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Juilliard adds six powerhouse performers to College Division string faculty
The Juilliard School is turning up the volume on its already legendary string faculty. The New York conservatory announced this week that six acclaimed musicians will join its College Division for the 2025–26 academic year—five violinists and one cellist, all with serious performance credentials and equally impressive teaching chops.
The new additions to the violin faculty include Grammy Award-winning soloists Hilary Hahn and Midori, as well as Stella Chen, Sheryl Staples, and Mark Steinberg. Cellist Nina Lee will join as a member of the cello faculty.
"This is a mid-career moment,” said Midori in a Facebook post. “I look forward to working with my new students from the fall as well as with my current students at the Curtis Institute."
Each of the six brings a wealth of experience to the table—many of them holding or having held multiple academic appointments, in addition to their high-profile performance careers.
Hilary Hahn, a three-time Grammy winner, is not only a globetrotting soloist and prolific recording artist, but also a familiar name to young violinists as the player behind the most recent recordings of Suzuki Books 1–3. Her new role at Juilliard follows a stint as visiting artist in 2023–24, as well as recent teaching appointments at the Royal Academy of Music and Yale University.
Midori, who began her Juilliard journey in the Pre-College Division under Dorothy DeLay, is now a global performer, educator and artistic director. She currently holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair at the Curtis Institute and directs the Piano & Strings program at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute.
Stella Chen, a 2021 Juilliard doctoral graduate and winner of the 2019 Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition, is quickly building a strong teaching résumé, with faculty roles at the Nume Festival in Italy, Shenandoah Conservatory, and Sarasota Music Festival.
Sheryl Staples, principal associate concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic since 1998, has a long teaching history alongside her orchestral career. She’s taught at Juilliard Pre-College, Manhattan School of Music, USC, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and has mentored countless orchestral musicians.
Mark Steinberg, founding first violinist of the Brentano Quartet, is also a Juilliard alum. A committed chamber musician and educator, he has taught at Yale, the Manhattan School of Music, CUNY Graduate Center, and major music festivals across North America.
Nina Lee, also of the Brentano Quartet, rounds out the appointments on the cello side. A Juilliard graduate herself, Lee has taught at Princeton and Columbia and currently coaches chamber music at Yale, where the Brentano Quartet has been in residence since 2014.
“These new faculty members share a passion for mentoring the next generation of musicians to achieve their fullest potential as young artists,” said David Ludwig, Juilliard’s dean and director of the Music Division. “With the addition of these distinguished artists, we add to the depth and breadth of instruction we offer our students.”
The appointments follow international searches led by faculty committees and the Office of the Provost. With this roster of world-class artists joining the faculty, Juilliard’s next generation of string players will be in very capable hands.