Conlon gets a Juilliard post

James Conlon, May Festival music director, is in the news again for a new residency announced this week at the Juilliard School in New York. For the next two years, 2007-09, Conlon will lead performances, master classes, coaching sessions and symposia. The residency will be devoted to the music and musicians that were suppessed by Nazi Germany (in a continuing survey of "Recovered Voices") and the role of classical artists in contemporary society.

Conlon is an ardent champion of the little-known repertoire that survived the rise of the Third Reich, and is including some of that repertoire in his programs at Ravinia this summer, and at the LA Opera, where he holds music directorships.

The second part of his residency will be interesting -- the artist's role in society today. Juilliard's president, Joseph Polisi (former dean of CCM) has written a excellent book on the same topic.