Feast Sets Goal of $750,000

NEC Presents El Festín de la Música, February 22, 2014

17th Annual Gala Pairing Banquet courses with Musical Selections has Latin American Theme

Goal of $750,000 to be Raised for Scholarship Support to Students

New England Conservatory will present its annual scholarship gala, El Festín de la Música (A Feast of Music), Saturday, February 22, 2014 at 6 pm in the Fairmont Copley Plaza.  Called one of the best parties in Boston, Feast pairs courses of a gourmet banquet with musical performances by NEC students.  This year, after the previous European and American themes, the gala “flies down” to Rio, Buenos Aires, Santiago and other points south of the equator—to conjure up some heat and passion in the midst of a brutal winter. There will be Latin American culinary specialties designed by Copley Plaza Executive Chef Laurent Poulain and Argentinean wines donated by Luigi Bosca Winery, and Wines of Argentina, and music selections by Piazzolla, Villa-Lobos, Paquito D’Rivera, Osvaldo Golijov and Tito Puente.

Fundraising goal for the evening is $750,000, which will yield scholarships for more than 35 of NEC’s gifted students.

Co-chairs for the evening are Trustee Suki de Bragança and Visitor Deborah R. Hanley, both of Beacon Hill. Honorary chair is Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg of the Board of Overseers.

Among the highlights of the evening will be the silent auction in which gala patrons can bid on such extraordinary items as private recitals by dramatic soprano Jane Eaglen, former NEC President and cellist Laurence Lesser, and the Weilerstein Duo composed of violinist Donald Weilerstein and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein.  Other tempting items include paintings by Ivonne Torres, Geoff Chalmer, Giuliana Moltin; photography by Nancy Berry; travel and luxurious vacation accommodations; a selection of fine tequilas; restaurant packages; and design and décor accessories.

The festivities will continue late into the evening with the Fiesta, to be held in the Oval Room at the Copley Plaza beginning at 9:30 pm. Guests can enjoy cocktails, Latin American rhythms from Salsa to Tango, dancing to music by Alex Brown, and posing for their picture at the PhotoBooth by Elevin Studios. Party-goers can choose to go to either the gala or the Fiesta or both.
 
For more information and to order tickets, click here.

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY
A cultural icon approaching its 150th anniversary in 2017, New England Conservatory (NEC) is recognized worldwide as a leader among music schools. Located in Boston, Massachusetts, on the Avenue of the Arts in the Fenway Cultural District, NEC offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. NEC alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC-trained musicians and faculty.

NEC is the oldest independent school of music in the United States. Founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee, an American music educator, choral conductor and organist, its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, NEC features training in classical, jazz, and Contemporary Improvisation. Graduate and post-graduate programs supplement these core disciplines with orchestral conducting and professional chamber music training. Additional programs, such as the Sistema Fellows, a professional training program for top postgraduate musicians and music educators that creates careers connected to music, youth, and social change, and Entrepreneurial Musicianship, a cutting-edge program integrating professional and personal skills development into the musical training of students to better develop the skills and knowledge needed to create one’s own musical opportunities, also enhance the NEC experience.

Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Programs and Partnerships Program, the Conservatory provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, and adults. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music, jazz, and Contemporary Improvisation. Currently more than 750 young artists from 46 states and 39 foreign countries attend NEC on the college level; 1,400 young students attend on the Preparatory level; and 325 adults participate in the Continuing Education program.

The only conservatory in the United States designated a National Historic Landmark, NEC presents more than 900 free concerts each year. Many of these take place in Jordan Hall (which shares National Historic Landmark status with the school), world-renowned for its superb acoustics and beautifully restored interior. In addition to Jordan Hall, more than a dozen performance spaces of various sizes and configurations are utilized to meet the requirements of the unique range of music performed at NEC, from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to big band jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, and opera scenes. Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre or Paramount Center in Boston, and a semi-staged performance in Jordan Hall. This past 2012-2013 season, the operas produced were Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and Rossini’s La Gazzetta.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Senior Communications Specialist
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-585-1143
Ellen.pfeifer@necmusic.edu