Have you had a chance to read the spring edition of our newsletter for 2017? Click the link below to see what is happening at Opus 118 Harlem School of Music!

Opus 118 Spring Newsletter 2017

Thanks to the generosity of our donors and friends, Opus 118 has been making music in East Harlem for over 25 years..and tomorrow, you can be a part of it!

Beginning tomorrow, Thursday June 15th at noon, you will have the opportunity to make a real difference for Opus 118 Harlem School of Music.

We will be participating in a 24 hour Charidy.com fundraiser for the second year in a row! Three generous benefactors will be matching donations: during the 24 hour campaign, each dollar donated to Opus 118 up to $5,000 will be QUADRUPLED! And it doesn’t end there — we will have the opportunity to receive special bonus matches as well. 

With your help, we will be able to fund additional scholarships, teacher training opportunities, and instruments for our growing student body. Next year, we hope to provide musical opportunity to more students than ever before — but we can’t do it without you!

Last year, we raised $28,000 during this campaign. Can you help us beat our record?

Be sure to click back here tomorrow for the link to the Charidy donation page!

Wednesday, June 7th, 2017
6:30PM

The American Academy of Arts and Letters
Entrance on W 156th St., between Broadway and Riverside Dr.

We can’t believe another school year is drawing to a close!  Time certainly flies when you’re having fun and making music — and since summer is just around the corner, that means it’s time again for Opus 118’s annual End of Year Concert! 

Our In-School students and our After-School ensemble members will all be there. Opus students of all levels love participating in this Harlem community event — they get to perform at the beautiful American Academy of Arts and Letters; they have the opportunity to demonstrate a year’s worth of hard work for friends, family, and community members; and they get to make music once more with their teachers and peers. We hold this celebratory tradition very dear!

The concert is just ONE WEEK AWAY: it will be held on Wednesday, June 7th, at 6:30PM. Admission is FREE and seating is open.  We hope you’ll join us!

It was recently announced that the National Endowment of the Arts is facing elimination in the new federal budget. Opus 118 has been a proud recipient of funding from the NEA for over ten years and would consider this a terrible loss for the arts community. Please read the attached article from our partner, Kaufman Music Center, to see how you can help save the NEA.

Saturday, March 25th, 2017  ᛫  4PM  ᛫  521 West 126th Street

Opus 118 students perform with the Harlem Chamber Players, directed by Roberta Guaspari.

Opus 118 is thrilled to announce our sixth annual spring concert together with the Harlem Chamber Players. Our exceptional ensemble students will return to the stage at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. We can’t wait to perform with our longtime professional friends and collaborators in this beautiful, historic venue once again!

Tickets will be available at the door, or on the Harlem Chamber Players’ website. For advanced tickets and more information, please visit the event webpage. We hope to see you there!

Check out this Special Music School profile of Opus 118 alum Josh Kail. He’s a high school senior at SMS, but he started studying the violin in second grade at Central Park East II Elementary. Music remains a key part of his studies and his life. We’re so proud of Josh, and all of our students whose hard work really pays off!

Opus 118 is excited to be offering an Intro to Violin after-school class, at our CPEII Middle School location!  This small group class is aimed at children in Kindergarten, first, and second grades with no previous experience.  It is a wonderful way to get beginners excited about Opus’s first instrument!  Financial aid is available.

Interested in registering your student? You can find full class information and applications here . Spots are filling up quickly, so register today!

Did you know that Opus 118 also has a guitar program?  Steve Jabas has been teaching guitar to our students since 2008!  Steve is a talented guitarist, music producer, composer, and arranger who hails from Minnesota.  He is excited to expand the Opus guitar program in the coming school year. 

Steve is committed to bringing music into the lives of his students in many forms. At his studio’s spring 2016 recital (pictured above), students performed fully rehearsed pieces, improvised collaborations, and even their own compositions. Guitar lessons with Steve afford students incredibly diverse musical experiences, and a special ability to explore.

When we think about Opus 118, we all think of Roberta Guaspari’s celebrated violin program. But do you know that Opus also has an extraordinary – and growing! – cello program?  What started as one of our smallest studios has been expanding in recent years. The cello program has been essential to Opus’s development broadly: it has diversified our sound, provided children with a wider range of options, and exposed students to the exciting possibilities of collaboration across instruments.

Nelly Rocha is Opus 118’s cello teacher. She comes to us with an extensive performance background, including work with the Camerata New York, the National Lyric Opera, Reading Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Miami Symphony Orchestra. In her feature for our spring newsletter, Nelly cited the cello’s deep, distinguishable sound as what drew her to it as a young musician. For burgeoning students of the instrument, Nelly is committed to imparting a “never-ending curiosity, a continuous desire to learn, and the joy of making music.”

We couldn’t be prouder of our current cello students, whose commitment to a challenging and rewarding instrument inspires us. This school year, we are hoping to bring even more students on board to study our lowest-toned instrument! 

 

Interested in registering a student for our cello program? Click over to our registration page to learn more about the 2016-2017 after-school offerings!

It’s not over yet!

We are beyond thrilled to report that we not only met our original goal, but we reached our bonus goal as well! We aren’t quitting yet. Now that we have reached $25,000, we continue to keep every single dollar we earn.

Every $1,200 we make will fund a full scholarship for one of our students. If we make $30,000, we can fund another four full scholarships for after-school instruction!

Please check out the link at http://www.charidy.com/opus25 and donate today! Thank you for this incredible support.