Joseph William Polisi (born 1947) was the President of The Juilliard School from 1984 to May 2017, having assumed the position upon the death of his predecessor, Peter Mennin.[1][2]
Born in New York City to an Italian family, Dr. Polisi is the son of William Polisi, a bassoonist who performed with the New York Philharmonic. He oversaw the construction of Juilliard's first dormitory— the Meredith Willson Residence Hall,[3][4] and focused his tenure on "community building".[citation needed] Polisi is the author of The Artist as Citizen, a book which implores the classical music world to reach out to society at large.