Kaufman Center News Blog
Perspective on Music Education: Linda Chemtob
For Linda Shapiro Chemtob, music education is essential. Chair of the Special Music School (SMS) Participating Board since the fall of 2007, Chemtob first became familiar with Kaufman Center’s unique public school for musically gifted children during her tenure as Program Director of the Arts for Talented Youth program at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. While there, she and Kaufman Center’s Executive Director, Lydia Kontos, both served on the Board of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. “Lydia and I met at a Guild conference and became friendly. After I left Peabody, I missed working with young musicians and when Lydia asked me to join the SMS participating board I readily agreed, although I was not living in New York at the time.” Elected to be a Trustee in 2001, Chemtob commuted to Board meetings until she moved to New York City in 2005.
A music enthusiast who studied piano for many years and particularly enjoys the chamber works of the Romantic period, Chemtob has passed her appreciation of music along to her children. As the parent of two musicians, she approached their music education with discipline. “Parents have to establish a practice routine with their children, and it is not a negotiation,” she says. “My kids had no choice but to practice after dinner. As they grew older, middle school-ish, they took it upon themselves to practice.” Chemtob’s son utilizes his music instruction in his current career as a professional sound and light engineer. Her daughter Rachel, who has been on the faculty of Kaufman Center’s Lucy Moses School, is an accomplished violist in the chamber ensemble Concertante. For Chemtob, the answer to the question “Why is music education important?” is very clear: “It obviously enhances the lives of the children.”
Chemtob’s passion and strong vision for SMS is partly the result of the difficulty she had juggling her daughter’s musical and academic education. “In the 8th grade Rachel said she wanted to be a musician. So we tailored her schedule to allow her to go to school and the Peabody conservatory.” In order to accommodate the rigorous practice schedule that would eventually lead to Rachel’s acceptance at Juilliard, Chemtob decided her daughter should take only the most basic levels of math and science required for high school graduation. “One of the reasons I love the Special Music School is because it does not force kids to make those types of choices,” she says. SMS combines intensive instrumental study with a rigorous academic program, providing a strong foundation for a lifetime of music without compromising academics.Thinking about SMS’s future, Chemtob would like the school to follow up on the success of its first decade by someday bringing all grades together in one facility. (Currently grades K through eight are located together at Goodman House on West 67th Street; grades nine through 12 receive their academics at partner high schools.) “I would like to see the high school experience more solidified,” she explains. “It would be fantastic to have all of our high schoolers under one roof.”
Chemtob is uniquely qualified to lead the SMS Participating Board. “I bring a perspective that probably no other board member has,” she explains. “I’ve been a parent and understand exactly what we are doing at the SMS. I was an arts administrator for a program similar to our Young Artist Program. As the Executive Director of Concertante, a chamber music ensemble, I have been a renter of Merkin Hall for the last 10 years. I am involved with all sides of Kaufman Center.” She has served on the boards of many arts organization, including Concert Artists Guild, Chamber Music America, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Peabody Institute. Before her career as an arts administrator, Chemtob was for many years a corporate attorney. “I am sort of a jack of all trades,” she says.
