Curtis Institute of Music

The Curtis Institute of Music

Type	Private
Established	1924
Endowment	$130.5 million
President	Roberto Díaz
Director	Roberto Díaz
Students	167
Address	1726 Locust Street , 1726 Locust Street Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States
Campus	Urban
Website	curtis.edu

The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S. News & World Report, it has the lowest acceptance rate of any institution of higher education in the United States.

Looking southeast from Rittenhouse Square toward The Curtis Institute's Main Building at the corner of Locust Street (on the left) and South 18th Street (on the right) (2006).

History

It was established in 1924 by Mary Louise Curtis Bok, and was named in honor of her father, Cyrus Curtis. After consulting with musician friends including Josef Hofmann and Leopold Stokowski on how best to help musically gifted young people, Bok purchased three mansions on Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square and had them joined and renovated. She established a faculty of prominent performing artists and eventually left the institute with an endowment of US$12 million.

Admission

The institute has served as a training ground for orchestral players to fill the ranks of the Philadelphia Orchestra, much like the New England Conservatory serves as a training ground for the Boston Symphony Orchestra , although composers, organists, pianists and singers are offered courses of study as well.

All pupils attend on full scholarship, but admission is extremely competitive. Besides composers, conductors, organists pianists and singers, only enough students are admitted to fill a single orchestra. Accordingly, enrollment is in the range of 150 to 170 students. The acceptance rate is about one half that of comparable conservatories such as the Cleveland Institute of Music, and one third that of Ivy League institutions such as Dartmouth College.

Nina Simone

At age 17 Nina Simone moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she encountered more racism when applying for a scholarship at the Curtis Institute. She failed to get a scholarship despite what was reported as an excellent audition. At first she was told that the rejection was based on her performance, but later an insider explained her that the real reason was because she was black. With the help of a private tutor she studied for an interview to further study piano at the Curtis Institute, but she was rejected. Simone believed that this rejection was related directly to her being black, as well as being a woman.

Only two days before her death, Simone was awarded an honorary diploma by the Curtis Institute, the school that had turned her down at the start of her career.

Administration

Past directors

Past directors of the institute have included:

• Josef Hofmann (1926–1938) — pianist
• Randall Thompson (1938–1940) — composer
• Efrem Zimbalist, Sr. (1941–1968) — violinist
• Rudolf Serkin (1968–1976) — pianist

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• John de Lancie (1977–1985) — principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra for many years
• Gary Graffman (1986–2006) — pianist, continues on the piano faculty

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Current administration

The current president/director is Roberto Diaz, principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra until 2006 and member of the Diaz Trio; Diaz is also a Curtis alumnus and faculty member.

The current conductor of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra is Otto-Werner Mueller.

Notable alumni

Many of its alumni have gone on to notable careers including:

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• James Adler — composer
• Milton Adolphus - composer, [arranger]], pianist
• Joseph Alessi — principal trombonist of the New York Philharmonic
• Adrian Anantawan — violinist
• Shmuel Ashkenasi — first violinist of the Vermeer Quartet
• Rose Bampton — principal singer at the The Metropolitan Opera during the 1930s and 1940s
• Samuel Barber — composer
• Earl Bates — clarinetist, professor emeritus, Indiana University
• Harold Bennett — former principal flutist of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
• Leonard Bernstein — composer and conductor
• Jonathan Biss — pianist
• Natalie Bodanya — opera singer
• Jorge Bolet — pianist
• David Brooks — Broadway actor, stage director and producer
• Anshel Brusilow — violinist, conductor
• Norman Carol — concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra
• Jesse Ceci — violinist
• Keith Chapman — concert organist
• Marjorie Chauvel — harpist
• Shura Cherkassky — pianist
• Pearl Chertok — harpist and composer
• Young-Chang Cho — cellist
• Nicolas Chumachenco — violinist
• Katherine Ciesinski — mezzo-soprano
• Timothy Cobb — current principal bassist with The Metropolitan Opera
• Vinson Cole — operatic tenor
• Ken Cowan — organist, assistant professor of organ at the Westminster Choir College
• Juan Diego Flórez — tenor
• Miles B. Davis — double bassist, class of 1974 and secretary of the Curtis Alumni Council
• Ellen DePasquale — violinist
• Julius Eastman — pianist, conductor, singer, composer
• Lukas Foss — composer, conductor and pianist
• Maxim Gershunoff — trumpeter, impresario and artist manager

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• Frank Guarrera — baritone
• Anthony Gigliotti — clarinetist, former principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra
• Alan Gilbert — conductor, music director of the New York Philharmonic
• Richard Goode — pianist
• Stewart Goodyear — pianist
• Daron Hagen — composer, conductor, pianist, and stage director
• Hilary Hahn — violinist
• Burt Hara — clarinetist, principal of the Minnesota Orchestra
• Margaret Harshaw — opera singer
• Shuler Hensley — singer and actor
• Jennifer Higdon — composer
• Lee Hoiby — composer
• Stanley Hollingsworth — composer
• David Horne — composer and pianist
• Eugene Istomin — pianist
• David N. Johnson — composer, organist and professor
• Arnold Jacobs — former tubist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and influential teacher of brass pedagogy (deceased)
• Paul Jacobs (organist) — organ professor at The Juilliard School
• Leila Josefowicz — violinist
• Sean Kennard — pianist
• Chin Kim — violinist, soloist, faculty at the Mannes College of Music and Queens College, City University of New York
• Loren Kitt — clarinetist, principal of the National Symphony Orchestra
• Jennifer Koh — violinist
• Lang Lang — pianist
• Mark Lawrence — principal trombonist of the San Francisco Symphony
• Cecile Licad — pianist
• Seymour Lipkin — pianist and faculty at The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School
• Peter Lloyd — former principal bassist with the Minnesota Orchestra, professor of double bass at Northwestern University
• David Ludwig — composer

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• John Mack — oboist
• Nadina Mackie Jackson — bassoonist
• Monte Maxwell — chapel organist at the United States Naval Academy
• Jeremy McCoy — current assistant principal bassist with The Metropolitan Opera
• Anthony McGill — principal clarinetist, The Metropolitan Opera
• Gian Carlo Menotti — composer, librettist, and stage director
• Frank Miller — cellist
• Leon McCawley — pianist
• Virginia MacWatters — soprano
• Anna Moffo — soprano
• Alan Morrison — organist, faculty, The Curtis Institute of Music
• Lorne Munroe — cellist, former principal of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra
• Nokuthula Ngwenyama — solo violist, Indiana University faculty
• Sean Osborn — clarinet soloist, formerly with The Metropolitan Opera
• Elizabeth Ostling — flutist, the Boston Symphony Orchestra
• Janet Perry — soprano
• Vincent Persichetti — composer
• Luis Prado — composer
• Gianna Rolandi — soprano, director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Ryan Opera Center
• Ned Rorem — composer, pianist, and writer
• Aaron Rosand — violinist
• Leonard Rose — cellist and teacher at The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School

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• Matthew Rose — bass vocalist
• Nino Rota — composer and film composer
• Zeyda Ruga — pianist
• Michael Rusinek — clarinetist, principal of the Pittsburgh Symphony
• Ingeborg Schmidt-Noll — pianist
• Andre-Michel Schub — pianist
• Kathryn Selby — pianist
• Peter Serkin — pianist
• Rinat Shaham — mezzo-soprano
• Yevgeniy Sharlat — composer, professor at The University of Texas at Austin
• David Shifrin — clarinet soloist, professor at the Yale School of Music
• Jacques Singer — conductor
• Ignat Solzhenitsyn — music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
• Robert Souza — trumpeter
• Leslie Spotz - pianist
• Susan Starr — pianist
• Arnold Steinhardt — violinist
• Michael Stern — music director and lead conductor of the Kansas City Symphony
• Michael Strauss — violist
• Jennifer Stumm — violist
• Hidetaro Suzuki — violinist, conductor
• Henri Temianka — violinist, conductor
• Benita Valente — soprano
• Pavel Ilyashov — violinist
• Yuja Wang — pianist
• Wendy Warner — cellist
• Andrius Zlabys — pianist

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• Gian Carlo Menotti was also a teacher at the institute.

External links

• curtis.edu, official website