Celebrating the Arts in East Harlem - Harbor Conservatory 35th Anniversary Performance

On December 6, 2004, the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, will celebrate it's 35th anniversary with a special free birthday performance at 6:30 pm at Teatro Heckscher of El Museo del Barrio. The Harbor Conservatory established in l970, is a division of Boys & Girls Harbor, Inc., founded by Anthony Duke and one of New York City's premier youth development agencies. Teatro Heckscher at El Museo del Barrio is located at 1230 Fifth Avenue. To reserve as seat please call 212/427-2244 ext. 571. Hosted by CBS 2 news anchor, Cindy Hsu, the performance will showcase the best and the brightest of Harbor Conservatory student soloists, student ensembles, and the school's famed 22-piece Harbor Latin Big Band. Sitting in with the Big Band and Harbor Latin Youth Ensemble is special guest artist and Salsa great, Jimmy Bosch performing Latin music classics from the Harbor's Raices Latin Music Collection. The program reflects the rich diversity of artistic expression so unique to New York City. With a taste of Latin, Classical Music, drama and dance, the evening celebrates the Harbor Conservatory's longevity and commitment to enriching the lives of Harlem's youth through the arts.

El Barrio/East Harlem, New York (PRWEB) November 20, 2004 -- On December 6, 2004, the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, will celebrate it's 35th anniversary with a special free birthday performance at 6:30 pm at Teatro Heckscher of El Museo del Barrio. The Harbor Conservatory established in l970, is a division of Boys & Girls Harbor, Inc., founded by Anthony Duke and one of New York City's premier youth development agencies. Teatro Heckscher at El Museo del Barrio is located at 1230 Fifth Avenue. To reserve as seat please call 212/427-2244 ext. 571.

Hosted by CBS 2 news anchor, Cindy Hsu, the performance will showcase the best and the brightest of Harbor Conservatory student soloists, student ensembles, and the school's famed 22-piece Harbor Latin Big Band. Sitting in with the Big Band and Harbor Latin Youth Ensemble is special guest artist and Salsa great, Jimmy Bosch performing Latin music classics from the Harbor's Raices Latin Music Collection. The program reflects the rich diversity of artistic expression so unique to New York City. With a taste of Latin, Classical Music, drama and dance, the evening celebrates the Harbor Conservatory's longevity and commitment to enriching the lives of Harlem's youth through the arts.

Cindy Hsu co-anchors the stations NEWS at NOON. She joined CBS 2 in 1993 as a correspondent. She recently presented CRISIS IN CHINATOWN, an in-depth look at the economic impact to the home of the majority of Chinese New Yorkers. Prior to joining WCBS-TV, Hsu worked as a reporter and anchor for WFRV-TV Green Bay, Wisc. and WTOV-TV Steubenville, Ohio. She began her broadcasting career as an associate producer for WTVR-TV Richmond, Va. Since joining CBS 2, Hsus work has exposed the horrific plights of Chinese refugees from the Golden Venture ship. This riveting piece, Smuggled from China," earned her a New York Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Hard News Story. Hsu also won an Emmy for Outstanding Coverage of an Anticipated Breaking News Story when she followed the snowstorm of 1994.

Jimmy Bosch, known through out the Latin music community as "El Trombón Criollo," was born in New York City of Puerto Rican heritage. At the age of 11, he began his formal music education with the trombone. He furthered his education in l978 at Rutgers University, but the mastering of his instrument developed from on-the-job-training with such significant Latin groups as Manny Oquendo & Libre, Rubén Blades & Son del Solar, March Anthony, Eddie Palmieri, La Combinación Perfecta, Celia Cruz, Cachao, and Ray Barretto.

Background:
The Harbor Conservatory offers training in instrumental and vocal music, dance and drama to youth from across the tri-state area. Skills are acquired through specific skill training, solo and ensemble performance, preparation for higher education, and coaching in professional career skills. In addition to receiving the most intensive and professional arts training, Harbor faculty provides students with one-on-one counseling, professional management and direction, advice about and preparations for auditions and competitions. Regularly, television and film producers, talent scouts, advertising agencies, and Broadway/Off-Broadway producers call upon the Conservatory to recruit talented youth.

While training at the Conservatory, numerous Harbor students have successfully enrolled in schools specializing in the performing arts such as Talent Unlimited High School, Professional Performing Arts School and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, as well as professional schools like Julliard. Harbor successes also involve accomplishments in the commercial theater. Two graduates of the Harbor Drama Program, Scott Irby Ranniar and Mwanzaa Brown, have each performed in the featured role of Young Simba in The Lion King on Broadway. The Drama Program, inspired by the vision of the late Bertin Rowser, aims to preserve the tradition of theatre and the craft of acting through classes that cultivate future actors for the stage and audiences for the theatre.

If you follow the sounds of drumming along 104th Street in East Harlem, they lead you to Fifth Avenue and the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts. Here in El Barrio, the passing on of cultural and artistic traditions to the next generation of artists, is a sacred mission. The artists that teach at the Harbor Conservatory, are passionate about carrying on the work of Alvin Ailey, Jose Limon, Martha Graham, Tito Puente, Machito, Mongo Santamaria, and Lorraine Hansberry.

The Conservatory's Latin music faculty is determined to train musicians who don't have to rely on playing by "ear", but can read music. When Latin great Mario Bauza took over as Musical Director of the Chick Webb band, he fired the musicians who couldn't read music. Students below the age of 20 must enroll in theory if they choose to study music at the Harbor. The Harbor Conservatory is recognized internationally as the leading school for the study of Latin music and has been a recipient of the Tito Puente Scholarship Fund and the Celia Cruz Foundation. Since 1979 it has been home to the Raices Latin Music Collection, a 16,000-item multi-media collection documenting the history of Latin Music and now an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. Raices serves as the nucleus for the first museum for Latin music.

The Harbor's dance program is equally rigorous, students are not allowed to refer to faculty by their first name, all must study ballet and adhere to the dress code. In addition to developing their craft as artists, learning the dynamics of performing, these youngsters are learning about life- respecting their elders, and ultimately learning to respect themselves.

The Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts is a member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, the Harlem Arts Alliance and a semi-finalist in the Coming Up Taller Awards. A recipient of a Department of Cultural Affairs Challenge Grant, the Conservatory was recognized in the category of "Careers in the Arts".

For more information on the Harbor Conservatory please call 212/427-2244 ext. 573 or visit us on the web at www.harborconservatory.org

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