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Before She was Famous
The Youngest Simon Sister
In the summer of 1969, the Juilliard School, the famous NYC performing arts conservatory, moved from its ancient building at 122nd and Claremont (now the Manhattan School of Music) to Lincoln Center.
Partly in celebration of the move and partly because that was the kind of school it was, they hired even more of the most celebrated teachers of the day to staff their already elite faculty.
Among these was Arnold Arnstein, a well-known professional music engraver with a studio in the ‘classical sheet music district’ between 8th and Broadway a few blocks south of Columbus Circle. He had never taught an engraving class before, but they offered him enough money to overcome any hesitations he might have, and for the fall semester of 1969, the evening division of Juilliard (official name: Juilliard Extension School) offered his first class: Music Manuscript Preparation, in the basement of their new building on Broadway. (He later taught in both the Extension and the Regular Divisions.)
Even though I was taking mostly daytime classes at the time, I enrolled in Professor Arnstein’s class because, while I had some notion of what a professional music manuscript should look like, I wanted to learn how to do it ‘right.’ We had to buy special equipment to ensure we got the right ‘look.’ We were happy…
