The Curtis Institute of Music

Curtis Musicians Perform at the Mann Center

Curtis students and recent graduates make their Philadelphia Orchestra debuts at the Mann Center June 29, June 30, and July 1 under the direction of Rossen Milanov, artistic director of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center and a 1994 graduate of Curtis.

On Monday, June 29 at 8 p.m., works by Beethoven are featured. Benjamin Beilman performs Romance No. 2 for violin and orchestra, and 2009 graduate Kyu Yeon Kim performs Piano Concerto No. 4.

Twins Christina and Michelle Naughton, second-year Curtis students, perform on Tuesday, June 30 at 8 p.m. The concert includes an appearance by Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter, narrating Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals.

On Wednesday, July 1 at 8 p.m., fourteen-year-old Curtis violinist Yu-Chien Tseng performs Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with conductor and harpsichordist Lio Kuokman, a 2009 graduate. Lio also leads the Philadelphia Orchestra in a performance of Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro.

For more information, visit www.manncenter.org

How is Curtis Unique?

The Curtis Institute of Music was founded in 1924 by Mary Louise Curtis Bok "to train exceptionally gifted young musicians for careers as performing artists on the highest professional level." From the start, the curriculum has reflected Mrs. Bok's philosophy on the best way to accomplish the school's mission.

	Curtis is the only major music conservatory in the United States that provides merit-based full-tuition scholarships to undergraduate, as well as graduate, students, who are chosen as a result of highly selective auditions.

	Enrollment is purposely kept very limited, with just enough students to complete a full orchestra and a select opera department, plus a small number of keyboard, composition and conducting students. The enrollment for 2008-09 is 162.

	The length of a student's stay is open-ended and can be anywhere from two to twelve years. Students graduate when their teachers decide they are ready. In most cases this is between three and five years. Curtis students range in age from 11 to 29.

	Curtis maintains that a greatly gifted young musician should study with an important teacher from the beginning of his or her conservatory days. Students of elementary-school or high-school age receive training from the same teachers at the same intensive levels as do their older colleagues. There are no "preparatory" teachers or teaching assistants.

	Curtis's celebrated faculty, which numbers about 100, is composed largely of performing musicians whose livelihood is not primarily derived from teaching. Students are thus accepted on merit alone and not in order to fulfill contractual obligations to teachers.

	All piano, organ, harpsichord, conducting, and composition students are lent Steinway grand pianos for use throughout their studies at Curtis. Mrs. Bok set this policy when she founded the school. Curtis currently owns 90 Steinways.

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