Joseph W. Polisi, honorary president of the Juilliard School in New York, announced a plan for building the first overseas Juilliard campus in Tianjin in 2015. He has come to Tianjin many times to promote the school's construction and personal exchanges. Last year when he visited again, he found that the school had welcomed its first students.

"I was the president of the Juilliard School in New York when we were thinking about opening an overseas school. By now, I have witnessed the inauguration of the new Tianjin Juilliard campus, which is very exciting and unforgettable for me," Polisi said.

The school has developed steadily in the past two years, where global talented graduate students learn about music from first-class teachers.

“We are related to excellence, that's what we're dedicated to and the Tianjin name will always be there. I purposely wanted to be sure that Tianjin and Juilliard were together in the name. And so when they tour in China or the world, Tianjin’s name will always be there,” Polisi said.

"These days, I have seen that the graduate students selected by Tianjin Juilliard all over the world are of a very high standard, which makes me very gratified and proud," Polisi said.

Some of them may not become professional musicians, but rather they will become doctors, lawyers, architects, politicians and all the other professions that exist in the world. But they will learn the discipline and the joy of making music and they will always have music in their lives, he noted.

Students from the pre-college program are now studying at famous music schools at home and abroad. The school is writing a new chapter in cooperative music education.

"I spent all of my day visiting pre-college classes and performances. And I can tell you that the level that I saw in terms of teaching and performance is at the level of Juilliard pre-college in New York," Polisi said.

Polisi was given honorary citizenship in Tianjin by the local government for his contribution to promoting education cooperation and cultural exchanges between the two countries. "I am very honored to receive honorary citizenship of Tianjin and I'm taking it very seriously. I worked with my colleagues and friends here in Tianjin for at least 10 years and it was very gratifying that I can say now that I'm truly a member of the Tianjin community and I'm very proud of it," Polisi said.