Annual Fund
The Kaufman Center is home to four inter-related performing arts entities: Merkin Concert Hall, the Special Music School, the Lucy Moses School and the Theater Wing. Below are creative ways to support these entities, by giving for specific programs or needs.
Special Music School
The Special Music School is a New York City public school for musically gifted children in grades K-12. This unique educational model is made possible through a public/private partnership in which the New York City Department of Education provides the school's academic program and the Kaufman Center provides full scholarships for each child's intensive musical study. It is the only public school in the United States that offers rigorous musical training to gifted children starting in kindergarten, solely on the basis of their innate musical talent. Any child in the five boroughs of New York City may apply.
Creative Ways to Support the Special Music School:
Slam Dunk: $250,000
Name the Special Music School's open-air rooftop playground, which has a jungle gym, basketball hoops, rubberized flooring and space for all types of sports
Scholarly Pursuits: $6,000
Fund one student's music education for one year
Voices of Reason: $500
Provide sheet music for the Special Music School choruses
Lucy Moses School
The Lucy Moses School, one of the most respected community performing arts schools in the country, is unique in making a conservatory-quality faculty available to over 2,000 students from toddlers to senior citizens, with varying levels of expertise and a wide range of interests. Offerings include private and group lessons; Dalcroze Eurhythmics and Suzuki; musical theater workshops; dance and bodywork; choral groups and vocal workshops; and music theory, history and composition.
Creative Ways to Support the Lucy Moses School:
Wee Ones: $5,000
Create a dedicated pre-school space with rubberized flooring and child-friendly furniture
Zippidy-Doo-Dah: $1,800
Send a needy child to the Summer Musical Theater Workshop, a five-week theater camp that culminates in three performances of an original work
Dancing on Air: $600
Keep a ballerina dancing for one year in the Kaufman Center's Ballet
Merkin Concert Hall
Merkin Concert Hall is an ideal place to hear music in an intimate setting with near-perfect acoustics. The 450-seat hall has been a favorite of both audiences and performers since its opening in 1978. Now hosting more than 220 concerts annually, Merkin Concert Hall is particularly well known for the Kaufman Center's own presentations of today's most stimulating music; The New York Times praises Merkin Hall for its "reputation for avant-gardism of a cool and cerebral nature."
Creative Ways to Support Merkin Concert Hall:
Food & Lodging: $10,000
Provide hospitality for all artists performing at Merkin Concert Hall for one season
Underwriting Angel: $5,000
Pay the production costs for one season of multi-media performances in Merkin Concert Hall, including all visual presentations that accompany music
Big Splash: $1,000
Pay for the talent at one Merkin Concert Hall Tuesday Matinees concert, which highlights up-and-coming young artists
The Theater Wing
The Kaufman Center's Theater Wing provides people of all ages the opportunity to enjoy and participate in the theatrical arts. The Theater Wing's programs include arts-in-education residencies in musical theater for public and private schools; an "arts and literacy" initiative using the arts to enhance the academic curriculum; the Poppy Seed Players, the resident theater company of the Kaufman Center; the commissioning of story-based chamber works for family audiences by contemporary composers; and drama classes for all ages at the Lucy Moses School (including a cabaret class for adults).
Creative Ways to Support the Theater Wing:
Hello, Dolly!: $30,000
Support Merkin Concert Hall's Broadway Playhouse series, which introduces families to classics of musical theater
Jewish Cultural Heritage: $5,000
"Plant new seeds" by commissioning a new family musical on a Jewish theme for the Poppy Seed Players theater troupe
Kaufman Kabaret: $700
Provide one year's support to this popular adult class which studies and performs the music of a musical theater composer/lyricist
Merkin Hall plays a critical role because it features music that's about the 21st century—about right 