The Curtis Institute of Music

Renowned Pianist
Leon McCawley
in Recital At Curtis March 16

Pianist Leon McCawley celebrates two milestone anniversaries, Samuel Barber's centenary and Chopin's bicentenary, with a free recital at the Curtis Institute of Music on Tuesday, March 16 at 8 p.m. The performance is free and no tickets are required.

His program traces Chopin's distinct influence on Barber's piano writing, while highlighting both composers' keen interest in the musical styles and idioms of their homelands and their respect for classical forms and structures.

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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 2009-10 is 159.

	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 12 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 85 Steinways.

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