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| 92nd Street Y Launches New Guitar Institute |
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| Tickets/Registration: 212.415.5500 |
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| Media Contact: Beverly Greenfield, 212.415.5452, email |
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| New 92nd Street Y Guitar Institute Will Offer Classes, Concerts and Outreach; Yale's Benjamin Verdery Named Artistic Director |
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| Major support for the 92nd Street Y Guitar Institute comes from The Leir Charitable Foundations in memory of Henry J. and Erna D. Leir, the D'Addario Music Foundation, and The Augustine Foundation. |
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| New York, NY, November, 5, 2007—The 92nd Street Y announces the launch of a new venture, the 92nd Street Y Guitar Institute, and the appointment of classical guitarist and composer Benjamin Verdery as Artistic Director. The Institute will draw on the music faculty and outreach expertise of the Y's School of the Arts and the concert programming of the Y's Tisch Center for the Arts to offer a broad range of educational and performance opportunities. |
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Says Robert Gilson, director of the Y's School of the Arts, which offers music, art and dance education including extensive in-school outreach activities, "Our goal in creating the Guitar Institute is to support the large community of guitar students, performers and fans. The 92nd Street Y's expertise in both music education and music performance makes us uniquely situated to serve guitar aficionados and cultivate new audiences."
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Benjamin Verdery, who chairs of the Guitar Department at the Yale University School of Music and who will oversee the new venture, is widely recognized as an innovative force in classical guitar. As the Guitar Institute's artistic director, he will collaborate with the 92nd Street Y on programming an annual guitar master class and the Y's guitar concert series (he will also perform at the March 1st tribute to Julian Bream), offer a series of pre-concert talks, and lead two annual High School Guitar Days — free, all-day smorgasbords of workshops and performances for high school students.
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"Having Ben Verdery oversee this initiative is a privilege for the 92nd Street Y," says Hanna Arie-Gaifman, director of the Y's Tisch Center for the Arts, which develops and presents literary and concert programming. "His passion for the guitar and his talent as a performer, composer, and educator make him the ideal choice for this multi-dimensional endeavor, and we are thrilled he accepted our invitation." Says Verdery, "We are living in the 'golden age of the guitar' and I invite everyone to join us in celebrating the wonders of the 'magic box' and everyone who plays it."
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The 92nd Street Y Guitar Institute comprises the following elements.
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| Education |
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♦ Free High School Guitar Days — The first all-day guitar extravaganza took place on Sunday, Nov 4; the next one is scheduled for Sunday, May 4, 2008. These two annual events feature performances by renowned jazz, blues and classical guitarists, master classes, workshops, discussions, and jam sessions. These events complement the Y's existing teen programs, which range from community service opportunities to advanced classes in the arts, performing troupes, and portfolio preparation.
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♦ Annual Guitar Master Class — Professional guitarists critique performances by advanced guitar students at the college and postgraduate level. Participants are selected by the Y's Music School staff and guitar faculty based on audition tapes submitted for consideration. This season's master class, on Sunday, December 9, 2007, is presented by members of the Canadian Guitar Quartet.
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♦ Guitar Classes/Lessons for Children and Adults — The 92nd Street Y offers group and private guitar instruction in a variety of styles. The faculty is comprised of professional performer/educators: jazz guitarists Ed Macheachan and John Hart; classical guitarist Maoz Ezra; teaching artist Nelson Riveros; and multi-instrumental composer and singer-songwriter Christopher North Renquist.
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| Outreach |
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To bring the guitar into the community, two new initiatives have been added to the 92nd Street Y's longstanding arts-outreach program, which provides in-school arts education to 7,000 economically disadvantaged school children, primarily in East Harlem, the Y's neighbor to the north.
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♦ Guitar Performances in NYC Public Schools — Each year, a different guitar virtuoso performs at selected schools in the Y's program. This year, Brazilian guitarist, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Celso Machado performs at two city schools in conjunction with his appearance in the Brazilian Guitar Marathon in January.
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♦ Free Tickets and Mentoring — Children studying guitar in the Y's arts-outreach program may receive free tickets to select 92nd Street Y guitar concerts. So that these young audience members can get the most out of the concert experience — the first for many of them — they are accompanied by a teaching-artist "mentor" who serves as an expert guide.
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| Concerts |
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The 92nd Street Y has been home to an annual guitar series since 1997 (it was dubbed Art of the Guitar in 2001). In 2002, the Y added a biennial Guitar Marathon to the concert series, and in 2006, introduced its annual New Year's Eve guitar concert.
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| ♦ Art of the Guitar — This series features pre-concert talks by Guitar Institute director Benjamin Verdery at 7:15 pm; concerts begin at 8:00. This season's concerts feature: |
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Sergio and Adair Assad (Oct 13) featured the world premiere of a new work by Egberto Gismonti, commissioned by the 92nd Street Y; |
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The New York debut of the Canadian Guitar Quartet (Dec 9); |
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Uruguayan virtuoso Alvaro Pierri (Feb 2); and |
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A 75th Birthday Tribute to the great British guitarist and lutenist Julian Bream (Mar 1), featuring guitarists Benjamin Verdery, William Kanengiser, David Leisner, David Tanenbaum, and Scott Tennant, as well as lutenist Frederic Hand. |
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♦ Biennial Guitar Marathon — Presented in conjunction with the New York Guitar Festival, the Guitar Marathon takes place every other year. This year's program, on Sunday, January 27, is an intensive look at Brazilian guitar music from its indigenous roots to its classical, avant-garde and popular offshoots. The marathon is curated by the virtuoso Brazilian guitar duo Sergio and Adair Assad and hosted by WNYC's John Schaefer. The performances are recorded for later broadcast on WNYC's "New Sounds Live."
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♦ New Year's Eve Guitar Concert — This annual concert event rings in the New Year with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and a complimentary glass of champagne at intermission.
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| ABOUT THE 92nd STREET Y |
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Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the 92nd Street Y has grown into a wide-ranging cultural, educational and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds. The 92nd Street Y's mission is to enrich the lives of the over 300,000 people who visit each year — both in person and through the Y's satellite, television, radio and Internet broadcasts. The organization offers comprehensive performing arts, film and spoken word events; courses in the humanities, the arts, personal development and Jewish culture; activities and workshops for children, teenagers and parents; and health and fitness programs for people of every age. Committed to making its programs available to everyone, the 92nd Street Y awards nearly $1 million in scholarships annually and reaches out to 8,000 public school children through fully-subsidized arts education programs. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org. |
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© 2008 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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