Media Advisory for Monday, September 18, 2023, 6 PM
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Queens College Reception Will Recognize Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz for Donating Her Late Father’s Concert Grand Steinway Piano to Its Aaron Copland School of Music
–David Katz was the founder and conductor of the Queens Symphony Orchestra, which performed for many years in the school’s Colden Auditorium in the Kupferberg Center for the Arts–
What: A reception for invited guests in recognition of Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s donation of her late father David Katz’s Concert Grand Steinway to the college. The piano will be used by students in the college’s Aaron Copland School of Music. David Katz founded and conducted the Queens Symphony Orchestra (QSO), the only professional orchestra in the borough; the donation commemorates his efforts to make classical music more accessible to communities in Queens. For many years, QSO performed in Colden Auditorium, a venue in the college’s Kupferberg Center for the Arts.
School of Music students Ricky Moreira, Binghao Li, and Donovan Iemma will perform selections from the works of Beethoven, Granados, and Mozart, respectively, on the newly donated piano.
Where: Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing NY 11367
Aaron Copland School of Music | Music Building Orchestra Room 207
Directions | Campus Map
Who: Hosted by Queens College President Frank H. Wu, invited speakers are Michael Lipsey, director of Aaron Copland School of Music, and DA Katz.
About the Aaron Copland School of Music
The Music School offers three music undergraduate degrees—general music (BA), Performance (B.Mus.), and Music Education (B.Mus./Ed)—through rigorous academic courses in theory, history, ear-training, sight-singing and performance. All students in all undergraduate programs take private lessons as part of their degree requirements in the college’s dedicated music building, which features a music library with more than 35,000 scores, 30,000 books and 20,000 recordings, and the award-winning LeFrak Concert Hall, celebrated for its acoustics and the Maynard-Walker Memorial organ. ACSM produces over 300 concerts a year including recitals; orchestral, choral, and chamber programs; performances of early music; and opera productions.
About David Katz
David Katz (1924 – 1987) founded the Queens Symphony Orchestra (QSO) in 1953. Prior to founding the orchestra, Katz rehearsed with Queens-based musicians in his home and performed free chamber music concerts throughout the borough. Katz’s hope in founding the QSO was to enable Queens residents to enjoy live classical music without having to travel to Manhattan. He aimed to make the QSO a prestigious and lasting presence in the cultural landscape of the community. In the 1970s, the Music BAG (Boys and Girls) program introduced classical music to over 17,000 schoolchildren in Queens annually. During the same decade, QSO musicians unionized, establishing what remains to this day the borough’s only professional orchestra. QSO performance highlights under Katz featured violinists Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern, and soprano Roberta Peters.
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