Apogee Celebrates American Artistic Excellence with a Month of Events, Concerts and Awards in New Orleans
New York, NY and New Orleans, LA (Billboard Publicity Wire) June 25, 2008 -- The Apogee Foundation today announced that it had launched its international programs to discover, develop and celebrate artistic excellence in America during a month-long series of events in New Orleans: the birthplace for some of America's greatest art forms and some of the world's greatest performing artists.
Events included three weeks of training programs, two awards, and four concerts conducted in collaboration with leading local arts and educational institutions such as The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), Trinity Artist Series, Komenka, Moscow Nights and Tulane University.
High points included the American premiere performances of flute and trumpet prodigy Simion Gronic from Moldova, whom the Foundation brought to the United States to study American jazz at NOCCA as part of its Apogee Academy Fusion Intensives, which are designed to expand gifted artists' aesthetic awareness and performance potential; as well as Apogee Artists concert events in which both Apogee and NOCCA virtuosos joined forces under the auspices of the Foundation's Synergy Programs, which offer gifted artists from different cultural backgrounds the opportunity to collaborate in the sharing of their artistic heritage and unique talents with each other and with the world.
At the culmination of these events, the Foundation announced that it had renewed Simion Gronic's Apogee Merit Scholarship for a third consecutive year, and that it had named 16-year-old NOCCA saxophone virtuoso Stephen Gladney as its first American Apogee Merit Scholar. Apogee Awards laureates such as Gronic and Gladney are selected from among the world's most gifted emerging artists based on extraordinary ability and promise of future distinction.
Sally Perry, Executive Director of the NOCCA Institute, said, "The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts is proud to partner with Apogee in opening new horizons for gifted emerging artists, and we are happy and grateful for the Foundation's help to them in developing both as professionals and as human beings."
Apogee President Kenneth Schneider said, "It has been a privilege for Apogee to celebrate some of America's greatest artistic traditions in the place of their birth, and to play a role in perpetuating this priceless heritage for the benefit of the entire world."
To view this article with full dynamic content, including a podcast radio interview with Apogee President Kenneth Schneider and Apogee Merit Scholar Simion Gronic on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, please visit the Foundation's website at: http://www.apogeefoundation.org/media/2008/american_artistic_excellence.php
About The Apogee Foundation®:
Apogee is an international philanthropic organization dedicated to the development of human excellence in the performance arts. The Foundation is a global leader in discovering, developing and celebrating human creative potential.
About The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts:
The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts is a world class pre-professional arts training center providing intensive instruction in dance, media arts, music, theatre arts, visual arts, and creative writing to students from throughout Louisiana.
Contact:
Kenneth Schneider
President of The Apogee Foundation
1001 Avenue of the Americas, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10018-5460 USA
+1.646.224.6960 or +1.888.APOGEE.8
Brian Hammell
Director of Communications
The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
2800 Chartres Street
New Orleans, LA 70117
+1.504.940.2854 or +1.800.201.4836
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