CMS Launches the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Initiative for Music and Community Engagement
Two-Year Pilot Program Will Bring Concerts and Lectures to Underserved Audiences in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens
New York, April 5, 2023 — The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) announces the launch of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Initiative for Music and Community Engagement, a two-year pilot program to bring CMS’s exceptional chamber music concerts, educational programming and world-renowned artists—for free— to under-resourced communities in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. CMS will present these free programs with three partner organizations: Harmony Program (a nonprofit that serves students with little access to music education), Brooklyn Public Library, and New York Edge (one of the city’s largest providers of afterschool programs for children). The Diamonstein-Spielvogel Initiative for Music and Community Engagement will provide six concerts and two lectures over two years, starting this fall. One-hour concerts (identical to performances being presented at Alice Tully Hall, with the same repertoire and artists) will enhance CMS programming currently offered for elementary school-age children at Harmony Program’s Bronx schools and for families at the Brooklyn Public Library. Selected from CMS’s mainstage season, the concerts include discussion and Q&A with CMS artists. The Initiative will also support a collaboration between New York Edge and CMS to bring CMS’s longstanding and popular Inside Chamber Music program, with host Bruce Adolphe, to families in Queens. Designed to appeal to both children and parents, the program offers fascinating and humorous insights on classical repertoire, with excerpts from featured works performed by CMS musicians. “Bringing the experience of world-class chamber music performances to broader communities is central to our mission. We are thrilled to provide the exact same programming we offer at Lincoln Center directly to audiences in their own neighborhoods,” said Suzanne Davidson, Executive Director of CMS. “We’re very grateful to the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation for helping us to achieve our dream of making this new Initiative possible.” Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Chair of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation, said, “This initiative is part of the long-term commitment of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation to provide first-rate artistic experiences to diverse and under-served communities throughout the five boroughs. We are pleased to support CMS in this new expansion of their community outreach programming to Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.”