March 16 marked the Conservatory’s 17th annual Music Play-a-thon for Scholarship as part of the annual fundraising activities to benefit the Scholarship Fund and Music Outreach Program. Over 150 performers, including students and faculty, participated in this event.
The Play-a-thon ran throughout the day, during which students and faculty dropped by and performed, having collected sponsorships for their playing time. Highlighting the festivities were two programs in the Schoenfeld Campus Center. The Musical Adventures program, Abraca Do-Re-Mi!, a one-act show written by Conservatory faculty Rami Vamos, was led by Ana Dimas (stage direction and choreography) and Jon Klibonoff (music director). Congratulations on a wonderful performance by the cast: Katherine Albano, Amelia Bornmann, Wylie Coleman, Colleen DeGennaro, Gabriel Garcia, Olivia Gravier, Paul Houdlik, Ingrid Kraweic, Maya Madhavan, Alana McGinness, Alexis Pinto, Jeffrey Rohr, Luke Szczepanski, Matan Vamos, and Ben Wien.
In the afternoon, Band Bash featured the Conservatory’s three student rock bands led by Bob Gingery: The Explosive M&M’s, with Ryan Childs, Kai Rios-Chanse, Jack Angevine, and Luke O’Hare; The Doctrine of Rock, with Ben Wien, Sam Wallach, and Lily Bonnem; and Veto, with Coleman Breining, Ethan Sanna, Nicolas Massimi, and Fabien DuChateau. They energized the crowd with the music of Rush, The Beatles, Van Halen, and other classic rock bands.
The Scholarship Fund awards over 300 need-based and merit-based scholarships per year and its outreach programs reaches 2,000 students annually. The Conservatory offers tuition-free lessons at Project Music Achievement at Rosedale in the Bronx, scholarships for the Andrus Early Learning Center, and free outreach enrichment to area elementary, middle and high schools in the lower Westchester communities.