17th Annual Elisabeth Morrow School Summer String Festival Includes Kids from Underserved NY/NJ Areas, 8/13-8/17

The 17th year of The Elisabeth Morrow School Summer String Festival will be held from August 13-17, 2012 at The Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, NJ for children ages four to thirteen. For five days in August, over 200 young violinists, violists, cellists, harpists and bassists will rehearse and perform Bach, Holst, Handel, and Vivaldi in an intensive music training program.

Community members and media are encouraged to attend the "Preview Performance," Thursday, August 16th at 1:30pm, during which time students will participate in an open dress rehearsal ahead of the eagerly anticipated, culminating performance of the Festival on the 17th.

Amelia Gold, Music Director for The Elisabeth Morrow School Summer String Festival and Orchestra Director at The Elisabeth Morrow School, is a Juilliard graduate and accomplished violinist. She has accompanied Madonna, toured will the Juilliard Orchestra in France, and coached Meryl Streep for her role in Music of the Heart.

Every year, over 300 students audition to participate in this music festival; one-third of the children who were chosen by Gold to participate hail from underserved communities and will receive scholarships and financial aid funded by The Russell Berrie Foundation and private donations.

This year, the Summer String Festival will feature special guest, Alicia Svigals, who Seth Rogovoy, author of The Essential Klezmer, has called "without question the greatest living exponent of the klezmer fiddle...." During the past two decades, Alicia has almost single-handedly revived klezmer fiddle playing. She taught and toured with violinist Itzhak Perlman, who recorded her compositions as duets with Ms. Svigals, and she was awarded first prize at the Safed, Israel international Klezmer Festival competition.

As a part of Alicia Svigals Klezmerensemble, Christina Crowder (accordion), Brian Glassman (bass), and Aaron Alexander (drums) willjoin her on Tuesday, August 14th at 2pm in the Peter Lawrence Gymkana within The Elisabeth Morrow School grounds, located at 435 Lydecker Street. Summer String Festival students will perform alongside these master musicians, while learning the rudiments of Klezmer song and dance. The community is welcome to attend.

Lauded by the Cincinnati Enquirer for his "natural facility and convincing musicianship on the podium," Tito Muñoz is increasingly recognized as one of the most gifted conductors of his generation. Tito began his conducting career at age 16 when he conducted the counselor orchestra at The EMS Summer String Festival. Recently appointed Music Director of the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, he previously served a three year tenure as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and was appointed by Franz Welser-Möst. Tito is also a League of American Orchestras Conducting Fellow. The Maestro returns to camp this summer to work with EMS Summer String Festival students, conduct the faculty and staff in the Faculty Concert, as well as run a short workshop so students may meet him and be inspired by his amazing story.

The Elisabeth Morrow School is an independent, coeducational country day school in Englewood, New Jersey drawing families from Bergen, Rockland, Passaic, Morris, Essex, Union, and Hudson Counties, and New York City. For seventy-eight years, the School has offered a comprehensive and rigorous educational experience for students three-years old through grade eight. The fourteen-acre campus includes six buildings, four state-of-the-art computer labs, two gymnasiums, three science labs, three libraries containing over 30,000 volumes, an athletic field, a certified wildlife habitat with nature trails, running brook, forest, working gardens and three playgrounds. It is located at 435 Lydecker Street, Englewood, New Jersey 07631. For more information, visit www.elisabethmorrow.org