The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Completes Its Beethoven Memorial Season with a Performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Completes Its Beethoven Memorial Season with a Performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

All proceeds from this concert go to Kaufman Center's Lucy Moses School Suzuki Outreach Program Scholarship Fund.

NEW YORK, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony (PACS) will perform an all-Beethoven concert at Riverside Church on June 23rd, 2007 at 8PM. The concert will feature Beethoven's spectacular Ninth Symphony performed by three choirs, professional vocal soloists and New York's Premiere Non-Professional Orchestra - The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony. The program also includes two other works by Beethoven: the Consecration of the House Overture and Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor").

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070521/NYM049 )

The concert will be conducted by PACS's Music Director David Bernard and will feature the following award-winning soloists:

Alan Moverman, Piano
Susanna Eyton Jones, Soprano
Jan Wilson, Mezzo-Soprano
James Archie Worley, Tenor
Michael Riley, Bass-Baritone

"Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is a pillar of classical music and one of the greatest achievements of mankind" says PACS music director David Bernard. "I cannot think of a better way to honor the memory of Beethoven than to perform his last Symphony."

All proceeds from this concert will be donated to a special scholarship fund that enables NYC public school students from such schools as P.S. 161 in Harlem and from the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, which serves the city- owned Amsterdam Houses, to receive tuition-free Suzuki Instrumental instruction through the Kaufman Center's Lucy Moses School. This initiative enables young children to learn to play the violin with private and group lessons. A parent serves as the "home teacher" and attends all lessons and group classes with the child. Group instruction is given on-site at Lucy Moses School so that children can be part of a larger Suzuki community. In addition, students participate in recitals at Lucy Moses and the annual Suzuki Festival in Merkin Hall each spring. Private instruction is given at the children's schools, where parents also receive mentoring to help them to support their children's study.

"I am thrilled and grateful that the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony has chosen the Lucy Moses School's Suzuki Outreach Program as the beneficiary of its benefit concert," says Lydia Kontos, executive director of the Kaufman Center. "This is an outstanding, community-minded orchestra and I know the concert will be wonderful. At the Lucy Moses School, we believe that the arts are essential to the human experience and a vital component of education for everyone; this program helps to transform our belief into action."

Since this scholarship fund was established in 2001, it has provided music training to 32 students and their families.

"We are delighted to support such an important endeavor," says PACS Music Director David Bernard. "Music education was a gift our members enjoyed as children - one that has continued to yield rewards of creativity, companionship and self-esteem throughout our lives. Our mission of supporting music education is our way to give something back to our communities - to ensure that all our children receive the gift of music."

Tickets for this performance are available for purchase online at http://www.chambersymphony.com/.

Tickets are priced at $45/$35. Special VIP tickets are available for $250. All proceeds will be donated to the special scholarship fund at the Lucy Moses School and tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Founded in 1999 and now recognized as one of the finest non-professional ensembles in New York City, The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony combines professional-level music making with a philanthropic mission to support public service organizations operating within New York City.

Park Avenue Chamber Symphony (PACS) members combine successful professional careers with considerable accomplishment in music. Members of the orchestra include investment bankers from Goldman Sachs, Fortress Investment Group, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and RG Niederhoffer Capital Management, as well as business executives with the Associated Press, HSBC, Alliance-Bernstein, American Express, Bank of America, Sony BMG Records, DB Marketing Technologies, the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Times, Daddario Strings, Pfizer, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Andrew Marc. PACS members are music teachers, architects, computer consultants, graphic designers, engineers, nurses and doctors. Others are judicial law clerks and attorneys from Skadden Arps, Proskauer Rose, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Curtis-Mallet, Shearman & Sterling and Cowan DeBaets, while others are officials in City and State government agencies and various non-profit agencies.

Well schooled in the performing arts, Park Avenue Chamber Symphony members include alumni of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, the Hartt Conservatory, the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music as well as former members of professional orchestras.

Photo: NewsCom:

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070521/NYM049
AP Archive:

http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Park Avenue Chamber Symphony

CONTACT: Joanna Smith Bers, +1-646-387-0893, or jbers@DBMT.com, for Park
Avenue Chamber Symphony

Web site:

http://www.chambersymphony.com/

-------
Profile: intent