Since its founding in 2009, Juilliard415, the Juilliard School’s principal period-instrument ensemble, has made significant contributions to musical life in New York and beyond, bringing major figures in the field of early music to lead performances of both rare and canonical works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The many distinguished guests who have led Juilliard415 include Harry Bicket, William Christie, Monica Huggett, Ton Koopman, Nicholas McGegan, Rachel Podger, Jordi Savall and Masaaki Suzuki. Juilliard415 tours extensively in the US and abroad, having performed on five continents with notable appearances at the Boston Early Music Festival, Bachfest Leipzig and Utrecht Early Music Festival (where Juilliard was the first-ever conservatory in residence), and on a ten-concert tour of New Zealand. With its frequent musical collaborator, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, the ensemble has played throughout Italy, Japan, Southeast Asia, the UK and India. Juilliard415, which takes its name from the pitch commonly associated with the performance of Baroque music, a' = 415Hz, has performed major oratorios and fully staged productions: Handel’s Agrippina and Radamisto, Bach’s St Matthew and St John Passions, Cavalli’s La Calisto, and performances in the US and Holland of Bach’s Mass in B minor conducted by Ton Koopman. The ensemble’s most recent international appearances were in Bolivia, in a tour sponsored by the US Department of State that marked the ensemble’s South America debut. Recent highlights include Juilliard debuts of the conductors Jonathan Cohen, Alfredo Bernardini, tenor Paul Agnew and the Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis, a side-by-side collaboration with Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco, and performances in Canada, London, Athens, Versailles and Scandinavia.

Juilliard’s full-scholarship Historical Performance programme offers comprehensive study and performance of music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on period instruments. Established and endowed in 2009 by the generous support of Bruce and Suzie Kovner, the programme is open to candidates for the Master of Music, Graduate Diploma and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. A high-profile concert season of opera, orchestral and chamber music is augmented by a performance-oriented curriculum that fosters an informed understanding of the many issues unique to period-instrument performance at the level of technical excellence and musical integrity for which Juilliard is renowned. The faculty comprises many of the leading performers and scholars in the field. Frequent collaborations with Juilliard’s Ellen and James S Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, the integration of modern-instrument majors outside of the Historical Performance programme, and national and international tours have introduced new repertoires and increased awareness of historical performance practice at Juilliard and beyond. Alumni of Juilliard Historical Performance are members of many of the leading period-instrument ensembles, including the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Les Arts Florissants, Mercury and Tafelmusik, as well as launching such new ensembles as the Sebastians, House of Time, New York Baroque Incorporated and New Vintage Baroque.