violin and shuttled with his classmates between the classroom and the rehearsal hall. They are students in the university preparatory class of Tianjin Juilliard College and are members of the school's Youth String Orchestra.
Can a nine- or ten-year-old go to college preparatory school? What is the difference between the college preparatory department of Tianjin Juilliard and the attached middle school and primary school of the domestic conservatory of music?
"The main difference is that we only have classes every Saturday, which can be called 'Saturday Music Academy'." Alexander Brose said. Bu Yiming also stressed that not all preparatory students will become professional musicians, and Juilliard's college preparatory department in New York enrolls about 50-60 students every year, half of whom will choose to enroll in the school of music undergraduate, and the other half may choose Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Stanford, to study philosophy, medicine, law and other majors. The College Preparatory Department offers an alternative option for students aged 8-18 who aspire to study music and want to become professional performers. Preparatory education is very common in the United States, not only New York Julia, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Manhattan Conservatory of Music, etc. have preparatory courses, Tianjin Julia for the first time to introduce this educational model to China.
He Wei, Artistic Director and Academic Dean of Tianjin Juilliard School, added: "In Juilliard Tianjin, pre-school students in Tianjin take an average of 8 and a half hours of classes every Saturday, including music theory, sight singing ear training, orchestra ensemble, wind ensemble, music literacy English class, etc. – this systematic, all-round exercise is very different from the occasional professional class that students occasionally find a teacher. "He Wei experienced the traditional Chinese music conservatory secondary school education since he was a child, and later studied in the United States for many years, and he was well versed in the doorway.
Every Friday afternoon, Tian Yi, Xinmu's father, would drive her from her school in Beijing to Juilliard's piano room in Tianjin. Her friends also come by plane, high-speed train or car from all over the country, and on Saturdays they attend classes all day until 7 p.m., and often study at school after evening concerts. On Sundays, she would spend a morning in the piano room from eight o'clock and return to Beijing in the afternoon. Tian Yi was worried that the child would be difficult to persist, but the experience of more than a year made him have a deeper feeling: "This is what Xinmu took the initiative to ask for, I feel that she really fell in love with music, liked the teachers here, and made friends with common hobbies, she did not feel hard, and even began to look forward to the arrival of Friday from Monday, which is really rare!" The music really ignited something inside her, and I believe it stems from love! ”
A year of study, but also let the youth string orchestra assistant, graduate student Yan Mozhu witnessed the growth of these children: "Most of them have not played the band before, we start from the most basic teaching, who is responsible for the score, how to see the conductor, see the voice part of the principal, but also listen to and cooperate with other voice parts." The children are very capable, and the requirements made by the conductor, including the handling of musical styles, can be understood and done quickly. ”
Nowadays, there are more than 100 children like Tian Xinmu who are enrolled in Tianjin Juilliard Preparatory Department, and there are more parents who run and exercise like Tian Yi around the school: "Don't set limits for yourself, everything is still early, let the children have a fuller opportunity to contact the world, in the future, if she chooses music, then stick to it, if you want to return to ordinary universities, we are very supportive." ”
After nightfall, the concert hall of the Tianjin Juilliard School sounded the tune of "Yanhuang Style", the flexible "Little Cow Herding", like the melodious "Little River Flowing Water", many people silently hummed "The moon comes out bright and bright under the orchestral performance", the flute and the British pipe melody were intertwined, and the beautiful and moving melody attracted the audience's endless applause, and also narrowed the distance between China and the world.
The famous conductor Long Yu has served as the chairman of the advisory committee of Tianjin Juilliard School since 2019, he has witnessed the development of the school and the growth of students, in his view, music is essentially listening, cooperation, is a bridge of communication, Tianjin Julia has built a new teaching system, "not only to let Chinese musicians experience world-class music and education at close range, but also to open channels in music and cultural exchanges, open a window for the world to understand China, and experience the most beautiful feelings of different cultures through music." Let more people understand the oriental culture and the world culture through the Tianjin Juilliard College. ”
On the new campus, teachers and students will also carry out a variety of teaching and performance activities, and He Wei, Artistic Director and Academic Dean of Tianjin Juilliard School, said: "Tianjin Juilliard is committed to the teaching of ensemble art, which is epitomized by the Tianjin Julia Chamber Orchestra formed by the school's resident teachers, and the Tianjin Julia Orchestra composed of graduate students. We have planned seasons for each of these orchestras, with the Tianjin Julia Chamber Orchestra leading the 3rd Tianjin Chamber Music Festival in November, which will also tour Beijing, Shanghai and across the country, and the Tianjin Juilliard Orchestra will hold eight concerts led by a number of renowned conductors. At the same time, next January we will welcome Tianjin Juilliard's flagship music festival, the second gathering of music festivals, focusing on composer Igor Stravinsky and his heritage. It is hoped that the audience will be able to enjoy each performance and witness the ambition, vitality and growth of the students through music. (Reporter: Zhai Jingqiu Editor: Han Zhen, Cheng Ting, Huo Ran)