Thursday, May 23, 2024. Yesterday was a completely beautiful late Spring day in New York. With the temps moving into the low 80s, and very little humidity, it was a very comfortable warm. The kind of day when the World’s All Right. For the day, of even a moment anyway.
As we get closer to the end of the Spring season for social activities on the charitable, philanthropic side, it seems that there are more and more every year. What interests me about the situation is the volume of activities that we are hearing about, which means there are far far more of these activities embarking out there.
This is good news because we are at this time living in a world where help is very often needed. Not just financially – although that is always a central issue for those of us who work for a living (or a-strugglin’). But to bring us altogether.
Watching the microcosm of New York that is a macrocosm in the world, we see life, however briefly, from many sides daily, including the so-called philanthropy-side. This is very important to us Everyday Lives. We can see it, including the good news from many of these charity/philanthropic public events that we publicize on these very pages.
Our job is to let the world in on their works. All of them are an education about the ways of the world and private life. Including the Best of Us. They cover the territory in terms of subject. For example:
On last Monday, May 13th, 2024, the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) welcomed guests to celebrate the lifetime achievements of the winners of the 43rd annual Arthur Ross Awards.
A vast assemblage of talented architects, designers, artisans, builders, academics, and enthusiasts gathered together under the gilded ceiling of the grand dining room of a private club (in a building so fabulously grand and historic in New York City that it’s name and architecture and décor has been published a number of times over the years, and YET we’re not allowed to publish it) to recognize the extraordinary contributions of the the 2024 honorees: Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil (Architecture), Markham Roberts (Interior Design), Féau Boiseries (Artisanship & Craftsmanship), Thomas Wells Schaller (Fine Arts), Julia Watson (Education), and Stephen A. Schwarzman (Patronage).
More than 400 guests attended to celebrate their lifetime achievements such as: extraordinary residences and mosques rooted in traditional building techniques; refined interiors that reflect partnership between designer and client; exquisitely crafted woodwork and ornamentation; plus dedicated scholarship addressing urgent global challenges; and the beautifully evocative works of art and support of vital preservation projects and new university structures across the world.
Awards were presented by ICAA Board Chair Russell Windham, Melissa DelVecchio, vice-chair; and Board Member Alexa Hampton. The 2024 awardees were selected by a jury chaired by Melissa DelVecchio and including Aimee Buccellato, Whitley Esteban, Alexa Hampton, Marieanne Khoury-Vogt, Deborah Nevins, and Anne Walker. The event Chairs of this year’s Arthur Ross Awards are Gil Schafer and Bunny Williams, and the Honorary Chairs are Janet C. Ross, Suzanne R. Santry, and Suzanne Tucker.
New York Is Like This. In my NYSD travels I’ve had the opportunity to attend many public events for fund-raising and acknowledgement of people’s generosity of time and money to assist greater projects for our world. And, I don’t believe there is another city in the world that has so many philanthropic projects in effect. An excellent example is Arthur Ross himself, for whom the award is named.
I didn’t know Mr. Ross, nor do I recall ever meeting him. But I did attend events where he was at least present. Always black tie. He was a small man, slender, and he moved around briskly enough for you to get an impression the power of his personality — although even much older to these eyes by about four decades. I think he was in his 70s when I spotted him at some event.
I’d already gathered that he was also a rich man from his philanthropic activity. Also among his philanthropic interests was Central Park. He was on the board of the Central Park Conservancy. And there is an area called the Arthur Ross Pinetum — 4 acres northwest of the Great Lawn — currently the home to a collection of 25 species of conifers from the United States as well as other countries. Built in 1971, he added about 35 pine trees a year including trees of the Himalayas, Macedonia and Japan, and continued until he died, three months short of his 97th birthday.
Thinking about Mr. Ross, I also realized that I knew his son Clifford, the artist and photographer (his photographs are spectacularly impressive) who is a lifelong friend of Beth Rudin DeWoody, who, in turn, is a lifelong friend of mine.
But the source of this item is one man. New York City born, he attended Columbia University here and worked at various jobs during the Depression, but when he was in his twenties he went to work on Wall Street. His business progression is not a story I know, but by the late 1930s he was well known for his investment acumen at an investment banking firm. His name was Arthur Ross. With his “gifts” he shared the pleasure of his wealth with untold numbers of us over the decades.
“So is music an asylum.” The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) hosted its 2024 Gala, at the iconic Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Plaza honoring two-time Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell and longtime Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization President Ted Chapin.
A celebration of the school’s prestigious Musical Theatre Program, the evening was hosted by MSM alumnus, Broadway mainstay, and Tony Award-winner Shuler Hensley. And it featured performances by current students of the MSM Musical Theatre Program as well as solo performances by Alysia Velez, MSM alumna and star of the acclaimed 2022 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.
All performers were either MSM alumni or current students, and the evening featured Musical Direction by David Loud, legendary Broadway Musical Director and MD of the MSM Musical Theatre Program. Pianist and MSM Artistic Staff member Shane Schag accompanied the performances. The performances were overseen by Liza Gennaro, MSM’s Dean of Musical Theatre.
Some of the notable attendees included: honorees Ted Chapin (former President of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization) and Brian Stokes Mitchell (two-time Tony Award winner and Broadway legend); the evening’s Host, Shuler Hensley (Tony Award-winner and Broadway mainstay); Alysia Velez (recent graduate of MSM’s Musical Theatre Program; Rapunzel in the acclaimed 2022 Broadway revival of Into the Woods); Ann Ziff (Chairman of the Metropolitan Opera Board of Directors); Dominique Laffont (Advisory Director, The Metropolitan Opera; namesake for the Met Opera’s Laffont Competition); Adrienne Vittadini (fashion designer); Jack Viertel (theatrical producer and author); Scott Dunn (Associate Conductor, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, MSM trustee); Anne-Marie McDermott (internationally acclaimed classical pianist); Noreen Buckfire (Philanthropist and MSM International Advisory Board Member); James Roe (President and Executive Director, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s); Chloe Flower (pianist and composer); Linda Oh (Grammy Award-winning jazz bassist and composer); Joe DiPietro (Tony Award-winning playwright and lyricist: Memphis; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change); David Loud (legendary Broadway Musical Director; Musical Director, MSM Musical Theatre Program); and Liza Gennaro (choreographer; MSM Dean of Musical Theatre).
Founded as a community music school by Janet Daniels Schenck in 1918, today MSM is recognized for its more than 1,000 superbly talented undergraduate and graduate students who come from more than 50 countries and nearly all 50 states; its innovative curricula and world-renowned artist-teacher faculty that includes musicians from the New York Philharmonic, the Met Opera Orchestra, and the top ranks of the jazz and Broadway communities; and a distinguished community of accomplished, award-winning alumni working at the highest levels of the musical, educational, cultural, and professional worlds.
The school is dedicated to the personal, artistic, and intellectual development of aspiring musicians, from its Precollege students through those pursuing doctoral studies. Offering classical, jazz, and musical theatre training, MSM grants a range of undergraduate and graduate degrees. True to MSM’s origins as a music school for children, the Precollege program continues to offer superior music instruction to 475 young musicians between the ages of 5 and 18. The School also serves some 2,000 New York City schoolchildren through its Arts-in-Education Program, and another 2,000 students through its critically acclaimed and pioneering Distance Learning Program.
In addition to learning the essential skills—singing, dancing, and acting—MSM Musical Theatre students are encouraged to develop their artistic interests and are given the opportunity to investigate areas beyond performing, including directing, choreographing, writing, and composing.
Whereas New 42 held an intimate salon conversation and reception on Wednesday, May 8, for its New Victory Circle (NVC). The evening was generously hosted by NVC Co-Chair Margot Takian, who welcomed guests into her beautiful, sunlit home for an early evening reception. The salon conversation featured Zain Asher, CNN International host of One World with Zain Asher and author of Where the Children Take Us, and was moderated by podcaster, coach and theater producer Nina Korelitz Matza.
The evening was attended by several leaders of New 42, including President and CEO Russell Granet, New 42 Board Vice Chair and NVC Co-Chair Tiffany Gardner, New 42 Board Member and NVC Co-Chair Ji Park Kwak, and New 42 Board Member Yemi Benedict-Vatel.
Additional attendees included Sheri Adams, Talene Baroyan, Ruchira Bhuyan, Yana Blackwelder, Sarah Kamman, Jeneane Kee, Ann Korelitz, Tina Livanos, Liliahn Majeed, Mary Jane McQuillen, Jasmine Nahhas di Florio, Eugenia Miranda Richman, Whitney Rouse, Jonathan Schorr, Stefanie Scott, Mary Shepard, Irina Sivachenko, Felicity Tan, Natalia Torres, Karen Tucker and Mary Kerrigan Ward.
The New Victory Circle (NVC) is a group of generous donors to New 42 who believe in the importance of accessible, inclusive and excellent performing arts experiences for kids. New 42 is the nonprofit that brings incredible productions for kids and families from around the world to the New Victory Theater on 42nd Street. New 42 also facilitates arts education and engagement partnerships that aim to make the arts a part of everyone’s life from the earliest years onward.
