Welcome

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the JCC Thurnauer School of Music, a place where people of all ages have been enjoying exciting musical experiences for over twenty years. Through instrumental lessons, musicianship classes, a series of major concert presentations and master classes, and an extensive public school arts education partnership program, the Thurnauer School offers an opportunity for everyone in our community, from infants to senior citizens, to connect with the world of music.

As a Music School student, you will meet special friends with whom you can share the pleasures of making music. There are opportunities for you to meet, talk with, and even make music with world-renowned artists like Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Richard Goode, Wynton Marsalis, Paula Robison, Paquito D’Rivera, and Joshua Bell. There are performing opportunities for you every month at the JCC and outside the School. Our students have performed with Whoopi Goldberg and Bob McGrath on Sesame Street and have appeared at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and the John Harms Theater (now Bergen PAC).

For concertgoers, the Music School is a place where you can hear extraordinary performances from many of the greatest musicians in the world. The Thurnauer Chamber Music Society shares its love of music with you throughout the year through their subscription concerts, presented in the intimacy of our beautiful Eric Brown Theater. Our series of Kangaroo Koncerts introduces the youngest children to concert-going in a fun-filled, relaxed way. Our talented faculty enriches our lives with a marvelous annual recital series, and each year the Gift of Music scholarship benefit concert brings a star of the international concert stage to our school.

At the JCC Thurnauer School of Music, our goal is to make music come alive for everyone in our community. It is all part of an environment in which we love to make music, to listen to music, and to be involved in music in every way. Exciting and important new initiatives are being born, growing and developing each year. As we embark on our third decade, there is much to look forward to – I hope that you and your family will join us in this inspiring and stimulating adventure.

Dorothy Kaplan Roffman, Founding director