LMS Jazz Program Celebration
Sunday, January 11, 2009 3:00 pm
Lucy Moses School (LMS) marks the 15th anniversary of its celebrated Jazz Program with a free concert featuring adult students and faculty performing in Merkin Concert Hall. Students from the Sunday and Monday Jazz Ensembles and Advanced Jazz Improvisation and Harmony class will perform arrangements of great jazz pieces by program director Roni Ben-Hur as well as American Songbook standards. The concert will be followed by a reception.
Directed by the celebrated jazz guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, LMS’s unique Jazz Program is designed for singers and instrumentalists of all backgrounds and skill levels, from beginners to advanced students. Adult students can participate in 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. LMS’s Jazz Program is unique in that it is very welcoming to students with full-time professions who are not professional musicians, allowing them to participate in a rigorous, exciting program that is geared to them. Many students keep coming back year after year, citing the great teachers and stimulating classes that continue to challenge them.
“Roni’s taken a troop of avid amateurs and molded us into a tight band,” says David Klafter, a longtime student and an organizer of the January 11 concert. “He fosters our musicianship and teaches us to listen to each other and draw ideas from what others are playing. And we always swing!”
The January 11 concert features: Sunday Jazz Ensemble students Amy Begel, piano; Jonathan T. Landsberg, sax; Donald Miller, sax; Ted Sannella, vocals; Erik Swimmer, sax and Pete Walshak, guitar. Monday Jazz Ensemble students Jennifer Ehrenberg, sax; Cascadu, vocal; Sharon Fischman, drums; David Klafter, piano; Jorge Manahan, guitar; Sana Manjeshwar, vocals; Jose Morales, trumpet; Keith Mulhare, bass; Heidi Rogers, piano; Ron S. Tikofsky, sax and Joseph Zemann, sax. Advanced Jazz Improvisation and Harmony students Jennifer Collins, sax; Jose Morales, trumpet; David Perlman, piano and Mercer L. Sullivan, guitar; Sam Torres, sax and Joseph Zemann, sax. With guest performers Larry Eckert, sax; Alex Gressel, bass and Steve Williams, drums.
Tickets: FreeEVENT ABBREVIATIONS:
AGRH = Ann Goodman Recital Hall,
KC = Kaufman Center,
LMS = Lucy Moses School
MCH = Merkin Concert Hall,
SMS = Special Music School,
YAP = Young Artist Program