When our daughter, Ariela, was four years old, her pre-K teacher asked us why she had to take piano lessons. After all, the teacher explained, Ariela was so young and she complained about practicing. To us, the question was as baffling as it would have been for Genya Paley, our piano teacher, to ask us why we bother to send our children to school since it is so hard to learn to read. It was our belief when the children were very small— and this belief solidified as our children grew—that what they have learned at the music school is of no less value than what they have learned at their regular school. On a per-hour invested basis, in fact, there is no question that the return on music school has been incredibly high. While we never relied on the children growing up so exceptional in music that they would pursue it professionally, we have relied on music as a key tool for training our children to become—we hope—exceptional people. Through music, children learn the obvious skills of reading and appreciating music, finger and brain coordination, and playing an instrument. But our children have learned so much more too. Music has been our tool, for introducing Western culture and history, for building self-confidence, concentration, patience, discipline, and for standing and delivering—on cue, and when it counts. Music is a place to learn that talent alone is insufficient for a person who will not combine it with work. And this is a good lesson for life.

So why Lucy Moses School at Kaufman Center? What makes it so special that we schlep four children into Manhattan at least once per week, and sometimes almost every night in a week, to study music? Quite simply, the school is that good, and we are not the only family who makes the pilgrimage. The faculty is exceptional, the offerings broad, and the facility unparalleled. Most important, Lucy Moses School is a completely child-centric place which assumes that children are real people waiting to be exposed and educated.

Why raise scholarship money for other people’s children to attend Lucy Moses School? We have seen such money put to good use in our family’s 34-year association with the school. Over the last dozen years our children have had the privilege of learning and performing at Lucy Moses School with wonderful young musicians who simply could not attend the school without a scholarship. Those who receive have been everything we wish our children to be: dedicated, focused and exceptional. The school monitors progress carefully and puts donor money to careful use. —Cheryl Rivkin

SMTW, which is open to children at all levels of talent and experience with no audition required, was a hit from the first year, says workshop director Sean Hartley, who is a director, playwright, lyricist and composer as well as an educator. Most existing camps were oriented towards athletics or nature, and there was a great need for options that appealed to creative, artistic kids. “That first year, we weren’t sure how many campers there would be, so we decided to write the show ourselves,” says Hartley. “We wanted the children to see what it’s like to be part of a creative team, and it was so exciting for the kids to have new scenes and songs every day. We decided to make it a permanent part of the program.”

Musical theater offers kids something special. “Theater itself gives people the chance to play parts, enact big emotions and tell stories, and musical theater is a very heightened, exuberant form of theater,” explains Hartley. “It’s also good for children because there are lots of things groups can do, unlike in straight plays. There’s also something about the way songs burst out of a scene at an emotional moment that is so satisfying for both the children and the audience.”

Unlike more traditional summer camps, SMTW builds up to the excitement of a performance. “Because it’s so goal-oriented and leads to a performance, the kids have a tremendous feeling of satisfaction when they achieve something,” says Hartley. This project-oriented approach benefits children’s work habits by teaching them that putting in hard work leads to a big payoff later on.

“Being in a play is kind of like being on a theater team,” says Hartley. “It provides a real group ensemble experience.” Children get exercise as they would at, say, soccer camp, “but as part of an artistic rather than a competitive pursuit.”

Each year the musical plays created by campers share a different theme. Most often they represent variations on folk tales from a specific country or region such as France, as in the 2008 “Voila” performance. For Hartley, some of the most memorable themes over the workshop’s 20 years include Greek myths and tales from Appalachia. This summer, campers will draw inspiration from stories about New York. SMTW is often a multi-year experience, with 80% of campers returning every year. After age 15 kids often continue participating in the program as interns, and some have even gone on to become Lucy Moses School faculty members.

The 2009 workshop begins on June 29 and runs Monday through Thursday until July 30. Visit lucymosesschool.org or call 212 501 3360 for all the details!

– David Klafter, a longtime student and an organizer of the 15th anniversary concert

Lucy Moses School (LMS) marked the 15th anniversary of its celebrated Jazz Program with a concert featuring adult students and faculty in Merkin Concert Hall on January 11. Students from the Sunday and Monday Jazz Ensembles and Advanced Jazz Improvisation and Harmony class performed arrangements of great jazz pieces by program director Roni Ben-Hur as well as American Songbook standards.

LMS’s Jazz Program is unique because it is designed for singers and instrumentalists of all backgrounds and skill levels, from beginners to advanced students. The program allows students with full-time professions who are not professional musicians to participate in a rigorous, exciting program geared to them. Adult students can take ensemble classes as well as private instruction with faculty members who are some of the top jazz musicians in New York City.

Established by Ben-Hur in 1994, the Jazz Program began with one class and has grown to serve more than 100 students each year with classes including jazz guitar and harmony, piano workshops, improvisation, vocal workshops and jazz appreciation as well as jazz ensembles in which intermediate and advanced instrumentalists and vocalists play arrangements as part of a group and receive coaching.

According to legend, Beethoven’s father was a notoriously harsh piano teacher, forcing his young son to practice for hours on end and punishing him for making mistakes. Teaching methods have fortunately evolved over the centuries, but regular practice—with more positive reinforcement!—remains a crucial part of music education. So how do you get kids to practice? On February 2 and 3, 78 young musicians in grades kindergarten through 5 at Kaufman Center’s Special Music School (SMS) celebrated an important milestone: 100 Days of Practice. The kids cheered as their classmates were called to the front of Ann Goodman Recital Hall to receive a bag of treats and a certificate recognizing their achievement.

The 100 Days of Practice program motivates music students by offering a reward for practicing 100 days in a row each semester and recording each day of practice in a special book. “When kids turn in their completed books, which have to be signed by their music teachers, they’re really excited,” says SMS Music Director Jenny Undercofler. She got the idea of 100 Days of Practice from Mary Jo Pagano, a piano teacher who has done practice workshops for kids and parents. “There’s something about the number 100 that feels just big enough to be big,” says Undercofler.

“The culminating 100 Days celebration is a fun way to acknowledge the accomplishment of the work that our children are expected to tackle on a daily basis,” says Grace Lim, President of the SMS PTA. “It’s wonderful to see the kids’ faces light up when they walk into the recital hall decked out with festive balloons and celebratory music playing." “I’ve done it! I’ve accomplished it!” exulted 3rd grade violin student Max Pierson-Panes. “I feel like I’ve just won a really big prize. It means a lot to practice, and if you practice you learn more and get really good,” says Nina Tompkins, also a 3rd grade violin student, who noted that it was fun to keep track of the days she practiced. “It was kind of hard for me at first,” admitted Cecilia Vogler, another 3rd grade violin student, but it got easier, and she loved getting a prize afterwards. Deborah Bertke, mother of 5th grade piano student Emma Bertke, thinks that 100 Days of Practice has been a great motivational tool. “These kids are motivated to begin with,” she says. “It’s a wonderful way to acknowledge their motivation and hard work.” Are she and Emma looking forward to the next 100 Days of Practice during the spring semester? “Absolutely!” Why is it so important to practice every day? “There’s a physical training aspect of practicing,” explains Undercofler. “You want to be reinforcing elements of posture and movement daily. Another reason is that frequently, solving problems in music is a multi-layered process, and coming at it every day is more useful than leaving it all to the last minute.” Musicians, like great athletes, need to develop consistent habits in order to reach their full potential. “You wouldn’t find that the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps swam erratically—he spent every day in the pool,” says Undercofler. “Daily practice is a habit that will sustain our students right through college and into their professional lives.”

Nurturing teachers and supportive families are an important part of the equation even for exceptionally talented and motivated students. LaJuana Huebner, mother of kindergarten violin student Ysai Huebner, says, “I dictate the time, but he had complete control of checking the book, and that was satisfying for him.” “It takes a lot of incentive to get a six-year-old to practice every day,” says Emmy Gay, mother of 1st grade violin student Willow Bennison. “Willow has been playing since she was three years old and knows that practice is a part of life, but to get her to do it can be a challenge.” They struggle over small points, like whether she’ll practice before or after dinner, or for how long, “but she always knows it will be done.” For the record, every single 1st grader in Willow’s class completed all 100 days.

Kindergarten piano student Romy Nevo enjoyed the social element of 100 Days of Practice and liked that all of her classmates were doing it at the same time. Her dad, Eyal, plays piano with her and helps her read notes but says that “she doesn’t need any kind of motivation whatsoever.” He observed a cycle that was repeated as each new piano piece was introduced: “The first day is good, she wants to see what it’s about. By the second day she sees that it’s difficult and gets frustrated, then surprises herself that what seemed so difficult yesterday she can do today. Then she gets better and better. Once she nails it, then that’s the new thing she wants to practice until she gets bored with it.”

Music educators and parents everywhere take note: Music is its own reward, but never underestimate the power of chocolate. Students responded especially enthusiastically to the treats they received at the awards ceremony. “She loves the M&Ms,” says the parent of one 5th grader, “but she would have done it anyway.”

Undercofler understands that the repetitive nature of practicing can sometimes make it a challenge for even the most enthusiastic students. A classically trained pianist, she admits to having resisted her parents’ efforts to get her to practice when she was very young. She even tried to read books while practicing—until she got caught. “Unfortunately, most people don’t realize until they are grown up, when they don’t have enough time to practice, that daily practice is a precious commodity.”

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.

As a young child growing up in Israel, Chaim Freiberg could often be found listening to the piano music streaming out the window of the local conservatory while his mother frantically searched for him. His early passion for music developed into a lifelong journey in music education, leading him to the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv and the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied and then taught. In 1973 he was invited by Dr. Tzipora Jochsberger to join the faculty of Kaufman Center’s Lucy Moses School (LMS), then known as the Hebrew Arts School.

“Lucy Moses School has been my home away from home for the last 35 years,” says Freiberg, who was honored by LMS in 1997 for his inspired and dedicated work with his students. “The school’s faith in my work has granted me the unconditional freedom that I needed to grow as a teacher.”

Over the years, Freiberg has created a personal musical vocabulary that gives his lessons with children as young as four years old a uniquely imaginative and personal feel. At the first lesson, “We both lift our arms high up, then out, so as to embrace the entire piano. From high up, I strike a key with a very ringing tone, foot on the pedal, and have the child respond by repeating the same key. As we continue in the same manner, a full musical phrase is being created.” Through these “piano conversations” or “conversational duets” he learns about children's musical abilities. “These immediate and direct interactions of give and take, making music together, inspire togetherness and mutual enjoyment of being the performer and the listener at the same time, a state desired by any performer.”

Freiberg uses stories to help bring the notes to life for his young students. Through short melodic patterns, he targets specific goals such as the progression of the key, note reading or rhythm. “Each new pattern is preceded by imagery or a short story that enhances the associative memory and deepens the learning process with a poetic idea. The story might be about nature, such as rain, rainbows, sunshine or colorful birds…Bringing vivid imagination into the lesson makes it a very special and much anticipated event for the children. I often talk to them as we play, improvising words to match the music and the rhythm. Quite often they will be amused by the result and ask to hear and do it again. It is a delightful experience to see how eager each child in a group of four-year-olds is to get their turn.”

All of Freiberg’s Young People’s Division students, who range in age from four to 18 years old, have been with him from their earliest lessons, he notes, “thus creating an uninterrupted continuity from those early spontaneous ‘conversations’ to the inner freedom I strive to impart to them as they play the great classical masters. Through the music they express their own inner selves. This is what I regard as the co-existence of the freedom within the structure.”

This summer Freiberg will teach a piano workshop for teachers looking to create exciting and inspiring piano lessons for young beginners.