Manhattan School of Music Distance Learning Department presents
Written by Ashley Mendolia   
March 28, 2007
Manhattan Connects:
Internet2 Day hosted in collaboration with NYSERNet, Internet2 & Columbia University

Wednesday, April 18, 2007; 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM in the School’s
newly completed William R. and Irene D. Miller Recital Hall

Mar 28, 2007 -- /prbuzz/ -- On Wednesday, April 18, 2007, the Manhattan School of Music Distance Learning Department in collaboration with NYSERNNet, Internet2, and Columbia University, hosts the FIRST EVER conference on the creative uses of Internet2 for New York City’s cultural and arts community – Manhattan Connects. The event takes place from 1:30 pm to 5:00 in the School’s new William R. and Irene D. Miller Recital Hall and will feature demonstrations to define the versatility and importance of Internet2 within New York City’s cultural and arts community.

The program begins with welcomes by Robert Sirota, Manhattan School of Music’s President; Tim Lance, President of NYSERNet; and Jeff Lehman, Board President of Internet2. Ann Doyle, Director of Arts and Humanities for Internet2 will speak about I2 Applications for cultural institutions.

Christianne Orto, Assistant Dean and Director of Distance Learning at MSM, who has led the conservatory’s distance learning program since its inception in 1996 will give an overview of the School’s Distance Learning Program. Justin DiCioccio, the School’s Assistant Dean of Jazz Arts, who instituted the use of distance learning into MSM’s jazz arts program, brings jazz education to hundreds of schoolchildren throughout the country. Mr. DiCioccio will talk about some of the school’s distance learning efforts in jazz. Following, will be a jazz distance learning demonstration led by MSM jazz faculty member, Cecil Bridgewater, working with the Eastridge Jazz Ensemble under the musical direction of Brian Facklam, from the Irondequiot Central School District in upstate New York.

Deborah Howes, Museum Educator in charge of Educational Media from the Metropolitan Museum of Art will present the case study, “Bringing the Met Museum of Art to Alaska.”

Manhattan Connects will culminate featuring a chamber music coaching with MSM faculty member and Founding Director of Distance Learning, Maestro Pinchas Zukerman, who will be on site at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada. On site at MSM’s Miller Recital Hall, will be Maestro Zukerman’s teaching associate, Patinka Kopec, and MSM student violinist Jesus Reina. Together they will give a working demonstration on Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto employing the Internet2 networks. A general Q&A session with the audience and Maestro Zukerman will follow.

Among the New York City cultural and art institutions who have indicated that they will be joining Manhattan School of Music for Internet2 Day include the 92nd Street Y, The Andrew Mellon Foundation, American Symphony Orchestra League, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Public Library, Carnegie Hall, Center for Arts Education, City University of New York (Hunter), Educational Enterprise Zone of NYIT, The Frick Collection, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Juilliard, Museum of Modern Art, New York Philharmonic, New York Public Library, New York Department of Education, Skidmore College, Theater Development Fund, and Yale School of Music.

Listed below are Manhattan School of Music Distance Learning programs offered to audiences both nationally and internationally:
· Music Bridges: Selection of music programs available to K-12 schools throughout the country offered by MSM’s notable artist-faculty.
· Music Outreach Videoconference Exchange (MOVE): Selection of music programs available to K-12 schools throughout the country offered by MSM student teaching artists.
· Virtual Music Studio: Selection of music programs available to K-12 schools throughout the country offered by young professional musicians.
· Masters at Manhattan Online: Series of collaborative master class programs available to institutions of higher education that feature distinguished artist-faculty from MSM and around the world.
· www.msmnyc.edu/special/distancelearning

For further Manhattan Connects information please visit
www.msmnyc.edu/special/distancelearning/internet2day

Manhattan School of Music is the first major American music conservatory to use videoconferencing technology in music performance education. In 1996, under the pioneering influence of former President Marta Istomin and Maestro Pinchas Zukerman, MSM instituted a groundbreaking distance learning program. He proposed the integration of videoconferencing technology into his string program at the school in order to devote more time to his students while concertizing throughout the world. Since its inception, the program has connected students, educators, and distinguished artists throughout the world for teaching and learning exchanges, and currently reaches more than 1700 students each year from Albuquerque, New Mexico to New Zealand. The programs offered include a wide selection of educational videoconferences from master classes, private lessons, clinics, workshops, coachings, sectionals, colloquia, educational and community outreach, telementoring, professional development, and humanities exchanges. Manhattan School of Music Distance Learning programs are presented to institutions of higher education, K-12 schools, and performing and community organizations worldwide. Ongoing series’ have included “Manhattan on the Rideau” connecting with the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada; and collaborations with the Cleveland Institute of Music, the New World Symphony and Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas; IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators); the University of Oklahoma Music Department; the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland; and Shanghai Conservatory, among others.

NYSERNet was founded in 1985 and is a private not-for-profit corporation created to foster science and education in New York State by a consortium of visionary public and private New York State institutions to provide high-speed network conductivity to advance research and educational initiatives. An Internet pioneer, their efforts led, in 1987, to the deployment of the nation’s first statewide regional IP network. Its mission is to advance its network technologies and applications that enable collaboration and to promote technology transfer for research and education, expanding these to government, industry, and the broader community. NYSERNet’s members include NY State’s leading universities, colleges, museums, healthcare facilities, primary and secondary schools, and research institutions.

Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development, deployment, and use of revolutionary Internet technologies.

Participant Biographies (alphabetical order)

Sharon Akkoul joined the staff of NYSERNet in May 2001, where she is Manager of Membership Development, and serves as liaison between NYSERNet and its expanding base of current and potential participating institutions. She is also Program Manager for NYSERNet’s New York City Metro Fiber Services, assisting institutions with connections to NYSERNet’s dark fiber facilities in and round the City. In addition, Ms. Akkoul works with Internet2 and National and International Research and Educational Networks to accommodate their NYC collocation and connection needs.

Cecil Bridgewater’s career has encompassed more than 30 years as a performer, composer, arranger, record producer, and educator. As a trumpeter, he has been a member of the groups of Max Roach, Horace Silver, and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, to name a few. He has also shared the stage and studio with the Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, and Wynton Marsalis, among others. Mr. Bridgewater has been on the MSM jazz faculty since 1991.

Justin DiCioccio is internationally recognized as one of the foremost jazz educators of our time. In January 2001, he was inducted into the Jazz Education Hall of Fame at the 28th International Association of Educators (IAJE) conference. His keen insight into the teaching of conceptual and inventive ideas has earned him the title of the “musician’s teacher.” His performances, guest conducting appearances, adjudications, jazz and percussion clinics are numerous and widely recognized in the professional and educational fields. Mr. DiCioccio was named assistant dean at Manhattan School of Music in 2002, where he chairs the School’s jazz department, a position that he has held since 1999. He has been a member of the School’s jazz faculty since 1984.

Ann Doyle serves as Internet2 Manager for Arts and Humanities Initiatives. She works with campuses throughout the US to produce master classes and performance events enabled by high-speed networking, and serves as executive producer of the two largest collaborations in the performing arts over Internet2. She has been a keynote speaker at conferences worldwide, as well as at numerous U.S. campuses interested in the application of Internet2 in performing arts and humanities education.

Deborah Howes has worked in museum education and technology for more than twenty years. She is the Museum Educator in charge of Educational Media at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she oversees the production of print, video and online educational materials as well as audiovisual service. She is currently a construction team leader for the new Uris Education Center at the Museum scheduled to open in October 2007. A salient feature of the center will be the integration of technology supporting all of its functions, including enhanced distance learning abilities.

Tim Lance has served as President and Chairman of NYSERNet, the New York State Education and Research Network, since 1998. During his tenure, NYSERNet has deployed a statewide research network backbone, connecting initially to vBNS, and then to Abilene in New York City and Buffalo. In the last six years, NYSERNet moved from dependence carrier circuits to control of transport, beginning with a still expanding fiber deployment for the R&E, medical and cultural communities of New York City, and then statewide DWDM optical infrastructure. NYSERNet created a carrier-neutral collocation facility in Manhattan, home of the international peering fabric MANLAN and peering point for CA*net, GEANT, SURFNET, as well as home to nodes for NLR, HOPI, New Net, and ESNET4. He is an active participant in the Quilt and the Broadband Policy Group, serving on the steering committee for both. He is Chair of the Network Policy Council, and has authored a vision paper for the network for EDUCAUSE’s Broadband Policy Group.

Christianne Orto, Assistant Dean of Distance Learning and Director of Recording at Manhattan School of Music, has led the School’s distance learning program since inception in 1996. In 2006, Ms. Orto won one of the first Internet2 IDEA awards for Interactive Music Education. The IDEA award represents applied advanced networking at its best, and holds the promise to increase the impact of next-generation networks around the world. In 1997, Ms. Orto became director of MSM’s newly formed Recording and Videoconferencing department incorporating her background in the recording industry where she has worked as a freelance and associate producer in classical recording at BMG Classics. Ms. Orto is a voting member of NARAS (National Recording Arts & Sciences).

Pinchas Zukerman, the internationally esteemed violinist, violist, conductor, pedagogue, and chamber musician, was named Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in April 1998, the resident orchestra of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada. Pinchas Zukerman pioneered the use of videoconferencing technology in music education to sustain the personal interaction with his students while performing throughout the world. He has led the NAC into a close partnership with Canada’s National Research Council and Communications Research Centre, and has been a leading champion behind the creation of the NAC’s own broadband outreach program, Hexagon. Mr. Zukerman has been on the Manhattan School of Music faculty since 1993.

Manhattan School of Music is a preeminent conservatory of music granting bachelor of music, master of music, and doctor of musical arts degrees in both classical and jazz music. Founded in 1918, the School is dedicated to the personal, artistic, and intellectual development of each of its students, who range in age from the precollege through the postgraduate level. MSM trains students in performance and composition and provides a broad-based education in music theory, history, and humanities. In addition to some 800 students in the College Division, who come from 45 countries, the School serves 450 New York-area students, ages 5 to 18, in the Precollege Division, almost 2000 New York City schoolchildren through its arts in education program, and an additional 1700 students through its international distance learning program. The School employs a superb artist-faculty of 250 professional musicians and is also an active presenter of more than 400 public performances. Manhattan School of Music’s more than 10,000 alumni are active in every aspect of contemporary musical life, and many are among the most distinguished artists performing in opera houses and concert halls and on jazz stages throughout the world today.

About the Press Release
Manhattan School of Music Distance Learning Department presents FIRST EVER Conference on creative uses of Internet2 for New York City’s cultural and arts community


 
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