Opera director to join project

Los Angeles Opera Music Director James Conlon will embark on a two-year project with New York’s Juilliard School in the fall, examining the relationship between the classical arts and society, the school announced Monday.

The project, “What Happens When Art Collides With Its Socio-Political Environment,” will focus on the musicians and music suppressed by Nazi Germany and the role of the artists in contemporary society. According to Juilliard, Conlon will spend “extended periods” at the school, conducting performances, master classes and coaching sessions, giving lectures and leading symposiums in the school’s divisions of dance, drama and music.

Speaking from Chicago, where he directs the Ravinia Festival, Conlon said his new duties will not conflict with his work in Los Angeles. “This is not a teaching position,” he said. “It’s going to be organized in nuclear time periods. I’ll be present for a month or three or six weeks. My presence at L.A. Opera is going to be expanding each year, not contracting. This is just another aspect of what I’m doing. It’s something that is really important to me.”