If there’s anything you need to know about Special Music School’s first 25 years, longtime piano faculty member Irina Morozova probably has the answer. A critically-acclaimed performer as well as a sought-after educator, she’s been watching the school grow and thrive since its founding in 1996, when Kaufman Music Center teamed up with the NYC Department of Education to establish the city’s only public school that teaches music during the school day beginning in kindergarten. As SMS celebrates its quarter-century milestone, Morozova reflects on the organic growth of the school, which began with just two grades and expanded into middle school; in 2013, SMS High School opened and has celebrated 100% graduation and college acceptance rates every year since.
Morozova loves to watch the growth and development of her students. “This is the most satisfying thing. I really like to start with little kindergarteners and anticipate where they might be in several years. And with older students, looking back and remembering where we started.” “Families understand what a gift the school is to them,” she says, noting the winning combination of SMS’s strong academics and extensive music program that, thanks to Kaufman Music Center, is offered at no cost.
“Music is beautiful,” says Morozova. “It enriches the students’ souls and their imagination.” Intensive music study also builds character. “The skills they learn – persistence, patience, discipline, a strong work ethic and the ability to deliver when it counts – will serve them well in any field they go into in the future.”
Morozova stays in touch with many of her students after they’ve gone on to college and careers in fields that include journalism, engineering and many others as well as music. “It’s very important that we give them a well-rounded music and academic education so they have plenty of choices.”
Kaufman Music Center is proud to offer each of its Special Music School students approximately $10,000 worth of music instruction free of charge each year. If your circumstances allow, please consider making a gift to Special Music School, so that students from all backgrounds may continue to benefit from the experience for another 25 years.
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