Tuesday August 16th Lunch Meeting
President Elect Jennie Katsaros (left) and Past President, Ikuyo Yanagisawa (right), with Miho Sasaki (center), the student at SUNY-Purchase who is sponsored by our club. Miho is jazz pianist and is majoring in music performance. She has a CD - Japanese Quartet "Live at Sayama Live Station." She is from Sasaki, Japan and we exchanged banners.
Thank You, Miho for visiting!
ROTARY SPOKE
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Crowne Plaza – Englewood,NJ
Presiding: Jennie Katsaros
Recorder: Janet Sharma
Guests:
Ikuyo Yanagisawa; Miho Sasaki – student at SUNY-Purchase who is being sponsored by our club; Bill Amanna – friend of Jennie’s; Lana Caradimas – Jennie’s sister; 2 speakers (see below)
Announcements:
Aleta introduced friend Sonia Tracey, founder of Jamaican Association of Civic & Cultural Rockland County, to Angela Haye, Principal of the H.E.I. School in Lucea, Jamaica, one of our Club's projects. Ms.Haye will present to the board of JAMCAR at her home in Pomona, NY. Ridgewood Rotary President Vernon Reed and Hackensack Rotary members (Sonia's son Theodore is a member)also attended along with Aleta and John Devol. Some of the guests are donating to the school.
Eddie Hadden announced that Walter Jones is on the mend and is now at Inglemoor, 333 Grand Avenue, Englewood. Visitors and cards are welcome.
JoEllen Knie is now program chair. On September 6, the Westwood Rotary Club will present a program on Halloween for Hunger.
Program:
Kathy Levin, VP of Marketing and External Affairs at the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, introduced us to the NJSO, which is a state-wide orchestra with no building. Instead, it offers full-scale concerts at 8 locations across NJ: BergenPAC, NJPAC, and in Morristown, Princeton, New Brunswick and Red Bank. The NJSO does 14 sets of concerts from September through June and becomes part of every community where they perform. Other points of interest:
- NJSO is a small business with a $12.5 million budget and 100 employees
- NJSO is an economic driver, as each concert-goer spends approximately $25 in town in conjunction with each concert.
- Research by NJ Biz shows that the arts make communities better
- NJSO does outreach to school and hosts programs for families, turning out better citizens through music.
- People who come to concerts have higher levels of well being. Music elevates life satisfaction
Jonathan Spitz, a resident of Tenafly and NJSO principal cellist, played (exquisitely!) the Bourrée from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3.
Kathy outlined additional points of interest:
- The NJSO will donate tickets to nonprofits, religious groups, etc. for those groups fundraisers
- NJSO provides artists-in-residence programs in schools and music for events (for a small fee).
- NJSO has a highly acclaimed new woman Music Director: Xian Zhang
- Upcoming concerts at BergenPAC in Englewood are on
- November 3 (Beethoven and Hayden)
- January 26 (Pinchas Zukerman – Bach, Beethoven)
- February 23 (Rachmaninoff, Verdi, Elgar)
- April 27 (Prokofiev, Dvorak, Piston)
- Tickets start at $20
In addition, two NJSO soloists will perform a free concert at the Englewood Library on November 19.