The Arts: Juilliard School

Think you've got what it takes in music, drama, or dance to get into Juilliard? Good luck -- the school enrolls about eight percent of its applicants. Uploaded by wikimedia.org.

If you aspire to a professional career in drama, dance, or music, you can hardly have a better school on your resume than Juilliard.

About 800 students are enrolled at Juilliard’s Lincoln Center “campus,” and that sounds like a good number. But consider that a couple of years ago, the school received 2,138 applications for admission and enrolled 162 people. Only the most promising talents get to train at Juilliard.

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Even though there are three disciplines training at Juilliard, the school still tilts strongly toward music education. Of the 800 students noted above, only about 90 are in dance, and 90 in drama. The rest of the students are studying under the distinguished music faculty the school always attracts.

One way to look at any school is to look at its graduates. I admit up front that I’m more familiar with the drama and music graduates than dance. With that caveat, here are some of Juilliard’s distinguished alumni:

DRAMA
Christine Baranski • Andre Braugher • Marcia Cross • Kelsey Grammer • William Hurt • Val Kilmer • Kevin Kline • Laura Linney • Patti LuPone • Kelly McGillis • Elizabeth McGovern • Bebe Neuwirth • Mandy Patinkin • Kevin Spacey • David Ogden Stiers • Bradley Whitford • Robin Williams

MUSIC
Van Cliburn • Bill Conti • Chick Corea • Miles Davis • Renee Fleming • Philip Glass • Marvin Hamlisch • Bernard Herrmann • Yo Yo Ma • Henry Mancini • Barry Manilow • Wyton Marsalis • Itzhak Perlman • Leontyne Price • Tito Puente • John Williams • Meredith Willson

Film: Rocky

The training sequence, concluding on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and backed by Bill Conti's Gonna Fly Now, is one of the most memorable in movie history. Uploaded by connect.in.com.

As the fight ends, an exhausted Apollo Creed says, “Ain’t gonna be no rematch.” An equally weary Rocky Balboa answers, “Don’t want one.”

But of course, there was Rocky II, III, and then I lost track. Regardless of the way the series devolved, the original Rocky is a terrific movie, though the Best Picture it won over All the President’s Men, Network, and Taxi Driver is quite a stretch.

Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay, and desperately wanted to play the lead. The studios liked the story, but doubted Stallone’s ability to draw crowds. United Artists took the chance, and they were rewarded with one of the most profitable movies in film history. The picture cost $1.1 million to make; combining domestic and overseas revenue, it brought in over $342 million.

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The training sequence, performed to Bill Conti’s memorable “Gonna Fly Now” instrumental, is one of the movies’ all-time most inspirational moments. A statue of Rocky Balboa now adorns the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, site of the scene’s triumphant conclusion.

Rocky has been recognized on eight of the American Film Institute’s “100 Years” lists including: …100 Movies (#57), …Movie Quotes – “Yo, Adrian!” (#80), …Heroes and Villains (#7), …Sports (#2), and …Songs – “Gonna Fly Now” (#58).