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| The Fontainebleau
Schools of Music and Fine Arts are old and original institutions grouping together courses in music, architecture and fine arts.
The The American Conservatory of Music originated from the involvement of the United States in the first World War. Wishing to improve the quality of the American military music, General Pershing asked the distinguished conductor Walter Damrosh for advice. Damrosh, the man who brought Tchaikovsky to New York in 1891,contributed to the creation of a school directed by the composer and professor Francis Casadesus. The school was located at Chaumont - the American army corps headquarters. The faculty was exclusively French. This experience proved to be so fruitful, that after Mr. Damrosh and Mr. Casadesus decided to create the American Conservatory in the Louis XV wing of the Chateau of Fontainebleau. This was done with the support of the French authorities and Charles-Marie Widor. The conservatory intended to offer the best of French musical education to young, promising musicians. Since 1921, the teaching staff has included renowned faculty such as: the trio Pasquier, Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saens, Marcel Duprè, Robert and Gaby Casadesus, Charles-Marie Widor, Henri Dutilleux, Gilbert Amy, Betsy Jolas, Andrè Boucourechliev, Pierre Amoyal, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Rubenstein, and Leonard Bernstein. From the beginning, The American Conservatory had among the teaching staff a young composition/harmony professor, born of a Russian mother, who was to mark the conservatory's musical education with her energy, her knowledge, and her spirit until 1979. This woman was Nadia Boulanger. Under such renowned guidance, the American Conservatory influenced many of the best American musicians such as: Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Louise Talma, Samuel Dushkin, Eliot Carter, Beveridge Webster, Kenton Coe and many others. In recent years the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau has widened its mission of initiation and discovery of French music and culture to include not only the best American musicians but musicians from all parts of the globe. Courses in piano, violin, viola, cello, composition, theory and chamber music will not only provide opportunities for educational advancement, they will also set the stage for diverse cultural exchange. The School of Fine Arts, created two years after the music conservatory, adopted the same mission as its predecessor in the sphere of architecture, sculpture and painting. The students have the opportunity to come in direct contact with the work and the theories of European architects, artists and theoreticians (primarily French). The director, French architect, Jean-Marie Charpentier will oversee a curriculum which includes:
Classes and workshops take place in and around the magnificent Chateau of Fontainebleau. The various buildings and gardens of the Chateau provide an outstanding inspirational setting. Students come from some of the best American universities. Recently, along with the conservatory, the enrollment is now open to students from European countries with the help of the U.I.A., the Union International des Architectes, Region I. Relations with universities and schools of architecture already exist in Poland and Czechoslovakia and have been extended to Hungary, Romania, and Russia to allow students from these countries to participate and to increase the cross-cultural character of the fine arts school. All students may apply for partial financial aid. Distribution is based on the decision of the application review board. |