Changes in Juilliard Ticket Procedures

There have been changes this season to Juilliard's procedures for the distribution of tickets to events held at both Alice Tully and at Juilliard itself.

Beginning in the Fall of 2013, events held at Alice Tully Hall - which had in previous years been free to the public - became paid events.  This change primarily affected performances by the Juilliard Orchestra which now cost $20 per ticket (discounted to $10 for students and seniors).  Since this change obviated the problem of unused free tickets, there was no longer any need for waiting lines outside the hall on the evening of the performance.  The only exception I know of to this new policy was the Glenn Dicterow recital in January (possibly because this event was a joint production of the NY Philharmonic and Juilliard's Saidenberg Faculty Recital series) for which a very limited number of free tickets were distributed at the Juilliard box office and a waiting line was permitted to form an hour before the show began.

This month, there have been changes to the ticketing procedures for free events held at such Juilliard venues as Paul Hall.  While unticketed student recitals are still open to the public on a "walk in" basis, free tickets that had previously been distributed at the Juilliard box office for other events are now only available online.  This requires users to first establish an account with Juilliard, a fairly simple routine in which users need provide only minimal personal information.  Once again, waiting lines have been abolished.

All the above changes have been summarized on Juilliard's website as follows:

"All student recitals are free, and no tickets are required. 

Many free performances, however, do require tickets, which are available ONLINE ONLY at events.juilliard.edu. The Box Office does not distribute free tickets in person, except for concerts in Alice Tully Hall. Please note that standby for returns or cancellations is no longer possible at Juilliard.

Tickets for paid events at Juilliard may be purchased at the Juilliard Box Office, or online at events.juilliard.edu. For anyone without online access, a ticket kiosk will be installed in the Juilliard lobby for use anytime the School is open. 

Tickets for Juilliard concerts in Alice Tully Hall are available for purchase at the Alice Tully Hall Box Office, online at lc.lincolncenter.org/find-an-event or by calling CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500. Tickets for freee [sic] concerts in Alice Tully Hall are distributed at the Juilliard Box Office."

As far as I'm concerned, these changes are welcome.  In the past, I'd had to waste an entire morning walking to Juilliard and then waiting in line over an hour for the box office to open.  I can now procure my tickets online in less than five minutes.  As for the paid events at Alice Tully, the only one I attended this season was the recital given by the Juilliard Quartet last month.  I felt it was well worth the discounted $10 admission fee to see a performance by one of the world's greatest chamber ensembles.