Juilliard Fall Festival Opening Night

Peter Jay Sharp Theater, New York City
September 12, 2025

Juilliard’s Fall Festival opened with an enjoyable evening of music, dance and drama directed by Jamar Roberts (choreographer, Arnhold Creative Associate at Large and Distinguished Visiting Faculty) that pointed towards the future.

Following a sparkling rendition of Wayne Shorter’s ‘Black Diamond’ by the Juilliard’s Duke Ellington Ensemble, Juilliard President, former New York City Ballet principal Damian Woetzel explained how the school is seeking to go fully tuition-free with the launch of a $550 million fundraising drive. The move would not only take away the financial challenges and debt students face, but widen the range of applications and thus the pool of talent the school can draw from, he believes. It’s impossible to argue with his view that, culture is what binds us, and cannot just be for those who can afford it.”

The plan will clearly take years to come to full fruition, but the graduate acting track is already tuition-free, and 29 percent of all students paid no tuition during the last academic year.

First of the evening’s dance pieces was Ballad and Dance, an intense duet by Bobbi Jene Smith for Seth Gibson and Jaden Galán-Roman, who were accompanied by Virgil Moore and Dylan Hamme on violins, and in which the instruments spoke as much as bodies.

In July, former Merce Cunningham Company dancer Melissa Toogood took over as the dance program’s dean, and for the evening staged a duet from Cunningham’s Beach Birds. Madalin Autry and Galán-Roman gave a beautifully observed study of their subject.

Jamar Roberts’ own contribution to the Opening Night was another world premiere, From Root to Sky. Set to music by Arnhold Creative Associate Caroline Shaw, the piece for seven dancers opens darkly against black under a hazy cloud before finishing brightly against white, the choreography now more free and airy as the work indeed takes to the sky.

The choreography’s touches of hip-hop, slightly jazzy, occasionally balletic fusion works beautifully. It also features a lot of arm movement and lots of twisting upper bodies. Although a short piece, there’s still time for lots of layering as the ensemble divides into smaller groups before reforming. The dance may be complex, but it was performed with superb clarity.

London audiences will get a chance to see Juilliard students next year as the school has joined forces with the Rambert School in a year-long collaboration that will see students from both come together to exchange training methods and share in the creation of an original work by Wayne McGregor that will premiere in London in May 2026, before also being performed in New York.

There was much to enjoy elsewhere on Juilliard’s Fall Festival Opening Night too, not least Song Hee Lee’s delightfully animated performance of ‘Tornami a vagheggiar’ from Hendel’s opera, Alcina. As she moved easily around the space, she imbued everything with a lovely lightness and sense of fun, really making it feel like she was singing to someone.

The evening also included Eileen Li playing Keiko Abe’s marinba solo, Remember; the Amara Trio with an excerpt from Beethoven’s Piano Trio No.7 in B-flat Major (‘Archduke’); a piano version of the overture to Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, transcribed and played by Maxim Lando; before rounding off with everyone returning to a few words from John Blake as Puck.