June 18, 2008

USDAN CENTER ANNOUNCES 2008 FESTIVAL CONCERTS

SPECIAL JULY 17 CONCERT OF REMEMBRANCE AND CELEBRATION; 60th ANNIVERSARY OF ISRAEL, WITH EXCERPTS FROM CHILDREN S OPERA BRUNDIBAR Usdan Center For the Creative and Performing Arts (www.usdan.com), America's premier summer arts day camp, will present its annual Festival Concerts, private 30-minute educational performances, just for Usdan students, at its on-site 1,000-seat McKinley Ampitheater, beginning Monday June 30.

A unique event this season will be the July 17 Concert of Remembrance and Celebration; 60th Anniversary of Israel, hosted by the international concert presenter and programmer Caroline Stoessinger. The concert will include excerpts from Brundibar, the children s opera first performed in the Terezin concentration camp, and since World War II, sung continually in Israel and throughout the world. The Usdan Center Junior Chorus will perform.

Usdan Center is at 185 Colonial Springs Road, Wheatley Heights (Huntington), New York, (631) 643-7900. For more information, visit www.usdan.com. Opening the program of concerts on June 30 will be the rising tap dance team of DeWitt Fleming and Jared Grimes, guest artists with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, tap festivals and Off-Broadway shows; other artists include jazz star Jane Monheit (a former Usdan student), tenor Gerard Powers, who has sung leading roles with the New York City, San Francisco and Bolshoi Operas; Voices of Broadway, members of the casts of Broadway s Wicked, Curtains and Mamma Mia; Empire Brass, considered North America s finest brass quintet; Polish jazz pianist Mateusz Kolakowski, prizewinner of the Chopin and Paderewski piano competitions; the Brasil Guitar Duo, 2006 Concert Artists Guild winners; The Chameleons, the popular mime troupe; violinist Adela Pe a, founder of The Eroica Trio. She will perform with Music From Copland House, the resident ensemble of the late composer Aaron Copland s landmark home; the unique Faustwork Mask Theatre, whose synthesis of theater, physical comedy, music, dance and poetry have delighted audiences internationally for 25 years; violinist Rachel Lee, soloist with orchestras around the world; and jazz pianist/composer Ted Rosenthal, winner of the Thelonius Monk International Piano Competition and performer with Wynton Marsalis, Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer and Jon Faddis. He will present the New York instrumental premiere of his jazz quintet SwingFlight, first performed last March with the Nilas Martin Dancers at Manhattan s DiCapo Opera Theater.

After the first few weeks of the Usdan season, onstage performances begin by students of the many programs at the Center. A complete schedule of professional performances follows.

Usdan Center is at 185 Colonial Springs Road, Wheatley Heights (Huntington), New York, (631) 643-7900. For more information, visit www.usdan.com.

Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, America's largest summer arts day camp, was formed to introduce young people, ages 6 to 18, to the arts through performance and study with a professional faculty of artist-teachers. The Center's mission is to provide children with the arts as a companion for life through great teaching, and the camaraderie of fellow students who share a love the arts. Usdan offers more than 40 programs in music, dance, theatre, visual arts, media arts, chess, creative writing, and nature and ecology. No audition is required for most Usdan programs, and one-third of the Center's 1,600 students receive tuition assistance to study at Usdan. Children commute to the Center every weekday for seven weeks each summer, traveling on on air-conditioned buses that leave from most New York metropolitan-area neighborhoods. A special feature of the students' daily program is the Center's series of Festival Concerts, daily educational performances by distinguished artists, such as the Tokyo String Quartet, James Galway, Canadian Brass, jazz legends Jimmy Heath and Billy Taylor, the Limon Dance Company, and cast members of current Broadway shows. Although the Center's goal is to encourage participation in the arts, Usdan's unique program has also inspired many former students to go on to professional careers. Alumni include actors Natalie Portman, Lisa Gay Hamilton (featured in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean on Broadway) and Jordan Leeds (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change), Tony Award-winning playwright Michele Lowe, singers Mariah Carey and Jane Monheit, and members of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and numerous ballet companies including Pacific Northwest, Ballet San Jose, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet. Usdan Center is an agency of UJA-Federation of New York

FESTIVAL CONCERTS Schedule (dates not indicated feature student performances):

Monday, June 30: Dewitt Fleming, Jr. and Jared Grimes
Tuesday, July 1: Gerard Powers
Wednesday, July 2: Adela Pe a with Music From Copland House
Thursday, July 3: The Chameleons
Monday, July 7: Mateusz Kolakowski
Tuesday, July 8: Voices of Broadway
Wednesday, July 9: Rachel Lee
Thursday, July 10: Empire Brass
Monday, July 14: Brasil Guitar Duo
Tuesday, July 15: Faustwork Mask Theatre
Thursday, July 17: Concert of Remembrance and Celebration: 60th Anniversary of Israel
Friday, July 18: Jane Monheit
Monday, July 21: Ted Rosenthal Quintet
Posted by jmwc at June 18, 2008 07:22 PM