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Carnegie Hall News
Back to Press Release List > 04/18/2008 - 80 Fourth-Sixth Grade NYC Student Musicians Make Carnegie Hall Debuts in Academy Program, May 22
—THE ACADEMY—
A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute
in Partnership with The New York City Department of Education
80 STUDENT MUSICIANS, GRADES 4 TO 6, MAKE THEIR CARNEGIE HALL DEBUTS IN
PROGRAM CREATED BY THREE FELLOWS FROM THE ACADEMY ON
THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2008 IN ZANKEL HALL
Children’s Music Campaign NYC Formed to Raise Awareness of
Importance of Music Education and Celebrate the Students of
New York City Public Schools
New Music by Nico Muhly and James Blachly Commissioned for the Students
From Three Public Schools in Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx
On Thursday, May 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, approximately 80 New York City Public School fourth, fifth, and sixth grade student musicians will make their Carnegie Hall debuts in a special concert created by three fellows of The Academy, a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The concert is the culmination of one of three new community projects created by second-year Academy fellows to conclude their fellowships, which end in June. These projects will provide engaging musical opportunities for schools, families, and New York City communities.
Cellist Claire Bryant, clarinetist Carol McGonnell, and pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe—who in their roles as Academy fellows serve as mentors to the music students throughout the school year—have formed the Children’s Music Campaign NYC to raise awareness of the crucial role that music education provides in a child’s development while also celebrating the public school students of New York City.
The students performing in the May 22 concert represent classrooms from:
• PS 157x, 757 Cauldwell Ave., Bronx; Ramona Duran, Principal; Susan Shumway,
Strings Teacher; Claire Bryant, Academy Fellow
• PS 46, 2987 Eighth Ave., Manhattan; George Young, Principal; Ned Ellis, Band
Teacher; Carol McGonnell, Academy Fellow
• PS 131Q, 170-45 84 Ave., Queens; Randolph Ford, Principal; Frank Headley,
Assistant Principal; Merrill Poliak, Performing Arts Teacher; Elizabeth Joy Roe,
Academy Fellow
Inspired by the concept of “Simple Gifts,” the Children’s Music Campaign NYC will provide these young people an invaluable forum for creative expression, collaboration, and exploration. Other key components of this project include an essay assignment on the “Simple Gift of Music” theme as well as a filmed documentary on the concert preparation and rehearsal process. In the months leading up to the concert, Claire, Carol, and Elizabeth will work with their students in preparation for their debuts. The three Academy fellows will also be blogging about the preparations at www.acjw.org.
For the students’ debut, The Academy has commissioned new music from composers James Blachly and Nico Muhly—two rising stars in the classical music world—who will also work with the fellows and students in the classroom, leading up to the Zankel Hall performance. Written specifically for the young musicians in PS 157x and PS 131Q, Blachly’s Plus Sum explores music in different mathematical ways—using addition, subtraction, and multiplication before reaching a synergy: that—in the words of the composer—“with music, we are more.” The work is a celebration of music and music programs in the lives of children. According to Muhly, his new work Twitchy Chorale is “a piece of machine music—repetitive and cyclical. The piece is organized around a series of chords whose contours imply (but never actually state) little melodies and themes. The ending of the piece features a series of silences, little holes that punctuate the texture and, with any luck, refocus the energy of the stuttering machine.” The program will also include music by Thomas Adès performed by Academy fellows. A very limited number of free tickets for this Academy program will be available to the public beginning at 11:00 a.m. on the day of the concert, May 22, at the Carnegie Hall Box Office only.
Speaking on behalf of her two colleagues, Carol McGonnell said, “Embarking on this project, we originally focused on how we could enrich our students' lives, but in hindsight we've realized the extent to which these young children have transformed the way we view ourselves as both musicians and people. We can't wait to share the gifts of these children in the celebratory concert.”
"The opportunity for our children to perform at Carnegie Hall is a symbol of our effort to reinvigorate music in our school,” said Frank Headley, Assistant Principal at PS 131Q. “Elizabeth's humble nature and stellar talent has been an inspiration to our teachers and students."
The Children’s Music Campaign NYC is one of three special projects that second-year Academy fellows have conceived and developed to encapsulate the core values of The Academy program, and further bolster their experience with and passion for community engagement. The projects, which draw upon the musicians’ unique experiences in the Academy over the past year, will culminate in final events for a wide variety of audiences. The other projects are:
• The Academy Hospital Project—Five Academy fellows and a composer worked with a music therapist at the Komansky Center for Children’s Health at New York-Presbyterian, the Hospital of Columbia and Cornell Universities, to provide an interactive musical experience for sick children, introducing them to composition, melody, timbre, and instrumentation. Following these sessions, the fellows created a unique concert for all children entitled Anyone Can Make Music, which was presented in Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts in Brooklyn and Queens on March 27 and 28, and will be performed at a Carnegie Hall Family Concert in Zankel Hall on May 18.
• The Bar-olk Project—Two Academy fellows collaborated on this interactive, educational concert that will feature music of the Baroque era and of various folk traditions. Seeking to bridge cultures and traditions in a concert format that appeals to young adult audiences, the two fellows and a number of their close musical colleagues will present a lively, informative, and casual program as part of Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Concert Series on May 20 at the Angel Orensanz Center in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood.
Established in January 2007, The Academy reflects the belief that the musician of tomorrow will require both the highest performance standards and the capacity to give back to the community, inspiring new generations of musicians and music lovers. This season, the program doubled in size to include 34 fellows, who make a major contribution to New York City public schools’ music education programs, with each fellow paired with a New York City public school and working alongside teachers in all five boroughs. The Academy completes its pilot program in June 2008.
About the Artists
Cellist Claire Bryant has appeared as a soloist with the Kuopion Orchestieri of Finland, the National Symphony of Honduras in Tegucigalpa, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, and the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra. An active chamber musician, she has collaborated with Donald Weilerstein, the Peabody Trio, Roger Tapping, Maria Lambros, and members of the St. Lawrence, Orion, Mendelssohn, and Pacifica string quartets. She is a founding member of the TETRAS Quartet, a string quartet dedicated to the study, performance, and promotion of repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. She is the founder, producer, and artistic director of the acclaimed chamber music series With Strings Attached, which has raised over $10,000 for arts education in her native state of South Carolina. Claire received her Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. She now serves as the Faculty Assistant for Bonnie Hampton at The Juilliard School in the College and Pre- College Divisions. As part of her fellowship program, Claire teaches in the Bronx at the Grove Hill School, PS 157X.
Clarinetist Carol McGonnell is a founding member of the Argento Chamber Ensemble, a dynamic ensemble that works primarily with French Spectral composers. Other groups she has performed with include the Flux Quartet, the Zankel Band, and Ensemble Modern. In her native Ireland Carol has performed as soloist with the National Symphony, as well as the RTE Concert and Ulster orchestras. Festival engagements include the Pan Music Festival (Seoul), Izmir Music Festival (Turkey), West Cork Chamber Music (Ireland), Plovdiv Festival (Bulgaria), the International Electro-acoustic Festival (Shanghai), and Marlboro Music Festival. Carol has curated for the Kilkenny Arts Festival and is curator of Music at Museums in association with the National Gallery of Ireland.
Winner of the prestigious William Petschek Piano Debut Recital Award, pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe was recently named by Symphony Magazine as one of the classical music world's "Six on the Rise: Young Artists to Watch." She has appeared as recitalist, orchestral soloist, and chamber musician at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, and Steinway Hall in New York; the Seoul Arts Center in Korea; Salle Cortot in Paris; the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; the Ravinia Festival in Chicago; Salón Dorado in Buenos Aires; and the Banff Centre in Canada. Elizabeth made her New York concerto debut in 2005 under the baton of James Conlon, performing the Britten Piano Concerto at Alice Tully Hall. In 2003, she replaced John Browning on short notice in subscription concerts with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Alongside solo and chamber music engagements, she has established a groundbreaking piano duo with Greg Anderson. Elizabeth earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School as a full scholarship student of Yoheved Kaplinsky.
The Academy
The Academy—a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education is a two-year fellowship designed for post-graduate musicians embarking on their careers, offering extensive performance opportunities and intensive training in the area of music education. The program provides performance opportunities through Ensemble ACJW at both Carnegie Hall and The Juilliard School; advanced musical training, including coaching sessions with top musicians and individual private lessons; and intensive teaching instruction leading to hands-on experience working with students in the New York City public school system. Fellows work in partnership with a specific music teacher with a variety of grade levels in areas such as instrumental teaching, creative learning projects, general music knowledge, and lecture-demonstrations, depending on the specific needs of each school. A partnership with Skidmore College has also brought performances and educational events to the Saratoga Springs community beginning in the 2007–2008 season, and will continue next season.
The Academy was established in January 2007. The program was initiated by Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director Clive Gillinson in partnership with Joseph W. Polisi, President of The Juilliard School. The program reflects their shared belief that the artist of tomorrow will require both the ability to perform at the highest level and the capacity to give back to the community, inspiring the next generation of musicians and music lovers. The first pilot phase of The Academy ran from January through June 2007 with 16 fellows selected from recent graduates of The Juilliard School and participants in The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall’s Professional Training Workshops. Starting in September 2007, 19 new musician fellows joined 15 returning fellows for the second phase of the pilot, which runs through June 2008. The new fellows were nominated by music school deans and leading musicians, and then selected by live audition.
Fellows of The Academy are graduates of leading music schools including: The Curtis Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College–The New School for Music, New England Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, Stony Brook University, and Yale School of Music.
Program Information
Thursday, May 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Zankel Hall
CHILDREN’S MUSIC CAMPAIGN NYC
featuring students from PS 157x (Bronx), PS 46 (Manhattan), PS 131Q (Queens)
The Academy—A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute
Program to include:
Remarks from Clive Gillinson, Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall
Remarks from CMCNYC founders Claire Bryant, Carol McGonnell, and Elizabeth Joy Roe
NICO MUHLY Twitchy Chorale (World Premiere, commissioned by The Academy) (Performed by students from PS 46)
JAMES BLACHLY Plus Sum (World Premiere, commissioned by The Academy) (Performed by students from PS 157X and PS 131Q)
THOMAS ADÈS Catch, Op. 4 (Performed by Academy fellows Claire Bryant, Carol McGonnell, Elizabeth Joy Roe, and Owen Dalby)
Final sing-along
The Academy is made possible by a leadership gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Major funding has also been provided by Mercedes and Sid Bass, The Kovner Foundation, Martha and Bob Lipp, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Susan and Elihu Rose, and Mr. and Mrs. Lester S. Morse Jr., with additional support from the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, The Dana Foundation, Suki Sandler, Mr. and Mrs. Nicola Bulgari, Susan and Ed Forst, and The William Petschek Family.
Ensemble ACJW performances are supported, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.
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Ticket Information
A very limited number of free tickets for this Academy program will be available to the public beginning at 11:00 a.m. on the day of the concert, May 22, at the Carnegie Hall Box Office only, 154 West 57th Street.
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