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      Juilliard Plans $550 Million Drive to Go Tuition Free

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      The goal is to make the school’s programs more accessible and to ease the burden on graduates pursuing careers in the arts.The Juilliard School, one of the world’s most prestigious conservatories, plans to go tuition free for all of its students, the school announced on Thursday, and has begun a $550 million fund-raising drive to finance the effort.The tuition-free policy is meant to make Juilliard accessible to a broader range of students and to ease the burden on graduates hoping to pursue careers in the arts, where salaries can be meager. The fund-raising campaign will be one of the largest in Juilliard’s 120-year history.“If a student can get into Juilliard — and it’s hard to get into Juilliard — it can’t be about the money,” said Damian Woetzel, the school’s president. “Money can’t be the determining factor of having the opportunity to come to Juilliard, to be in New York City at Lincoln Center, and to fulfill that dream that empowers art itself.”Juilliard officials did not provide a timeline for putting the new policy in place, saying only that it would be a multiyear effort. The school said it has received about $180 million in early commitments, including a pledge of $130 million from Juilliard’s board.Woetzel, who has made affordability a priority since becoming Juilliard’s president in 2018, said the school would push “as fast as we possibly can” to make the tuition-free policy a reality. He said he was confident that Juilliard could meet its fund-raising target, though he acknowledged it would be challenging.“I am optimistic, even as I am realistic that it’s going to take a tremendous amount of energy and work,” he said. “I think this is a worthy goal, and I think people will understand that.”Juilliard’s tuition, for both undergraduates and graduate students, is $55,500 per year. More than 95 percent of students receive some financial aid. This school year, 29 percent of all Juilliard students pay no tuition. That number is expected to rise to 40 percent for the new school year in the fall.Juilliard already offers some tuition-free programs; since last fall, for example, it has not charged tuition for its graduate acting track. School officials said they now want to extend that policy across Juilliard’s music, dance and drama divisions, which collectively serve some 900 students.The cost of attending Juilliard has at times been a point of contention between administrators and students. In 2021, students led protests against a planned tuition increase, demanding that the school freeze its tuition.Juilliard would not be the only conservatory to go tuition free: The renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, which is much smaller than Juilliard, with about 160 students, has not charged tuition since 1928, four years after it opened its doors. More

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      5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to in April 2025

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      An exceptional account of Bach’s Mass in B minor, traditional and unusual string quartets, and Thomas Adès suites are among the highlights.Bach: Mass in B MinorJulie Roset, soprano; Beth Taylor, mezzo-soprano; Lucile Richardot, alto; Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, tenor; Christian Immler, bass; Pygmalion; Raphaël Pichon, conductor (Harmonia Mundi)Raphaël Pichon and the musicians of his Pygmalion chorus and orchestra have made some extremely fine recordings over the last several years, from their Monteverdi “Vespers” to their Mozart “Requiem.” This Bach, however, is truly exceptional. It is not at all an act of staunch certainty and steadfast belief, the kind of monument that other conductors have made of this Mass. It’s a human drama, filled with the struggle and complexity of our mortal experiences. Above all, it sounds alive.Blessed with playing and singing of extraordinary virtuosity, Pichon seems determined to find every last accent of expressivity in the score, resolved to shape the smallest details in service of his broader ideas. It’s hard not to be swept away by the sheer vigor of “Cum Sancto Spiritu,” performed as if a gust of the Holy Spirit were sweeping past, or by the regal grandeur of “Et resurrexit.”Pichon is at his most breathtakingly interventionist at the first “Et expecto resurrectionem,” a moment that he sees as Bach inviting us into the darkest frailties of his faith: Everything stretches out as time dissolves and dissonance cuts at the ear. Still, this is Bach, and the “Dona nobis pacem,” though uncertain at first, grants a new dawn that blazes with resplendent light. If this is Bach for our times, then we are fortunate to have it. DAVID ALLEN‘Rare Birds’Owls (New Amsterdam)There’s a lot to keep track of with the “inverted” string quartet known as Owls: It uses two cellos instead of two violins, necessitating repertoire rearrangement; it is game to play Baroque as well as contemporary material; one of its cellists, Paul Wiancko, also composes for the group. Perhaps the most notable thing about Owls, though, is the evident joy that Wiancko, his fellow cellist Gabriel Cabezas, the violinist Alexi Kenney and the violist Ayane Kozasa find when playing together.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jason Moran Unpacks Duke Ellington’s Greatness in a Single Song

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      <!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–>Moran has a lengthy history of paying homage to his heroes in creative ways, whether staging what he and the bassist-vocalist Meshell Ndegeocello called their Fats Waller Dance Party or presenting imaginative staged programs themed around the lives and times of the pianist Thelonious Monk and the ragtime […] More

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      Jelly Roll Should Be Pardoned for Drug and Robbery Offenses, Board Says

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      The Tennessee Board of Parole unanimously determined that the country star should be pardoned, but the decision is in the hands of the governor.Jelly Roll, one of the top names in country music, should be pardoned for his past robbery and drug possession convictions, the Tennessee Board of Parole unanimously determined on Tuesday.The decision now rests with Gov. Bill Lee.Jelly Roll, 40, a Tennessee native whose real name is Jason DeFord, started his career as a rapper but rose to prominence in 2023 with his country album “Whitsitt Chapel” and its popular songs “Save Me” and “Need a Favor.” He was named the best new artist at the Country Music Association Awards that year and has been nominated for four Grammys. His most recent album, “Beautifully Broken,” reached No. 1 on the charts.The singer has been open about his criminal history, including convictions for robbery and drug possession with intent to sell. He was incarcerated when his daughter was born.The Associated Press reported that Jelly Roll was sentenced to a year in prison after entering a house and demanding money in 2002; he was unarmed but two other men were carrying guns. In another case, The A.P. reported, Jelly Roll was sentenced to eight years of court-ordered supervision after the police found cocaine and marijuana in his car.Jelly Roll told The New York Times that he was 13 when the police brought him to jail after an unresolved cannabis citation.“I’m learning to forgive myself for the decisions I made when I was that young,” he said. “They were wrong and I knew they were wrong, and I was doing them with a sense of pride and excitement.”In recent years, Jelly Roll has performed at correctional facilities and testified before Congress about the fentanyl crisis. In an interview with Jon Bon Jovi last year, Jelly Roll said he still had issues performing outside of the United States because of his legal troubles.“We’re working on that,” he said. “I think it’s going to work in my favor.”The Tennessee Board of Parole unanimously voted to recommend granting a pardon during a nearly two-hour meeting in downtown Nashville on Tuesday. One of the seven board members, a former law enforcement officer, recused himself from the case.Representatives for Jelly Roll and a spokesman for Mr. Lee did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the parole board said there was no timeline for when the governor would announce a decision.Mr. Lee, a Republican, has pardoned more than 90 people since becoming governor in 2019 and typically announces his decisions in December. In addition to drug offenses, the pardons have included convictions for arson, attempted second-degree murder, domestic assault, driving under the influence, identity theft and shoplifting. More

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      Maggie & Terre Roche’s 1975 LP Is a Revelation. Why Is It Forgotten?

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      “Seductive Reasoning,” a flop that preceded the Roches’ debut, has a fluctuating sonic palette, contributions from Paul Simon and the sisters’ most brilliant songwriting.“It’s funny how one always wants to play their favorite records for friends, and they never listen properly, never understand them,” Patricia Highsmith wrote in her diary in 1943. Many of us have albums like that, orphaned ones we shyly push on others to little or no avail. We blink back tears while playing the tracks; they wish to flee the room.Primary among these, for me, is Maggie & Terre Roche’s little-known 1975 album “Seductive Reasoning.” It appeared 50 years ago this month, which seems like an occasion to speak up about it. It’s a misfit of a record, and it fizzled commercially: People lined up not to buy copies.“Seductive Reasoning” was such a non-hit that it drove Maggie and Terre, sisters from Park Ridge, N.J., out of the music business — at least until 1979, when they emerged with their younger sister, Suzzy, as the Roches and released their eponymously titled first LP to ecstatic reviews. That album, “The Roches,” deserves its reputation. If you don’t know “Hammond Song,” well, your homework, and a portable slice of bliss, awaits you.From left: Maggie, Suzzy and Terre Roche in 1980.Rob Verhorst/Redferns, via Getty ImagesNothing the three Roche sisters did together, for me, tops the sparer and earthier and wilier (it’s a little stupid on purpose) pleasures of “Seductive Reasoning.” It’s been in the shadows for too long.“Seductive Reasoning” is a young person’s record, a product of overlapping propinquities, made by a college dropout (Maggie) and a high school dropout (Terre) who possessed swooping blood harmonies, a novelistic deftness with language and a whole raft of intense perceptions and inchoate longings to draw upon.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Roy Thomas Baker, Who Helped Produce ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ Dies at 78

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      Among the most successful music producers in the 1970s and ’80s, he helped churn out hits for acts like Queen, the Cars, Journey and Foreigner.Roy Thomas Baker, who was among the most successful music producers of the 1970s and 1980s and who helped produce Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” one of the most unconventional pop hits, died at his home in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., on April 12. He was 78.His death was announced by Bob Merlis, a spokesman, who said in a statement that the cause was unclear.Besides Queen, Mr. Baker collaborated with other well-known bands like the Cars, Journey, Mötley Crüe and Foreigner while working as a producer and sound engineer at several recording studios over the course of his career.He is perhaps best known for helping to produce the nearly six-minute-long “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. In an interview with The New York Times in 2005, Mr. Baker said that the song was “ageless” because “it didn’t confine to any given genre of music.”“I thought it was going to be a hit,” said Mr. Baker, who produced the song with Queen. “We didn’t know it was going to be quite that big. I didn’t realize it was still going to be talked about 30 years later.”Roy Thomas Baker was born on Nov. 10, 1946, in Hampstead, England. He began his career at Decca Studios in London in 1963, working as a second engineer to Angus Boyd (Gus) Dudgeon, an English record producer who would later become known for his collaborations with Elton John; and Tony Visconti, an American producer who went on to work with artists like David Bowie and Marc Bolan.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      An Ode to the Blues’ Many Guises, Inspired by ‘Sinners’

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      Listen to an imagined set list for a supernatural juke joint featuring Albert King, Outkast, Cécile McLorin Salvant and more.D’AngeloZackary Canepari for The New York TimesDear listeners,I’m James, a software engineer with The New York Times’s interactive news desk and an occasional contributor to Culture. I cajoled my way into this space this week after being captivated by the musical ideas pulsing through “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s genre-bending vampire flick that’s also a tone poem about Black love and pain, and the power and cost of Black creativity.In an arresting scene, a transcendent blues musician plays so fiercely, he summons ancestors and progeny to a Mississippi juke joint in 1932. Suddenly and seamlessly, Jim Crow-era sharecroppers, B-boys from the ’90s, Chinese folk dancers, African griots and funk musicians from the ’70s are all together, reveling to the same kinetic sound. It’s a visual expression of Black music’s shared DNA.My girlfriend and I spent all weekend analyzing that scene, pondering the blues’ connections to what came before and since. Here are 11 songs I could imagine on the set list at a supernatural juke joint unbounded by technology, geography or time.If he don’t dig this, he got a hole in his soul,JamesListen along while you read.1. Albert King: “Cold Feet”This infectious stomper from 1967 would set a warm vibe early in the interdimensional party, satisfying fans of the Mississippi-born blues luminary and the ’90s hip-hop heads who’d recognize it as the foundation of Chubb Rock’s “Just the Two of Us.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More