Much more than just learning an instrument

1984 – At the suggestion of Englewood resident and community activist Sandra O. Gold, the JCC School of Music opens under the direction of Dorothy Kaplan Roffman. Beginning with 30 students, enrollment doubles over each of the next four years.

1991 – William and Maria Thurnauer endow the music school. A new wing is built – the JCC Thurnauer School of Music. Drs. Joan and Alan Handler endow the Gift of Music Annual Scholarship benefit concert.

1992 – Carnegie Chamber Players (later the Thurnauer Chamber Music Society) begins its concert series, underwritten by Erich and Eva Holzer.

1996 – Joan and Alan Handler endow the Sylvia and Jacob Handler Master Classes – first artist, Pinchas Zukerman.

1997 – The music school and the Englewood Public School District establish a partnership. Bernard and Ruth Weinflash spearhead the Shirah Community Chorus on the Palisades, directed by Matthew Lazar.

2000 – Russell and Angelica Berrie establish the Sandra O. Gold Founders Day Concert.

2004 – Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents the school with an award for “excellence and high standards.”

2006 – Thurnauer receives a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts attesting to its “regional significance.”

2007 – Roffman receives the Distinguished Service Award from the N.J. Chapter of the American String Teachers Association.

2008 – The 25th Anniversary Endowment Campaign is spearheaded by the Richard H. Holzer Memorial Foundation. Thurnauer students perform at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.

2009 – The school receives its first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and is designated a Major Arts Institution by the N.J. State Council on the Arts.

2010 – The school becomes an affiliate of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City.