Special Music School senior Anna Huettel with Music Director Jenny Undercofler at the June graduation ceremony

As a leader in community arts education through its Lucy Moses School, Kaufman Center has offered a range of educational options for beginners, casual learners and serious students since its founding in 1952. In 1996, the Center took its dedication to arts education to the next level by establishing the Special Music School (P.S. 859)––the only public school for musically gifted children in New York City, indeed in the nation. Says Kaufman Center Executive Director and Special Music School President Lydia Kontos, “Graduating this year’s Special Music School seniors has brought the Center full circle as a provider of music education in New York City. When we founded the Special Music School we were breaking new ground and now, looking back, I can’t imagine it not being there for New York City students. We answered a need and, in so doing, extended the range of services offered by the Center. Literally, anyone seeking a program of study in the performing arts––adults and kids, beginners and advanced students, even professionals––can find something here.”

While it might be the reputation of the Center that attracts students, it’s the community within that holds their interest. Theater Wing Director Sean Hartley describes the Center as “a place where children learn how much they can do and develop the confidence to follow their own path, whatever it is. Though we are a large Center, we get to know each student individually and try to keep in touch even after they leave the Center.”

Seven students graduated from Special Music School this spring, including cellist Valeriya Sholokova (student of Vladimir Panteleyev) and pianist Elina Akselrud (student of Irina Morozova). Akselrud, who will attend the Mannes School and continue her piano studies, had some advice to offer to younger students that speaks to the supportive community that exists at the Special Music School: “Believe in yourself. Don’t hesitate to be happy for your friends and always help each other.” Sholokova will attend The Juilliard School in the fall on a full cello scholarship. She credits her Special Music School music training with teaching her to think critically. Special Music School Music Director Jenny Undercofler says, “There is a natural connection between sharing music and creating community. Through chamber groups like our contemporary teen ensemble Face the Music, Special Music School fosters the urge students naturally have to share when it comes to music. We instruct students to develop a sense of personal excellence when it comes to their music, but in the end they probably learn the most from playing with each other.”

The Center’s Young Artist Program––an alternative course of study for highly motivated young musicians from both the Lucy Moses and the Special Music Schools––is a prime example of this community of learning. Says Lucy Moses School Director Igal Kesselman, “With the Young Artist Program, Kaufman Center has created an opportunity for older kids to play chamber music together regardless of which school they attend. Whether or not these young musicians go on to use music professionally, most of them will carry their interest in music with them through life. The Center has not only given them musical skills, but also outlets to explore their talents and develop their confidence.”

Violinist Peter Robertson is one of this year’s Lucy Moses School graduates. Robertson studied violin with Nurit Pacht and also participated in a chamber ensemble, coached by Kesselman. “Playing music with the students at the Lucy Moses School made me want to continue music at college because I enjoyed the connection with people that happened when I played. That connection is sort of regardless of talent, but it is something you can learn and get better at with practice. The Lucy Moses School provided me with the opportunity for such connection, and for that I am very grateful,” says Robertson.

As we say farewell to Lucy Moses School and Special Music School graduates, we know it’s not goodbye. Executive Director Lydia Kontos says, “I expect to see many of these students from time to time as their paths cross with the Center, either as mentors to younger students, as alumni performers or––some day––as performing adults on the stage of Merkin Concert Hall.”

With its stellar acoustics and numerous awards for adventurous programming, Merkin Hall has been a leader in this growth since its inception. And so it is appropriate to celebrate the Hall’s 30th year with a focus on the language of music in all its forms. The inspiration for the 2008–09 season––the first full season in the newly renovated space––is Musically Speaking. Both literally and stylistically, the way in which music communicates with and influences listeners and artists––how it is written, interpreted and exchanged––is at the heart of this exploration.

The nucleus of the season will be a series of concerts under the umbrella title of Musically Speaking––each concert a mini-dialogue on this theme. We’ve invited musicians who straddle the genres of jazz, pop and classical music. We’ll pay homage to the work of such visionaries as Joan Tower, Elliot Carter and the late Olivier Messiaen. To mark the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence we will savor Israeli and Jewish music of all kinds—cantorial, contemporary classical, jazz. We welcome back John Schaefer and WNYC’s New Sounds® Live, as well as the popular Tuesday Matinees and Broadway Close Up series, and we celebrate the return of the New York Festival of Song. Our musical theater programming for families has expanded––a total of six delightful Sunday mornings featuring the Broadway Playhouse cast and the Poppy Seed Players.

For a taste of what’s to come this fall, here is a sneak peek at three shows, narrated by Merkin Hall Director Greg Evans. Join us for these and many other concerts that celebrate music in all its glory.

Dialects: Israeli Jazz & Klezmer

Greg Evans: “25-year-old pianist Omer Klein and 25-year veteran trumpeter Frank London present two of the best examples of the new face of American/ Israeli music. While London recovers the lost sounds of Klezmer, taking the music back to its 19th-centuryroots with the Klezmer Brass All Stars, Klein, a rising star in the Israeli/ New York jazz movement, offers a program of his deeply melodic, utterly original compositions. These two artists areagreat combination, both exploring what it is that makes Israeli music unique. Jazzed up Middle Eastern melodies will share the stage with rocked out Klezmer brass strains from a cast of hot newcomers and seasoned pros.”
WHEN: Thu 09/18/2008 at 8:00 pm

Translating ‘Trane: A Love Supreme

GE: “Turtle Island String Quartet takes a classic––John Coltrane’s groundbreaking 1964 album, A Love Supreme––and recasts it into an entirely different language, not harmonically but stylistically. No one can hear the string quartet version of this music and not recognize the tunes. The texture of the strings at once smooths out and makes even more clear Coltrane’s ear for the entire sweep of his music. This Grammy Award-winning translation of an iconic jazz masterpiece is highlighted and deepened in its impact by this change.”
WHEN: Sun 11/09/2008 at 8:00 pm

Elliott Carter’s First Hundred Years

GE: “Composer Elliott Carter set an independent course early on in his career after mastering the language of the day, Neo-Classicism; all this while absorbingthe truly American spirit in music on this continent. His knack for putting instruments into a discernable dialogue with each other has given him a distinctive voice that has its beginnings in the experiments of Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles and the other firebrand individualist composers who came before him. In honor of Carter’s 100th birthday, the New York Woodwind Quintet and Ursula Oppens will perform works that span his entire career, including his complete works for winds. The program will demonstrate how Carter’s musical language evolved, resulting in the vibrant, unique voice of his maturity.”
WHEN: Sun 11/23/2008 at 8:00 pm

Join us! Merkin now offers memberships valid for most Kaufman Center presentations.* Purchase any four tickets to concerts from the Musically Speakingseries and pay only $20 per ticket. Better still, you can choose your four events now or wait until later. Membership allows you to select what you want to hear––and try something new––with maximum savings and flexibility.

*Some exclusions apply.

Leave a lasting impression in the Merkin Concert Hall lobby by purchasing a plaque on our new donor wall, located in the center of the south wall in the ground floor Merkin lobby. The plaque can be engraved with a name of your choosing. Honor a loved one or show others your personal commitment to the Kaufman Center.

Kaufman Campaign Update

Additional opportunities remain to support The Kaufman Campaign, including named spaces and gifts to endow the Center’s programs for generations to come. We have now raised $16,646,000 toward our $17 million goal.

Annual Wish List Campaign

Our season may be over, but our wish list campaign is just beginning! Make a gift before August 31, 2008, to help finish out the Kaufman Center’s 2007–08 fiscal year. Some Kaufman Center wishes:

Perfect Pitch: Help tune a hardworking piano––$100

Notable Achievement: Sponsor the program notes about the artist and music for a concert produced by Merkin Concert Hall––$250

Singing Your Praises: Purchase much-needed sheet music for the Special Music School student choirs––$300

Hello, Dolly!: Help produce the family-friendly Broadway Playhouse series, which introduces families to musical theater classics through sing-alongs, games, a summary performance of a highlighted show, and interviews with lyricists and composers––$1,000–$30,000

Log-in with the Kaufman Catalog: Help update the cataloging software used in the Kaufman Center’s Birnbaum Music Library and make its contents available on the Kaufman Center’s website - $1,400 (one-time cost of $1,000 for software updates; $400 annual contribution to maintain the Catalog on kaufman-center.org)

Star Power: Contribute to the artist fund for the Merkin Concert Hall Tuesday Matinees series, which highlights up-and-coming classical musicians and ensembles––$1,500

Summer Singin’: Send a disadvantaged child to the Summer Musical Theater Workshop, a five-week theater camp that culminates in three performances of an original work––$1,800

Face the Music: Commission a professional composer to create an original work for the Face the Music ensemble, a performance group comprising students from the Special Music School––$2,000

Musical Muse: Provide a scholarship for a disadvantaged child (and parent) to study a full Suzuki violin program at the Lucy Moses School––$2,300

Real Mitzvah: Reach out to two deserving inner-city children by providing them with a full year of instrumental lessons at the Lucy Moses School––$4,000

Orchestrate the Future: Sponsor a year of music study for a gifted Special Music School student, which includes intensive musical training and personal coaching––$6,000

Get it in Writing: Be a sponsor of the Merkin Concert Hall 2008–09 season and have your name or company logo prominently printed on all 80,000 season catalogs––$7,500

Going for Gold: Sponsor the Lucy Moses School and Special Music School Concerto Competition–– $10,000

To learn more or to make a gift, please contact Development at 212 501 3350 or eraven@kaufman-center.org.

Lucy Moses School Scholarship Luncheon Honored Helene Blue

The March 11 Scholarship Luncheon, benefiting the Lucy Moses School’s Scholarship Fund, honored Kaufman Center Participating Board member Helene Blue. Helene, a talented singer, went on to make a career in music publishing, becoming a wonderful role model for those who choose to pursue a career supporting composers and musicians.

Honoree Helene Blue (L) with Luncheon Chair Ilse Blumenfeld

Paul Winter, acclaimed composer and saxophonist, helped celebrate Helene with a performance

Every Special Music School student has the chance to perform at the Barnes & Noble Play-a-Thon, an annual fundraising event in support of the Special Music School. Here Julia Kingston (kindergarten) entertains the crowd. Parents and friends of the school raised $13,000 at the Play-a-Thon this year.

Diana Beattie, host of the May 1 Musical Evening, congratulates Special Music School students Andrea Gonzales (4th grade, piano), Katrina Gonzales (4th grade, cello) and Gabriella Gonzales (6th grade, violin), and their father, Gabriel, on the girls’ performance.

Also playing that night was The McDermott Trio: sisters Kerry, Maureen and Anne-Marie.

Two nymphs (Lulu Healey, L, and Katia Baranova, R) plead with the goddess Demeter (Franny Conroy, third from L) and her older daughter, Stephanie (Kiri Maza, second from L) in the Special Music School’s 3rd grade production of Stephanie and Persephone, a new musical based on the myth of Persephone. The world premiere musical was written especially for the Special Music School Choral concert by Chorus Director Sean Hartley with composer Beth Sorrentino.

Special Music School students (from L) Ben Goldstein, Luca Sakon, Nina Vesato and Myah Segurah posed after a performance class in the Ann Goodman Recital Hall.

For this year’s PTA-sponsored Special Music School art show, students posted their creations throughout the second floor and also paraded through the halls. Pictured are students with handcrafted hats and masks.

Students from the Special Music School kindergarten class gathered for an impromptu reading this spring.

Lydia Kontos Receives Arts Management Award

Kaufman Center Executive Director Lydia Kontos was recently given the Excellence in Arts Management Award by the Arts and Business Council at their annual Encore Awards ceremony on June 2. Kontos is pictured here with Kaufman Center Chairman Bethany Millard (left) and Arts and Business Council presenter Harold Burson.

Log On, Stay Connected

The online face of Kaufman Center—kaufman-center.org—has received a major overhaul and will be ready for business this summer. Visit us online to order tickets to the 2008–09 Merkin Concert Hall season, register for fall classes at the Lucy Moses School, download applications and other useful information about the Special Music School and make a gift to the Kaufman Campaign. Enjoy our new calendar of events, which you can now sort according to your personal preferences. Most importantly, please sign up to receive our monthly e-newsletter, other useful news and occasional special offers. Joining our e-list is also an eco-friendly way to stay connected while saving the Center postage and mailing costs.

Face the Music On Air

The Special Music School ensemble Face the Music was recently heard on WNYC Radio’s Evening Music program. Excerpts from their May 2 Wordless Music series concert were broadcast in June, and the entire concert is available for streaming at wnyc.org.

Student Notes

Lucy Moses School pianist Stella Wong (student of Golda Tatz) won the Young Artist Award and the first prize for groups I and II at the Piano Teachers Congress of New York Honor Recital Audition. Special Music School pianist Luiko Yoshimoto (10-grade, student of Golda Tatz) won the Josephine Fry Award and first prize for Group III, IV at the same event. Both girls performed at the Greenwich House Music School in April.

Lucy Moses School violinist Alice Ivy-Pemberton (student of Nurit Pacht) and Special Music School pianists Jeremy Cohen and Lilian Finckel (both 8th grade students of Golda Tatz) were chosen by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for its “Young Ensembles Program” and performed in The Rose Studio at Lincoln Center in May.

Lucy Moses School theater student Luke Rosen was recently cast in a professional production of a new musical called Shlomo, which played at the Museum of Jewish Heritage this spring. Luke was also cast by the Kaufman Center’s Poppy Seed Players last season in the title role of The Adventures of Mottel, the Cantor’s Son.

Lucy Moses School theater student Sabrina Edelman was recently cast in aproduction by the Opera Company of Brooklyn of a new opera about Janusz Korczak called Korczak’s Orphans. It was performed at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in May.

Lucy Moses School violinist Monica Martin (student of Christiane Pors) was a winner in the La Guardia High School Orchestra Solo Competition and appeared as a soloist with the I.S.O. orchestra in May at Lincoln Center’s The Rose Studio. She is a graduate of the Lucy Moses Suzuki Program.

Special Music School violist Rosemary Nelis (8th-grade, student of Viktor Basis) received a scholarship from the New York Viola Society that was awarded in May.

Special Music School pianist Jangho Lim (3rd grade, student of Irina Morozova) won 2nd prize in the 11th New York Music Competition. Jangho also won 3rd Prize in the Third Annual Connecticut International Young Artist Competition.

Special Music School flutist Nadira Navruzov (kindergarten, student of Valerie Holmes) was given a Certificate for Distinguished Accomplishment in the New York Flute Club Young Musicians Contest.

Faculty Notes

Special Music School / Young Artist Program composition faculty member Eric Schwartz was chosen by Forecast Music to have his work presented in From Around The Block––a concert of contemporary American Chamber Works. The ensemble performed his work The Short Sad Story of the Guinea Pig (Who Died)in May at New York’s Pianos. Schwartz was also featured in the podcast of the Orchestra of Southern Utah as a highlighted composer.

I just wanted to send you an electronic “thumbs up” for the wonderful “Tribute to Cole Porter” program that our fourth grade was so lucky to attend this past Monday morning.

The program was perfectly suited to fourth graders. The pacing was just fast enough, but not too fast, the choice of material was lively and fun, and the structure of the program—short segments introduced with games and inviting audience participation—was varied enough to hold the children’s attention for the full 65 minutes.

In addition, the host Theater Wing Director Sean Hartley was engaging and very comfortable with children while the quality of the performers—their acting, comedic, and vocal skills—was outstanding.

So often programs for kids are either lively but short on content or full of information and lovely performances but dry. The “Tribute to Cole Porter” managed to expose the kids to great music, beautiful singing, and some biographical information while keeping them entertained. We will definitely keep a visit to the Broadway Playhouse series as a regular field trip for the fourth grade. It was a lovely morning.

Marie Verde,
Riverdale Elementary School