Usdan Hosts ‘Morning of Clarinet’

Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, the Huntington-based summer arts day camp, presented “A Morning of Clarinet 2014,” an on-campus workshop on Thursday, April 24. 

Attended by 46 clarinet students from several Suffolk County school districts, the program was taught by Liam Burke, an award-winning and fast-rising young clarinetist who has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Mostly Mozart Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and other ensembles.

Burke is also on the faculty of Usdan, where he teaches clarinet in the summer.

His other credits include Ensemble ACJW, the American Symphony Orchestra, the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Juilliard Orchestra and in composer John Adams’ Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center, at Adams’ invitation. A recent graduate of The Juilliard School of Music, he was a recipient of Juilliard’s prestigious Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership, and was named winner of the Juilliard Clarinet Concerto Competition and the Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition.

Located at 185 Colonial Springs Road, Usdan Center has introduced the arts to more than 60,000 children, according to the camp.

The clarinet program was sponsored by Bethpage Federal Credit Union, which is also sponsoring Usdan’s new micro-grant program, benefiting more than 70 students from North Babylon High School. In addition, Bethpage supports along-running Usdan/Bethpage Scholar in the Arts program, providing Usdan scholarships for students who are “adopted” by their Bethpage community branch, and receive recognition there for the remainder of the year.