The Manhattan School of Music Hosts 2023 Gala

NEW YORK – Manhattan School of Music (MSM) hosted the 2023 Gala at The Rainbow Room, Rockefeller Plaza, in New York City.

The gala honored long-time members of the MSM Board of Trustees Marcia Clay Hamilton and Edward Lowenthal. A celebration of the School’s prestigious Opera Studies Program, the evening featured performances by mezzo-soprano and two-time Grammy Award winner, Metropolitan Opera Artist J’Nai Bridges (BM’09), former New York Yankee, Latin Grammy-nominated jazz guitarist and MSM Trustee Bernie Williams (BM’16), recent MSM graduates and current MSM students, among other notable performers. All the scheduled performers were either MSM alumni or current students.

Among the recent graduates to perform included MSM alumni bass-baritone Le Bu (BM ’22) and baritone Daniel Rich (MM’19); both are currently in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development program. Le Bu was a winner of the 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and earlier this year Daniel Rich was a winner of the inaugural New York City Opera/MSM Duncan Williams Voice Competition.
The Gala was hosted by Richard Gaddes (HonDMA’17), former General Director of the Santa Fe Opera and founding General Director of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Melissa Wegner (MM ’05), Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and Laffont Competition.

Notable attendees at the Gala included: Richard Gaddes, Melissa Wegner, Marcia Clay Hamilton, Edward Lowenthal, J’Nai Bridges, Bernie Williams, Le Bu, Daniel Rich, Herbie Hancock, Gigi Hancock, Ann Ziff, Adrienne Vittadini, Sylvia Hemingway, Maribel Lieberman.