Juilliard School's Tianjin campus to open in 2018

Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan is amazed by the manuscripts of Beethoven and Mozart during her visit to the Juilliard School located in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York on September 28, exclaiming "how valuable they are". [Photo\Xinhua]

New York's renowned Juilliard School will launch its first overseas campus to offer graduate courses in music in the northern Chinese municipality of Tianjin by 2018.

Sources with the administrative commission of Tianjin Binhai New District said on Friday that the Juilliard School's Tianjin branch will be established in Yujiapu Financial District.

Approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education, the school's branch in Tianjin will collaborate with the Tianjin Conservatory of Music as well as the Tianjin Innovative Finance Investment Co. Ltd. and the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission to offer graduate courses in music.

The master's degree to be awarded by the Juilliard school's Tianjin branch will be accredited in the United States. The partnership will be the first such collaboration between Chinese and foreign conservatories.

Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan accompanied Chinese President Xi Jinping on a state visit to the United States and on Monday visited the Juilliard School at its Lincoln Center campus, where she attended a performance class and the inauguration of the school's branch at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music.

She encouraged students from both countries to learn from and communicate more with each other.

The Juilliard School was founded in 1905, and its alumni have collectively won more than 105 Grammy Awards, 62 Tony Awards and 47 Emmy Awards.

Yujiapu Financial District, where Juilliard's branch will be established in Tianjin, has been approved to use 3.86 square km of land. The municipal government hopes to turn the area into a world-class financial center within 10 years.