Since its earliest years, the mission of The Juilliard School has been to educate performing artists. Nearly a century after the School’s founding, however, the role of the performing artist has evolved as the world in which artists function has undergone dramatic transformations and as challenges to the social fabric of our nation have threatened support for the presentation and study of the performing arts. Recognizing the increasing obstacles that our young people will face as they pursue careers as performing artists, the School has refined and expanded its statement of mission to include four goals:

1. Juilliard’s central mission is to educate talented performing musicians, dancers and actors so that they may achieve the highest artistic standards, as well as becoming leaders in their professions. Through this process we will also help them to become thoughtful, confident and responsible adults.

2. Juilliard should make every effort to provide students with the emotional, social, professional and educational foundation necessary for them to embark on successful careers and productive lives as artists, leaders and citizens.

3. The Juilliard education should continue to elevate its high educational and artistic standards, while also inculcating in students a sense of their own professional responsibilities for enhancing the classical arts and for enabling those arts to serve society more effectively.

4. Juilliard should take an active, not passive, role in shaping the future of the classical arts, both by intensifying its internal commitment to artistic education and by reaching beyond its doors to help the classical arts thrive anew.

To aspiring young performing artists around the world, the name Juilliard means one thing: the highest possible quality training in dance, drama, and music. There are approximately 800 students-undergraduate and graduate-in our three divisions: more than 600 in music (including our newest program, Jazz Studies); 90 dance, and 90 drama. A truly international school, our students come from every state and from nearly 50 foreign countries, as nearby as Canada and as far away as China and Australia. As a matter of fact, international students comprise more than a quarter of the student population.

Our students belong to the most vibrant artistic community in the nation. Our neighbors at Lincoln Center include the Metropolitan Opera; New York City Opera; New York Philharmonic; Jazz at Lincoln Center; New York City Ballet; Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; and Lincoln Center Theater, on whose stages our alumni appear regularly, as soloists or as members of resident orchestras and choruses.

At nearly all hours of every day, the School is filled with activity. Students are using most of the 200-plus pianos available to them. In each of the 35 private teaching studios, instructors are helping students to refine a phrase, a gesture. Scenery and costume shops are producing materials for opera, dance, and drama presentations. Rehearsals and workshop productions unfold in 15 two-story studios. In the evenings, fully-staged productions open to the public move into the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, seating almost 1,000 people, or the Stephanie P. McClelland Drama Theater, seating about 200.

Whether you live in New York City or in far-off countries, Juilliard has many resources to help you adjust to the rigors of training at the School. Listed on this page are the most useful links for students considering Juilliard as the next step on their educational and artistic journey.