Ara Guzelimian

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Senior Advisor

With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the SPCO has engaged Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean of The Juilliard School and former Senior Director and Artistic Advisor at Carnegie Hall, as Senior Advisor.

Ara Guzelimian was appointed Provost and Dean of The Juilliard School in New York City in August 2006. In that capacity, his responsibilities include the faculty, curriculum and artistic planning of the distinguished performing arts conservatory in all three of its divisions – dance, drama and music.

Prior to the Juilliard appointment, he was Senior Director and Artistic Advisor of Carnegie Hall from 1998 to 2006, where he oversaw the innovative programming for the opening of Zankel Hall in 2003. He also served as host and producer of the acclaimed “Making Music” composer series at Carnegie Hall, working closely with such composers as Pierre Boulez, Steve Reich, Hans Werner Henze, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho and many others.

He is active as a lecturer, teacher and symposium director, speaking recently at the invitation of the Chicago Symphony, Lincoln Center, the National Performing Arts Center in Taipei, Taiwan, the Mostly Mozart Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Salzburg Easter Festival, and the Jerusalem Music Center, where he was on the faculty of the 2000 International Chamber Music Encounter, led by Isaac Stern.

As a writer and music critic, he has contributed to such publications as Musical America, Opera Quarterly, Opera News, and Symphony magazines, The New York Times, Record Geijutsu magazine (Tokyo), the program books of the Salzburg and the Helsinki Festivals, and the journal for the IRCAM center in Paris. He is editor of Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (Pantheon Books, 2002), a collection of dialogues between Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said.

Ara Guzelimian has also been active as a radio producer, with projects for Swedish Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, WFMT/Chicago, KERA/Dallas, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. In recent seasons, he has been heard both on the Metropolitan Opera Radio broadcasts and, as a guest host, on public radio’s Saint Paul Sunday.

Previously, Ara Guzelimian was the Artistic Administrator of the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado from 1993 to 1998. In addition, he was Artistic Director of the Ojai Festival in California from 1992 to 1997. He was associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1978 to 1993 – first as producer for the orchestra’s national radio broadcasts and, subsequently, as Artistic Administrator.

In September 2003, he was awarded the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to French music and culture.