"Teachers need to keep making breakthroughs and improvements too," He says.

All the Tianjin Juilliard teachers attribute half of their time and energy to teaching and half to their performance, the violinist says.

Playing concerts not only helps them keep their artistry at a high level, but also helps them to be better teachers, he adds.

Since its inaugural season in 2019, Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble, consisting of more than 20 distinguished faculty members from the Tianjin school, has toured in and out of China, with regular performances in Tianjin and Beijing.

Teachers of the school, as well as other professional musicians, will regularly participate in the students' performances, sitting among them and playing.

Tianjin Juilliard has targeted the re-creation of the authentic "Juilliard experience" in China, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has sped up the process of establishing a "one school, two campuses" system, Brose says.

Forty-two students from the New York Juilliard are currently studying in Tianjin, because of travel restrictions to the US caused by the pandemic. They have been participating in the classes, rehearsals and performances as an integrated part of the student body in the Tianjin school.

The school's campus in the city's Binhai district was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the same architecture firm responsible for the expansion of Juilliard's New York campus. Home to 120 Steinway pianos, the school has three performance facilities: a concert hall, a recital hall and a black-box theater-a multipurpose space for multidisciplinary programs.