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Buildings
Library Collections
Instrument Loans
BUILDINGS
The Curtis Institute of Music is located in Center City Philadelphia on
Rittenhouse Square, a historic residential
area with a full range of amenities nearby.
Most students live alone or with roommates
in nearby high-rise or brownstone
apartment buildings, as there are no
dormitories at Curtis.
Life for students, while rigorous and
demanding, is informal, relaxed, and
remarkably noncompetitive in a field
known for intense rivalry. The traditional
Wednesday-afternoon Teas attract
students, faculty, and staff, and lessons
at that hour are often interrupted for
refreshments and a few moments of
conversation. The Gary and Naomi
Graffman Common Room, with its
richly paneled walls and elaborately
carved mantelpiece, is a gathering place
for students at all times. Downstairs,
the Student Lounge provides computers
that have Internet access.
Curtis occupies four stately mansions
that retain their wood-paneled walls,
high ceilings, decorative ironwork,
Oriental rugs, and ornate moldings, but
have been adapted over time to serve the
conservatory’s needs without sacrificing
their nineteenth-century charm.
Two of the buildings—the Drexel
and Sibley mansions—have been
connected and are primarily used for
teaching and practice purposes. Among
the rooms is a computer studio for classes. The third building, the Milton L. Rock
Resource Center, houses the John de
Lancie Library and the Orchestra Library.
The fourth, adjacent to the Resource
Center, houses liberal arts classrooms
and offices, studios, and administrative
offices. In addition Curtis’s development
office, which runs a $2.3 million annual
giving campaign and raises funds for
endowment and special projects, is located
one block away at 1701 Walnut Street.
In 1928 a 250-seat auditorium was
added to the Drexel mansion. Field
Concert Hall, with splendid acoustics and
facilities for video- and audio-recording,
is used for student recitals, alumni and
faculty concerts, organ lessons and
practice, master classes, school assemblies,
orchestra rehearsals, and recording
sessions. The hall is easily accessible,
with an elevator lift at street level.
Directly above Field Concert Hall is
the Curtis Opera Studio, a black-box
theater that seats approximately 125.
This intimate and flexible performance
space, which also has recording capabilities,
is used primarily by the vocal studies
department for opera performances,
dance and movement classes, rehearsals,
and master classes.
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LIBRARY COLLECTIONS
The John de Lancie Library in the Milton
L. Rock Resource Center contains more
than fifty-five thousand volumes of
music scores and books, including over
one hundred scholarly sets of composers’
complete works, authoritative editions
of the standard repertoire, and more than
thirty thousand recordings. Through the
generosity of Dr. Rock, a former chairman
of the Curtis Board of Trustees, the Rock
Online Catalog provides access to all
holdings. The library also maintains a
full range of audiovisual equipment and
photocopiers, plus computers for Internet
access by students.
The Orchestra Library of The Curtis
Institute of Music is equal to those of
the major symphony orchestras of the
world and contains over one thousand
sets of parts.
The riches of the library also include
many gifts of music, manuscripts, and
memorabilia from faculty, alumni, and
friends. Important collections include
Lynnwood Farnam, Josef Hofmann,
William Kincaid, Sylvan Levin, Arthur
Bennett Lipkin, Max Rudolf, Carlos
Salzedo, Calvin Simmons, Anton
Torello, and Efrem Zimbalist.
The library serves Curtis students,
faculty, staff, and local alumni; outside
research access is limited to special
collections and archival material and
must be applied for in writing.
Students must provide their own
music for major lessons and for secondary
piano classes. Music for ensemble and
orchestral classes is supplied by the library.
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INSTRUMENT LOANS
The Curtis Institute of Music lends Steinway grand pianos to students who major in piano, harpsichord, organ, composition, or conducting for the duration of their enrollment. Students make a security deposit and pay the cost of moving the piano to and from their apartments. Curtis pays for the first tuning, and the students cover the costs of repairs and tunings thereafter. String and wind majors may borrow an instrument from Curtis's collection with a $100 security deposit. Students also cover any costs resulting from negligence or willful damage.
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