The Juilliard School's music-training program for poor minority schoolchildren -- a rigorous curriculum that the conservatory holds up as a national model -- has been slashed, disappointing dozens of children preparing to audition.
The Music Advancement Program will take back about 50 children in the fall to finish the second year of their two-year course. But it has canceled auditions next month for the incoming class, said Joseph W. Polisi, Juilliard's president. About 50 are admitted each year.
Mr. Polisi said that the school could not raise the $400,000 necessary to finance the whole program, and that across-the-board budget cuts meant there was no money elsewhere for it. "I was the guy who started it 20 years ago, and I believe deeply in it," Mr. Polisi said. "It's an extremely important part of me and Juilliard." But the likelihood of raising enough money was "exceedingly low," he said. Mr. Polisi said he hoped to raise money to restart the program, on a smaller scale, in two years.
"It's like cutting down the bush, but it's going to bloom with fresh growth in a few years," he said. "It's not going out of business by any stretch."
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