Juilliard School

The Juilliard School began in nineteen-hundred and five as the Institute of Musical Art. Its founder, Frank Damrosch, was the godson of the legendary composer Franz Liszt. Damrosch served as the head of music education for New York City public schools and noticed that the best American musicians were forced to travel to Europe for elite training. He created this institution to provide that same level of rigor on American soil. The school was so immediately popular that it received five times the expected number of applicants in its first year.