The Songbird Sings

 A Stellar Evening of Song from Our Inaugural Premier Awardee, Stephanie Leotsakos

One of the bright spots in our 2020 was awarding our first Premier Award to an emerging vocal artist, the talented Stephanie Leotsakos. 

The brainchild of Masterwork Music and Art Foundation Board member, Wayne Walters, the Premier Award was offered to help an young artist advance their career. 

Our great appreciate to our volunteer adjudicators for meeting the challenge of the times by reviewing submissions virtually.  The esteemed group included Stephen Bryant, Hadiza Dockeray, Robert Hoven, Mathew Lee, Roberta Maher, Mary Elena Mammon, Rosemary Messineo, Denise Mihalik, Elizabeth Perryman, Patricia Ruggles, and Jay Tramm.

We had planned a concert to celebrate our awardee in the Spring, but modified our plans to present a socially distanced recital in the Fall, inviting a select few. We had the good sense to have the event professionally recorded by Christian Schuller of Happy Camper Creative and have included the links below. 

Special thanks to Joen Ferrari for providing catering for the event.

We hope you enjoy Stephanie's talent as much as we do. 

Please join us in extending our best wishes to Stephanie for what's sure to be a bright career. 

Stephanie Leotsakos, performing at the Madison Community Arts Center

Recital Program:

• Introduction by Wayne Walters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoMB-k5rwRE 

• Il vento (The Wind), by Raphael Fusco (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMJdQ84BLWs&t=75s

• E sera (Its Evening), by Raphael Fusco (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMhfhH8ndxQ

• I’m on a cloud, by Stephanie Leotsakos (2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgSmUI_gE5s

• Chi il bel sogno di Doretta (from La Rondine), by Giacomo Puccini

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IToHH30uvEk

• Vissi d’arte (from Tosca), by Giacomo Puccini

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_qdq89O-w 

About the Masterwork Music and Art Foundation

The Masterwork Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 50 years. 100 percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, competitive awards and a premier award for an emerging artist. Find out more at www.masterworkarts.org  

#MasterworkArts #LovetheArtist #LovetheArts

Introducing A Life in the Arts --- our virtual series celebrating the lives of artists

"Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one" Stella Adler

With this post we're officially unveiling a project we began last Fall. 'A Life in the Arts' was conceived as a series of Zoom interviews with people who have dedicated their lives to the arts. Our hope is that by sharing these interviews we'll not only help emerging artists, but also reinforce the importance of the entrepreneurial skills an arts discipline inspires. Of course, we are also very happy to celebrate the accomplishments of our interview participants, as well. 

Given the challenges of the pandemic, the pressure to adapt has landed heavily on the shoulders of many artists - and performing artists in particular - who've found themselves struggling to adjust to dramatic changes in both their employment and practice. Recognizing that, we wanted to kick off this series by interviewing Dr. Mitchell Saskin. Dr. Saskin is a Clinical Psychologist with a private practice and an adjunct professor at the Teacher's College of Columbia University.  We invited him to share tips on how artists may better cope with the challenges of our times. Of course, as you might imagine, much of what he had to say is helpful to all of us. 

Click here to view our 40 minute interview with Dr. Saskin.

We'll be offering a new series of interviews in February. To participate in them, please follow us on Facebook or send an email to masterworkarts@gmail.com. 

Move More, Feel Better

Get up and dance through 2021

Apart from helping to relieve external stressers, dance makes your feel better and helps fight dementia (see: this WSJ article) — with a combo like that, give this New Year’s Resolution a try! Join our free classes for older adults. 

About the Class

The format of the hour and a half long class offers a forty five minute warm up that pulls from a number of dance disciplines and includes some floor exercises meant to strengthen back muscles.  There’s a section on across the floor technique and a small choreography at the end. Participants are encouraged to modify exercises and may opt-out of any section they choose. 

 

Classes are offered on Saturdays at 10:30am and Tuesdays at 6:00pm. Zoom invites are sent out early the day of each class. 

 

About the Instructor

Todd Whitley began his dance career as an adult, accumulating live, broadcast and film performances while maintaining a career as a digital strategist for nonprofits. He has received grants for a number of community based choreography projects and has been teaching classes for the past eight years. He feels strongly about the benefits of dance, both physical and as a tool to unlock creative thinking and problem solving.

 

About Fees

These classes are FREE! 

 

There are no fees for class. However, participants are encouraged to support three community-based organizations that support the arts:

• The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation ( www.masterworkarts.org )

The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation

PO Box 1116

Madison, NJ  07940

• The Friends of Beattie-Powers ( www.beattiepowers.org ) 

Friends of Beattie-Powers

P.O. Box 453

Catskill, NY 12414

•  The Athens Cultural Center  ( www.athensculturalcenter.org ) 

The Athens Cultural Center

24 Second Street

Athens, New York 12015

 

Each of these organizations is promoting this offer in-kind. 

 

As with any dance class or school, neither The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation, nor the instructor are liable for individual injuries sustained in or out of class. 

 

For more information and to be receive class invites, email masterworkarts@gmail.com . 

 

#MasterworkArts

#LovetheArtist

#LovetheArts

#Dance

Your gift offers hope

Supporting artists is what we do. And today, no one deserves your support more. Artists and arts organizations have been among the hardest hit during the pandemic - with livelihoods, performing opportunities and even practice efforts significantly curtailed and/or virtualized. 

Help us help them by making a gift to the Masterwork Music and Art Foundation where 100% of your gift will go directly to supporting artists and arts organizations through our grant program. 

You know the arts makes the world a better place. 

Please give today so we can help the artists in our world. Your gift provides hope for tomorrow. 

Make out your checks to 'The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation' and mail them in to:

The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation

P.O, Box 1116

Madison, NJ 07940

Thank you!

We Love Our Angels

Become an Masterwork Music and Art Angel and Receive a Masterwork Mask as our Thank You!

Members of The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation’s Angels Circle provide a sustainable foundation for the vital grants that we make to artists and artist organizations across a wide variety of disciplines. 

In appreciation of a tax-deductible annual contribution of $100 or more, Angels receive recognition on our web sites and in relation to our grant offerings. This year we're also sending those Angels that give $100 or more a custom Masterwork mask, as well. 

 

Please consider supporting Masterwork Arts by becoming an Angel today. 

 

All donations to the Angels Circle are 100 percent tax-deductible. 

 

For more information about the benefits of the Angels Circle, please contact Todd Whitley, our Executive Director, at masterworksarts@gmail.com

 

Masterwork Arts Angel Levels

• $5,000 and above

Angels who give $5,000 and above receive naming rights on our Premier Award.

 

• $1,000 to $4,999

Angels who give $1,000 to $4,999 receive naming rights on our Community Grant Offerings.

 

• $500 to $999

Angels who give $500 to $999 are entitled to naming rights for one of our Competitive Awards.

 

• $100 to $499

Angels who give $100 to $499 will receive Masterwork Arts mask.

 

To become an Angel, make your checks out to Masterwork Music and Art Foundation and mail them to:

The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation

PO Box 1116

Madison, NJ  07940

Our Angels are not only guardians… They make excellence in the arts happen! 

Thank you for your generosity.

 

Support Masterwork Arts on #GivingTuesday

 Dear Friends,

It’s #GivingTuesday and the world over people are donating to support their favorite causes. Please consider giving to The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation on this day, in any way you can. 

A gift to Masterwork Arts supports excellence in the arts at all levels - as realized through our community grants, our competitive awards and our premier award. 

 

Give to Masterwork Arts on #GivingTuesday and share your love for the arts with those who need it most — the artists in our community. 

You may give through our Facebook Fundraiser or mail a check to:

  

     The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation

     PO Box 1116

     Madison, NJ  07940

 

Thank you and be well!

 

Your friends at Masterwork Arts

The State of the Foundation

 Support the arts and artists is important to us. 

To review all we've accomplished in the past fiscal year, please read our Annual Report.  You'll see that we remain committed to our mission and are expanding our impact. 

To find out more about our finances, we welcome you to review our 990s. 

Both documents can be found linked from the Support index on our website under Annual Report. 

Individual support from those that understand the importance of supporting the arts at all levels is important to our growth and sustainability.  Maintaining your trust in our ability to do so, a priority. 

Thank you!

Has the Pandemic Got You Down? Get Up and Dance!

 October 2020

Our lives spent in an out of quarantine and socially distanced in our work-outs have lead to a more sedentary existence for many of us.  To help alleviate that, The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation invites you to join a Zoom-based, low impact dance class designed to get your blood moving and your muscles engaged. This class is ideally suited for adults with minimal dance experience or those adults looking to re-introduce a dance practice back into their lives. The class is run with a sensitivity to individual challenges and an encouraging spirit to give things a try.

 

About the Class

The format of the hour and a half long class offers a forty five minute warm up that pulls from a number of dance disciplines and includes some floor exercises meant to strengthen back muscles.  There’s a section on across the floor technique and a small choreography at the end. Participants are encouraged to modify exercises and may opt-out of any section they choose. 

 

Classes are offered on Saturdays at 10:30am and Tuesdays at 5:00pm. Zoom invites are sent out early the day of each class. 

 

About the Instructor

Todd Whitley began his dance career as an adult, accumulating live, broadcast and film performances while maintaining a career as a digital strategist for nonprofits. He has received grants for a number of community based choreography projects and has been teaching classes for the past eight years. He feels strongly about the benefits of dance, both physical and as a tool to unlock creative thinking and problem solving.

 

About Fees

These classes are free! 

 

There are no fees for class. However, participants are encouraged to support three community-based organizations that support the arts:

• The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation (www.masterworkarts.org)

The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation

PO Box 1116

Madison, NJ  07940

 

• The Friends of Beattie-Powers (www.beattiepowers.org) 

Friends of Beattie-Powers

P.O. Box 453

Catskill, NY 12414

 

•  The Athens Cultural Center (www.athenscultural.org) 

The Athens Cultural Center

24 Second Street

Athens, New York 12015

 

Each of these organizations is promoting this offer in-kind. 

 

As with any dance class or school, neither The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation, nor the instructor are liable for individual injuries sustained in or out of class. 

 

For more information and to be receive class invites, email masterworkarts@gmail.com. 

 

#MasterworkArts

#LovetheArtist

#LovetheArts

#Dance

Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation Announces 2020 Community Grant Award Winners

Our 2020 Award winners serve New Jersey and New York communities in promoting the arts. 

Our Community Grant Awards are designed to support organizations that encourage excellence in the arts at the community level. For the 2020-2021 community grant season, the Board decided to add an additional grant, bringing the total to four awards - three at the $500 level and one at the $1000. Artists and arts organizations  in New Jersey and New York were encouraged to apply. 

This year we’re pleased to announce the following winners:

• Morris Arts (www.morrisarts.org)

Morris Arts will receive a $1,000 community grant award. 

Founded in 1973, Morris Arts’ very mission is to build community through the arts. Morris Arts long maintained a vibrant presence in the Morristown community through a number of community arts programs, but the Arts in Education program has the most impressive impact, reaching over 180,000 young minds a year through creative assemblies, workshops, learning opportunities and showcases.  

• The Morris Choral Society (www.morrischoralsociety.org ) 

The Morris Choral Society will receive a $500 community grant award.

Since 1973 The Morris Choral Society (MCS) has been serving the Morristown community by presenting a varied program of music and by encouraging choral music performance. In the process, MCS has been the community’s ambassador for the arts - often spreading the joy of choral music to other communities.

• The Athens Cultural Center (www.athensculturalcenter.org )

The Athens Cultural Center will receive a $500 community grant award.

Located along the Hudson River in Athens, New York, The Athens Cultural Center serves as a beacon for art education in the community that launched America’s first art movement, The Hudson River School over 150 years ago.  Today, the Athens Cultural Center continues with that tradition and celebrates the beauty of the Hudson River Valley by serving as a home for artist, performers and patrons.  

• Art House Productions (www.arthouseproductions.org )

Art House Productions will receive a $500 community grant award.

Art House Productions, a pioneer of artistic and cultural programming in New Jersey’s Hudson County, is the producer of Your Move - the state’s only modern dance festival now in its eleventh year. The award will help with production costs for an event that celebrates a diverse cross-section of dance talent through an event that encourages community engagement.

We’re grateful for all of the applications we received for our community grant award offering. Please follow Masterwork Arts on Facebook or Twitter to find out about more learning opportunities or sign up for our e-newsletter on www.masterworksarts.org. 

For questions or more information, email masterworksarts@gmail.com.

The Masterwork Music and Arts Foundation has been supporting excellence in the arts for over 50 years. 100 percent of your donation funds art and artists through community grants, competitive awards, and a premier award for an emerging artist. Find ou more at www.masterworkarts.org.

   #MasterworkArts

   #VocalCompetition

   #LovetheArtist

   #LovetheArts

All About our Vocal Competition Awardee, Stephanie E. Leotsakos

Included below is an excerpt from an interview with the Masterwork Arts Vocal Competition Award winner, Stephanie E. Leotsakos: 

Stephanie, congratulations on your Masterwork Arts award!

You are the very first awardee of this level gift, which is significant for Masterwork Arts. As you may know we offer community grants to local arts groups and small arts organizations, competitive awards like our Choreography Competition Award - those are lower level awards meant to help cultivate an appetite for “excellence in the arts.” Your award was offered in the hopes of helping an emerging professional go to the next level in their career. We’re just curious, Masterwork Arts has been around for over 50 years, but was recently revitalized. Were you aware of us before this competition?

I was not aware of the Masterwork Arts Foundation before learning of this opportunity for emerging professionals, but I am so glad that it was recently revitalized. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to have been granted this award, especially in these difficult times for artists like myself. I hope, as you do, that it will facilitate great forward momentum in my professional career. I am very encouraged by your support!

Can you tell us a little more about your background in music? While it wasn’t a factor in your award, we noted that you are also a composer. 

Yes, I’d be happy to! I began my musical journey with a little help from Mr. Rogers back in 1996, when he showed me what a violin was on the T.V. I was only two, nearly three years old, and I fell in love with the sound of the violin while watching that particular episode, after which I asked my parents for a violin and a “stick.” My parents, both non-musicians, granted me that wish on my third birthday and found me a local teacher. I’ll love them forever for that gift and the years they spent afterwards supporting me. I studied classical violin and piano through the end of high-school. The violin was my first voice.

The piano was my second voice. My journey as a composer is wrapped up with my instrumental development. Being Suzuki trained, my ear developed quickly, I memorized easily, and I found myself inventing music in my head. The first song I remember composing was for piano at age six; a song which I now assign to some of my own young students. I improvised often with my instruments, especially piano, and could pick up or harmonize nearly anything with my violin, which became one of my favorite pastimes. I would simply remember everything I composed rather than write it down, as I had little confidence with notation, but soon found myself unable to keep up with my own ideas as the compositions in my head became more complex and often surpassed my personal skill on my instruments. It wasn’t until half-way through university that I took the leap to become a composer and tackle notating my own ideas, as well as take the leap to become a singer. It was in my junior year at Princeton University that I had a change in identity, from a violinist who could sing to a singer who could play violin.

Singing combined all my previous musical instincts and eventually became my most mature and preferred voice for performance art. During my late high-school years, I was injured and spent months struggling with mental health while in physical therapy for tendonitis in my wrists and hands, which affected my success as a violinist auditioning for collegiate music programs. After countless conservatory rejections, Princeton University, my dream school, accepted me, and with Princeton’s support, I freely explored myself as an artist and academic. Princeton was the birthplace of my love for opera, and was where I met my voice teacher, David Kellett.

I began studying with David in January of 2015, in the spring semester of my junior year at Princeton. Just prior, I had begun experiencing much artistic and intellectual change, self discovering that perhaps my voice, not the violin, was the instrument with which I might ultimately serve music best. It was an extremely disorienting time, one where I felt my musical identity was being broken down, though in reality it was metamorphosing. That school year was the first time in my life that I was no longer a part of an orchestra, but instead fully committed to singing, even serving as assistant student conductor of the Princeton University Glee Club. David, an extremely knowledgeable vocal technician and demonstrative tenor, built me as a singer from the ground up, with expertise passed down to him by his teacher, Charles Reading, and his teacher’s teacher, the tenor Giuseppe DeLuca. Within a single semester, he helped me achieve main-stage roles in a NYC summer program, and prepared me the following year for a full recital in six languages in completion of the certification program in vocal performance. In my senior year, I also composed, produced, and conducted the premiere of my first chamber opera, titled OMG, with an original libretto and score, for my undergraduate senior thesis at Princeton. Upon graduating with a B.A in Music with a concentration in composition and a certificate in vocal performance, I was awarded the Isidore and Helen Sacks Memorial Prize by the music department for “extraordinary achievement in the arts.” 

Presently, David remains my voice teacher, though my lessons have been irregular since graduating, due to the financial struggles of beginning one’s career as a working freelance artist. I have tenaciously pursued as many opportunities as I could self-fund, but while building a private music studio of my own and pursuing those opportunities, like many other artists, I have struggled with the realities of making ends meet while trying to gain visibility and traction as an emerging professional. Some of my various endeavors after graduating were self-producing the revival of my opera in NYC, singing, assistant-directing, and assistant-conducting various operas with Amore Opera Company in NYC, assistant-conducting the NJ Sussex County Youth Orchestras, singing vocal solos with the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra and Riverside Opera Company, administratively working for Paterson Music Project, singing in liturgical settings, concertizing with Adelphi Orchestra, completing a NJ certification in music education through Princeton’s Teacher Preparation Program, and developing an original methodology for teaching music theory through my private studio. Presently, I have been continuing my teaching, research, compositional work, and singing while completing a M.A. in composition at Rutgers University, where I work as section leader and soloist in the Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir, as an undergraduate music theory tutor, and as an administrative assistant. 

Would you explain to our readers what being committed to “excellence in the arts,” a core tenet of our mission, means to you?

“Excellence in the arts” can mean a lot of things. To me, as a creative-performing artist, it means an extreme dedication to one’s inner artistic voice. The ‘excellence’  is in pursuing an honest mastery of oneself, and expressing it authentically through art. The venture of excellence in the arts can take many different forms for everyone, but in the end, the recognition of excellence comes from making an authentic connection with others, after first making and nurturing it with oneself. I believe one’s personal ownership of ‘excellence’ is dependent on the integrity of and belief in the quality of one’s own art.

The world is in a difficult place right now with the Coronavirus, something that hits the performing arts and entertainment industries particularly hard. What are you currently working on and how do you intend to use these funds?

I pray for all those who have been struggling in our current situation with Covid-19. I have many artist friends who are scared for their future and are back in survival mode, a mode I know all too well. I do think this situation is going to change our industry moving forward, and my goal and advice to others has been to try to embrace the change and stay at the forefront of artistic invention with the resources available to us. I intend to stretch these funds as far as they can go and invest wisely, firstly financing a year’s worth of weekly voice lessons with my teacher, which I have longed for for some time. Secondly, I intend to use some of the funds for online marketing and professional branding, though I’ll be making thoughtful and frugal decisions on that front based on how I see the industry’s climate changing. How I might have spent the money before Covid-19 may change because of the virus, as I anticipate technical expertise and online visibility playing a much greater role in our industry moving forward. My hope is that it won’t be a shallow change, but a fundamentally wholesome one, with new versions of what opera can look like and how the arts, in general, are funded.  

Is there anything else you’d like to share about yourself?

I want to thank everyone once again for their support, and for caring to hear my voice. I hope to remain an active artistic and educational voice in the community moving forward. If anyone would like to follow my career, I can be found on Instragram @stephanieleotsakos and Facebook @StephanieComposerSoprano, or you can subscribe to my YouTube channel @StephanieLeotsakos and visit my website: www.stephanieleotsakos.com. 

We’re looking forward to celebrating your award win over a small concert at some point in the future, Stephanie. Thank you for your example and for sharing some of your story here. 

You are most welcome, and I look forward to the future concert! Thank you for inviting me to share my story with you.

Stay well and continued success with your vocal career, Stephanie!

Masterwork Arts Announces the $10K Vocal Competition Award Winner

The Masterwork Music and Art Foundation is proud to announce the winner of our Vocal Competition Award, Stephanie E. Leotsakos.

The Competition had many excellent candidates. The final winner, Soprano, Stephanie E. Leotsakos, was selected because of her outstanding artistic skill and talent, her commitment to excellence in the arts, and the range of her musical accomplishments. For more about Stephanie E. Leotsakos, visit: https://www.stephanieleotsakos.com/about.

The Vocal Competition Award was designed to aid an emerging singer with his or her career aspirations and development. The Competition was national, and open to singers in all genres.  Each of the many contestants sent a fifteen-minute video, an essay and a biographical profile. 

The Vocal Competition Award is the brainchild of Wayne Walters, an accomplished singer, conductor, music educator and composer. We are proud to have Wayne Walters as a lead member of the Masterwork Music and Art Foundation Board.

We want to thank our team of adjudicators, an esteemed team that included choral directors, music educators and musicians, who evaluated the applications:  Roberta Maher, Jason Tramm, Matthew Lee, Rosemary Messineo, Mary Elena Mammon, Patty Ruggles, Elizabeth Perryman, Bob Hoven, Hadiza Dockeray and Stephen Bryant.

Our heartfelt thanks to all involved - the media outlets and community partners who promoted our award offering, our talented applicants, and our esteemed group of adjudicators. 

The Masterwork Foundation will present Stephanie E. Leotsakos in concert in Morris County.

The date has not yet been set due to Covid-19.

Masterwork Music & Art Foundation was founded more than 60 years ago in Morristown, New Jersey. The Founders, Shirley May and David Randolph, were passionate about the arts and understood the importance of nurturing developing artists, and making the arts available to a broad audience. Generations of artists were influenced by the years of concerts, theatrical events and fine arts projects Masterwork Arts funded and produced. 

Today, Masterwork Arts supports excellence in the arts through a variety of grant offerings and awards. To find out more, sign up for our enewsletter on www.masterworkarts.org.