As our readers—and music lovers everywhere—are aware, the world of serious music seems increasingly beset by an atmosphere of concern about music’s present and future. In this connection, we published in our December 1987 issue Samuel Lipman’s review of Judith Kogan’s Nothing But the Best, a book about the Juilliard School on New York. In his review, Mr. Lipman found that “the emptiness of a Juilliard education is no more than the emptiness of most lives in music.” It was therefore with much interest that we received an article written by Joseph W. Polisi, the President of Juilliard, and James Sloan Allen, Director of Liberal Arts and Academic Administration at the school. Because this article raised important issues, we are publishing it, along with a reply by Mr. Lipman.—The Editors

Institutions dedicated to the performance and teaching of classical music are taking some pretty hard knocks these days. Articles appear almost weekly on the death or otherwise grave condition of most “serious music” by music critics of The New York Times; we hear perennial knells for the moribund solo recital; frequent denunciations are hurled at the decrepit programming of symphony orchestras, as regional orchestras fold their tents for want of support; in a widely publicized speech, Ernest Fleischmann, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, pronounced the symphony orchestra as an institution all but dead (recalling Gunther Schuller’s worries of a decade ago). And, as readers of this journal know, Samuel Lipman never misses a