Read on to discover why the Curtis Institute of Music produces today's top musical performers...
Curtis Institute of Music... an incredible success rate
Several years ago, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. In my previous role as editor of The Strad, I attended many of the world’s top string competitions. Perusing the biographies of the incredibly talented finalists, one educational establishment figured again and again – the Curtis Institute of Music. What was it about this small conservatory, based in Philadelphia, that enabled it to compete with – even outgun – its much larger US rivals? So, with the school’s 100th anniversary approaching in October 2024, I was keen to visit its campus – the perfect opportunity to get to the heart of such a phenomenal success rate.
A quick scan of statistics quoted on the school’s website provided telling clues. Not only were its students excelling on the competition circuit, but the number of distinguished alumni – including Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, George Walker, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang and Ray Chen – not to mention the number of former students occupying principal chairs at top US orchestras, spoke for itself.
Building top performers... 'learn by doing'
And little wonder. With just 160 students at any one time, and a staggeringly low acceptance rate of four per cent, Curtis is surely one of the world’s most elite music institutions. But more than that, its talented cohort benefits from an incredibly personal approach, with a ratio of students to its 113 teachers of four to three. Even more surprising is that all student places are funded by full-tuition scholarships, no matter the student’s nationality or background, and as a result, ‘talent and artistic promise’ are the only considerations for admission.
A further important piece of the puzzle is Curtis’s ‘learn by doing’ mantra, encapsulated in an enormous number of performance opportunities throughout the year – more than 200 orchestral, opera, solo and chamber music concerts. When the stage is your second home, those pesky nerves – the bane of even the most wonderful musicians – are given short shrift.
The history of the Curtis Institute
These values have been central to the Curtis ethos since its founding by Mary Louise Curtis Bok – the only child of wealthy publishers Louisa Knapp and Cyrus Curtis – in 1924. In addition to publishing such magazines as Ladies’ Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, Curtis Bok worked with underprivileged children at the Settlement Music School in South Philadelphia, many of whom were talented enough for professional careers.
Her Curtis Institute of Music was duly established in two connected mansions at 1726 Locust Street, ‘to train exceptionally gifted musicians for careers as performing artists on the highest professional level’ under the guidance of pianist Josef Hofmann and conductor Leopold Stokowski. The latter predicted that Curtis would become ‘the most important musical institution of our country, perhaps the world’.
President Roberto Díaz: 'Interesting people make interesting artists'
Today, the school’s president is Roberto Díaz, a distinguished viola soloist and himself a Curtis graduate, who presides over expanded premises also taking in 1616 and 1720 Locust Street. Díaz remains 100 per cent dedicated to Stokowski’s ambitions. ‘Our job is to make some of the world’s greatest performers, and artist citizens,’ he says. ‘As performers, how people behave on stage is the ultimate measure. You could be the best soccer player in the world, but if you can’t handle the pressure of the big game then you will not perform at your best. We help our students learn to cope with performing pressure by ensuring they are constantly performing.’
Díaz is also dedicated to nurturing intellectual curiosity. Far from spending all their time in the practice room, Curtis students are encouraged to think of their roles as musicians within wider artistic and social contexts. Annual ‘all-school projects’ – much like programming themes at some of the more forward-thinking summer festivals – provide the opportunity to explore topics in detail, and to become better educated artists in the process. After all, Díaz tells me, ‘Interesting people make interesting artists.’
Curtis Institute - nurturing tomorrow's composers
Nick Di Berardino, provost and dean, and chair of composition studies, agrees. ‘I was accepted to Curtis as a graduate student between 2015 and ’18 and I came in thinking it would be a school full of very young prodigies, as it was so selective,’ he says.
‘But the first concert I heard here was entirely comprised of world premieres by the Curtis composers. And it was standing room only! Everyone was there to hear these pieces. Whatever I had believed about this place – that maybe they’re just playing Brahms and traditional repertoire – was entirely wrong. Here, all our student composers’ pieces are performed, which is so essential and exciting.’
Auditioning for the Curtis Institute
To ensure that Curtis finds the right performers and thinkers, the audition process must necessarily be thorough, explains Ed Gazouleas of the viola faculty. To that end, the whole faculty in any given department sits in on live auditions, following an initial taped screening process. Considering Curtis accepts students at any age – at the time of my visit the youngest student was 11 – and on numerous study pathways (including diplomas, bachelor’s and master’s degrees), what qualities are the faculty looking for?
‘Obviously, these kids are all phenomenal,’ he tells me. ‘And you need a particular level of technical skill and musicianship from the outset. But the next thing you look at is potential, and the sense of the student as a performer – someone who wants to be on the stage, and who thrives on the stage. Sometimes you see that they’re nervous, but you can always tell if they are natural performers. And that’s the thing about Curtis… everybody here, whether they become concert soloists or not, are cultivated performers, not scholars, even though they’re all bright. That’s not to say that we don’t educate the whole person – we always try to do that, which is why there’s such a big ratio of faculty to students.’
One student, many teachers...
Indeed, the educational mission is taken so seriously that any one Curtis student might benefit from the wisdom of the entire faculty in their discipline – so each viola student, for example, could have three or four viola teachers. I express my doubts that different teachers, with conflicting ideas about interpretation and technique, could work together harmoniously. But Gazouleas is unequivocal.
‘Anywhere else, in my experience, it would not work,’ he agrees. ‘But it has to do with the culture of the place. In the traditional school culture, the cliché of the all-powerful teacher prevails. You don’t play for someone else, as that’s a betrayal! But within the viola faculty we generally divide the repertoire, so that I might teach Bach and more fundamental technique, while Roberto Díaz takes the concerto repertoire, as that’s his area of expertise.’
The Curtis Institute... a chamber music culture
That teachers feel able to work together is perhaps down to the school’s chamber culture – both in the literal sense that all instrumental students perform in chamber groups, and in the sense of a personal contribution to the collective, at any level and in any field.
The Dover Quartet, winner of the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2013, is currently Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute, a role that encompasses teaching, mentorship of the ensemble selected for the school’s Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet Program, and an extensive international touring schedule. That the quartet formed at Curtis is no accident.
‘Of course, it’s obvious which people are more into chamber music playing than others,’ the Dover players tell me. ‘And once it became obvious that we were very serious about it, we started playing for a lot of the faculty, who were extremely supportive. But there’s also a chamber approach here. So even those students who are more interested in solo or orchestral playing have a lot of chamber experience. We always felt that even the Curtis orchestra was more like a big chamber group. It was a unifying bond, a paradigm of viewing music and the world.’
Curtis Institute... a sense of camaraderie
That sense of camaraderie, of working together rather than in competition, was very evident at the joint Curtis Symphony Orchestra-Opera Theatre concert I attended at Philadelphia’s Marian Anderson Hall during my visit. Though principally led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who serves as head of conducting for the school, the event also showcased the talents of conducting fellow Jacob Niemann, alongside numerous student singers in operatic excerpts and, of course, the delightfully energetic Curtis Symphony. The level of enthusiastic peer-to-peer support was palpable – hardly the cut-throat stereotype of an elite organisation.
And in the end, that might be the single most important aspect of Curtis’s fabulous reputation. ‘We want people – both students and teachers – who radiate a love of music,’ Díaz tells me. ‘And to raise these wonderful musicians who will be an advocate of the art form, it takes a village. As teachers and students, we all have a responsibility for our peers.'
Full info: curtis.edu
