Musica Sacra Announces New Engagement Program with Family Center, Turtle Bay Music School

Janice L. Mayer, Musica Sacra's Executive Director, today announced a new community engagement program in partnership with two valued New York organizations:

The Family Center and Turtle Bay Music School. The pilot program will be conducted in fall 2013.

Centered around Musica Sacra's annual performances of Handel's Messiah, (December 12 and 15, 2013 at 8pm led by Kent Tritle), an innovative and interactive educational program has been developed by a community engagement task force comprising: Janice L. Mayer, Michael Sheetz and Silvia Callegari representing Musica Sacra; Julie Rulyak Steinberg, Executive Director of Turtle Bay Music School; Juan Carlos Payero, Buddy Program Coordinator, Camille Davis, a Mentor and member of The Family Center Leadership Council, and Mary Suk, a Teaching Artist in New York City Public Schools through New York City Ballet, Franklin Furnace Archive and Pentacle Dance.

In announcing the program, Ms. Mayer said, "Educating audiences, students and the general public in the appreciation and history of choral music has been an essential tenet of Musica Sacra's mission since its inception. In The Family Center and Turtle Bay Music School, we have found partners who bring real-time youth and music education expertise to the project and enable Musica Sacra's long-held commitment to be put into practice. We are very grateful to Julie Rulyak Steinberg of Turtle Bay Music School and Juan Carlos Payero of

The Family Center for generously sharing their ideas and resources with us as we collaboratively developed and now launch Musica Sacra's youth program."

A one-hour introduction to Handel's Messiah, providing an historical context and musical insight into the choral masterwork, will be led by Musica Sacra's Assistant Music Director, Michael Sheetz. "An important part of our mission at Musica Sacra is to reach out to the community and cultivate the appreciation of great choral music. This is a fantastic program for young people to learn about Messiah and to see and hear this musical masterpiece live at one of the most renowned concert halls in the world," said Mr. Sheetz in speaking about the program.

Turtle Bay Music School will host the preparatory session on Saturday, December 7, 2013. Speaking for the school, Julie Rulyak Steinberg said, "Turtle Bay Music School is honored to collaborate with Musica Sacra and

The Family Center to provide this enriching opportunity to young New Yorkers. We hope that it will inspire in each student a new-found appreciation for the beauty of choral music!"

Turtle Bay Music School students and Buddy Program teams from The Family Center will attend the workshop. All of the young participants and their chaperones will attend a Carnegie Hall performance of Handel's Messiah as guests of Musica Sacra. This season, Musica Sacra's Messiah performances at Carnegie Hall will take place on Thursday, December 12 and Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 8:00pm. Musica Sacra will build on this pilot program in future seasons by offering the introduction to the Messiah session to schools in the New York area, as well as to its collaborative organizations.

Juan Carlos Payero described the benefit for the Buddy Program participants: "The experience provided by Musica Sacra will expose the children in our program to music they may never have had an opportunity to hear. My hope is that this will plant a seed for a lifetime of education and exploration." Camille Davis added insight, "As a Mentor, it's always challenging to find activities to do with our mentees that are both engaging and affordable. It's nice to be able to mix up our usual 'lunch and a movie' with a live event in an iconic location as guests of Musica Sacra."

To make tickets more accessible to youth groups, Musica Sacra has revamped its group sales program; lowering both the cost of student tickets and the required group size for group sales eligibility. Student tickets are priced as low as $15 each and are eligible for a 15% discount when purchased as part of a group. A group is now defined as 15 or more people purchasing a block of tickets together. A free chaperone ticket is also provided for each student group. For information on the 15/15 group sales program, please contact Cindy Rhys, Patron and Ticket Services Manager, by telephone at 646.596.5049 or e-mail at tickets@musicasacrany.com.

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