Friday, July 25, 2008
2008 Summer Benefit Concert and Dinner

On Friday July, 25th, The Perlman Music Program hosted its Annual Summer Benefit Concert and Dinner at the Shelter Island Campus. Upon entering The Perlman Music Program’s campus, guests were greeted by a champagne reception and the camp’s breathtaking view of Shelter Island Sound. Dinner, served in the camp’s quaint cafeteria, provided guests with an intimate look into camp life. An acappella performance of Billy Joel’s For the Longest Time by faculty members Ron Leonard, Merry Peckham, Itzhak Perlman, Patrick Romano, and program fellow Benjamin Russell added a touch of humor to dessert.

Guests included Garett and Eleanor Albert, Alec Baldwin, Christine and Randall Blank, Heidi Castleman and David Klein, Michael Coles and Edie Landeck, Susan Dusenberry, Cornelia Foss, Eve France and Howard Maisel, Laura Grenning, Brenda Landrum, Ellen and James Marcus, Mark and Icim Miller, Ronald and Eilene Oehl, Toby and Itzhak Perlman, Alain and Ellen Roizen, Daniel and Joanna Rose, Robert Siegel, Morgan and Sidney Stark, and Jeanette Sarkisian and Paul Wagner.

Following dinner, guests enjoyed a choral and chamber music concert performed by the Summer Music School students. In recognition of the late Philip Dusenberry and the $200,000 gift he made to the Program’s Endowment Fund, Toby Perlman dedicated the evening to Nathaniel George Levine “The Boss”, Mr. Dusenberry’s influential high school chorus teacher. “[Mr. Levine] was a teacher from whom Phil Dusenberry learned indelible life lessons. We at The Perlman Music Program have a similar mission which has been recognized by the Dusenberrys. We too try to do it all.”

The concert featured selections from Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor K.427 and Bach’s Mass in B Minor lead by Chorus Master Patrick Romano, as well as Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major K.136, Stravinsky’s Concerto in D Major for String Orchestra, and Elgar’s “Introduction and Allegro” for Strings conducted by Maestro Itzhak Perlman. The concert concluded with a thrilling encore performance of Stephanie Chase’s arrangement of Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy, lead by Maestro Perlman. With the final notes of the performance still reverberating in the air, audience members leapt to their feet for an enthusiastic standing ovation.

The evening was a tremendous success and raised over $125,000.

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