Leslie was one of ten civic leaders honored at The All Stars Project 17th Annual Phyllis Hyman Phat Friends and Young Leaders for Change Awards on Monday, November 22, 2011 hosted by MetLife.  Roscoe Orman, known to millions for his thirty-six years as “Gordon” on the highly acclaimed children’s series Sesame Street, was the event’s host.  The award honors New York City’s unsung heroes and All Stars Project youth leaders.  All Stars youth leaders created the Phat Friends award  – named after supporter jazz great Phyllis Hyman – to have a civic voice in the life of New York City and so they could tell us which adults and programs are making a meaningful difference in their communities.   Year round, young people across the city nominate community leaders, business executives, media representatives, educators, politicians and celebrities who they think are supporting the development of young people and their communities. The nominees are interviewed by the Phat Friend Youth Selection Committee, which selects the awardees.  Past recipients include Sean “Puffy” Combs, Adam Clayton Powell IV, Dr. Walter Turnbull, Mary Wilson, and Nancy Marchand.

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Leslie Stifelman, Artistic Advisor

HBO’s Documentary The Sound Of Mumbai: A Musical

Premieres on HBO^® Fall 2011

In partnership with HBO^® and New York’s Documentary Festival, artistic advisor Leslie Stifelman, Executive Producer of HBO’s Peabody^® Award-Winning series The Music In Me, continues her support of films and television programs that focus on stories of young people from around the world who are making a difference in their lives through music.  By bringing international attention to these projects there is an opportunity to provide a fresh look at the many ways music can have a vital, profound impact on young lives and further prove how our educational system in the United States and abroad needs to nurture and support artistic endeavors as a necessary component in our society.

The Sound of Mumbai, which tells the story of horribly impoverished young children from the slums of Mumbai who journey to perform a concert version of The Sound of Music with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra, not only reflects on the universal power of music, but takes these principals one step further by exemplifying just how critical musical exploration can be to the survival of a child’s sense of possibility, determination and ambition in the face of extraordinarily difficult life circumstances.

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Leslie Stifelman, Music Supervisor

Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute presents a definitive look at

Carmina Burana performed by New York City High School students.

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The Peabody Awards are the most prestigious of all broadcasting awards,  recognizing outstanding achievements in electronic media, including radio, television and cable.

The intent of the Peabody Awards is to recognize the most outstanding achievements in electronic media, including radio, television and cable. The competition is also open to entries produced for alternative means of electronic distribution, including corporate video, educational media, home-video release, World Wide Web and CD–ROM. Programs produced and intended for wide theatrical motion picture release are not eligible for a Peabody Award.

The Award is determined by one criterion – “Excellence.” Because submissions are accepted from a wide variety of sources and styles, deliberations seek “Excellence On Its Own Terms.” Each entry is evaluated on the achievement of standards it establishes within its own contexts. Entries are self-selected by those making submissions and as a result the quality of competing works is extraordinarily high. The Peabody Awards are then presented only to “the best of the best.”

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Supervised by Leslie Stifelman

“But what made the event an unalloyed delight were the choristers…the finale of a Weill Music Institute program that started last spring, was not just exuberant but polished and precise. This was, quite simply, some of the best choral singing I’ve heard all year.”

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Leslie was honored to have the opportunity to produce and perform the music for A Letter to Elia, written and directed by Scorsese and his longtime collaborator Kent Jones.  This is a deeply personal film, a frank portrait and self-portrait, and an equally frank acknowledgement of the closeness and the distance between artists and their art.

Premieres, Monday, October 4 at 9 p.m. PBS

Check local listing for national broadcast and encore performances

Composed of clips, stills, readings from Kazan’s autobiography and his speech on directing (read by Elias Koteas), a videotaped interview done late in Kazan’s life, and Scorsese’s commentary on and offscreen, A Letter to Elia takes a close look at the life of art and its creation – the work, the distractions, the inspirations, the complications, the intersections between art and experience.

For Martin Scorsese, growing up in Little Italy, seeing On the Waterfront and East of Eden as a young man was a life-changing experience. Scorsese appears on and off camera throughout A Letter to Elia, taking us through Kazan’s life and through his own as well, and through his growing realization that there was an artist behind the camera, someone “who knew me, maybe better than I knew myself.” The film is about being exposed to the right movies at the right moment in your adolescent life, when you’re wide open and ready to connect, to be spurred on by the work up there on the screen, and then, maybe, to chart a course toward making your own movies.

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.

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Leslie’s projects have been awarded the highest honors in Music and Television.  She has also been the fortunate recipient of major sponsorship and grants on behalf of her Arts and Educational initiatives.

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BLUE MONDAY (ANGEL)
Concerto In F – Allegro

WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS OF WORKS BY GEORGE GERSHWIN AND OSCAR LEVANT
Piano Soloist and Associate Producer
The Concordia Orchestra, Marin Alsop

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LEONARD BERNSTEIN’S MASS (NAXOS)
Mass_ Agnus Dei

GRAMMY AWARD NOMINEE BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM
Music Supervisor and Associate Producer
Baltimore Symphony, Marin Alsop, Jubilant Sykes, Morgan State University

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HUMORESQUE (NONESUCH)
Tristan And Isolde Fantasie

MUSIC FROM THE 1946 WARNER BROTHERS FILM
Piano Soloist
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Andrew Litton, The London Symphony

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CHICAGO THE MUSICAL (RCA VICTOR)
Chicago Overture
All That Jazz

GRAMMY AWARD WINNER BEST THEATRICAL ALBUM
Piano Soloist
Kander and Ebb; Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth, Joel Grey, James Naughton, Rob Fisher
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VICTORY STRIDE: THE SYMPHONIC MUSIC OF JAMES P. JOHNSON (MUSICMASTERS)
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Piano Soloist
The Concordia Orchestra, Marin Alsop

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I WISH IT SO (ELEKTRA NONESUCH)
DAWN UPSHAW SINGS BERNSTEIN, BLITZSTEIN, SONDHEIM & WEILL
Piano Soloist
Eric Stern, Music Director and Piano

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DAWN UPSHAW SINGS RODGERS & HART (ELEKTRA NONESUCH)
Piano Soloist

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THE MUSIC OF PAUL BOWLES (CATALYST:BMG CLASSICS)
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Piano Soloist
The EOS Orchestra, Alan Feinberg, Jonathan Sheffer

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ZIEGFIELD FOLLIES OF 1936 (DECCA BROADWAY)
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Piano Soloist
The City Center Encores Orchestra, Rob Fisher

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SPEAKING IN STRINGS (EMI CLASSICS)
SOUNDTRACK FROM THE ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED FILM
Piano Soloist
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin

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100 GREATEST DANCE HITS: MUSIC OF AARON KERNIS (NEW ALBION)
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Piano Soloist
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MUSIC OF EDWARD JOSEPH COLLINS (ALBANY)
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS
Piano Soloist
The Concordia Orchestra, Marin Alsop

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LOUISIANA PURCHASE (DRG)
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING OF THE COMPLETE IRVING BERLIN SCORE
Piano Soloist

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GREEN EGGS AND HAMADEUS (KOCH)
THE MUSIC OF ROB KAPILOW
Piano Soloist

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As a piano soloist, conductor and music director, Leslie has designed programs and performed in collaboration with some of the world’s most esteemed musicians, choreographers, directors and orchestras.

Musicians: violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, conductor Marin Alsop, soprano Dawn Upshaw, fiddler Mark O’Connor, jazz legend Dick Hyman, vocalists Bebe Neuwirth, Ed Dixon, Janis Siegel and Judy Blazer, pianist Alan Feinberg, conductors Rob Fisher, Andrew Litton, George Manahan, JoAnn Falletta and Jonathan Sheffer.

Choreographers and Directors: Ann Reinking, Walter Bobbie, Roger Rees, Kathleen Marshall, George Faison and Alexander Bernstein.

Orchestras and Presentors: the Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Ordway Performing Arts Center, Kravitz Performing Arts Center, Michigan Summer Music Festival, University of Las Vegas, Oregon Festival of American Music, Aspen Music Festival, Concordia Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, Eugene Symphony, Richmond Symphony, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Jazz @ Lincoln Center and EOS Orchestra.

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THE LEOPARDS TAKE MANHATTAN: The Little Band that Roared

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The Leopards hail from various racial and economic backgrounds and, with no musical training, come together with the shared desire to learn how to play percussion instruments and perform as a group. With the leadership of founder Diane Downs, the Louisville Leopard Percussionists are a musical force, charming us with their special arrangements of sophisticated jazz songs. They don’t learn to read music; these children play by ear. They work collectively to create their arrangements and diligently teach each other until the entire group learns each song. Their hard work and passion earns them the trip of their lives: a chance to perform in New York City for the most prestigious and largest audience they will ever face as a Louisville Leopard. The young musicians “open the show” for a concert featuring National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and Grammy-winning composer/pianist Chick Corea at the International Association of Jazz Educators national conference, an annual gathering uniting the global jazz community with over 7,000 aficionados and musicians in attendance from around the world. The LLP’s performance of Caravan (by Duke Ellington), Spain (by Chick Corea), and Sing Sing Sing (by Louis Prima) brings down the house. For the children from Louisville, this is the achievement of a lifetime.

This documentary has touched many since its initial and repeat airings on HBO. Most significantly, educators, parents and musicians across the US have reached out to Diane Downs personally to congratulate her on creating an innovative program that cuts through many impediments to musical study and allows any child to achieve at the highest level. THE LEOPARDS TAKE MANHATTAN has brought Diane Downs’ unique vision to a national audience, sharing her inspiring methods and exciting outcomes with those who need to know about them. The producers are proud and gratified to have given Diane Downs and the LLP an opportunity to spread the word that all kids have the capacity for the highest levels of achievement. THE LEOPARDS TAKE MANHATTAN demonstrates how much can be accomplished in one community, and has encouraged others to follow suit with copycat programs in their own towns and schools. Since the program’s initial broadcast, viewers young and old have been thrilled to see how music can positively impact a young person’s life, and inspired to think outside the box about music education and the possibility of musical greatness in every child’s future.

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