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Carnegie Hall 125th Anniversary: Weill Institute's Music Connections - Lullaby Project

Commissioned for the birth of Bertha Faber's second son, with Clara Schumann at the piano, Brahms' "Lullaby" was first heard some 150 years ago. Absent that night in Vienna, you'll still recall its gentle, E-flat waltz from your own childhood. Likewise, you weren't there last April for the world premiere of "Sweet Like Honey Buns." But that's just because its funky, electric guitar-led hook, care of composer Daniel Levy and a young mother named Vetaya, was first performed at Rikers Island. The end result of Carnegie Hall's Lullaby Project, songs like "Honey Buns," LaToria's "Mommy's Boys, Mommy's Blessing" and "Sleep Under the Willow" by Sarah (institutions like prisons and hospitals prefer first names only) are all part of a precious process, intent on helping at-risk women, and often their partners, bond with their babies.
By Logan K. Young

  • THE PIANO: A MEASURE OF TIME (Part 2), by Elizabeth L. Forrester

    My fingers have difficulty playing my own old recital piece from boarding school. Still, I can belt out the showtunes. My music continued there and kept me in touch with the outside world. I accompanied my schoolmates around the piano -- cranking out hymns on the small chapel organ. At college in Boston, where my love with New England flourished, I found a common bond between north and south in the glee club with portrayals of W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan's "I'm Called Little Buttercup" from Pinafore and "The Duchess" from Gondoliers.
    By Elizabeth L. Forrester

  • THE PIANO: A MEASURE OF TIME (Part I), by Elizabeth L. Forrester

    As I sit down to move these wrinkled hands on the piano, I try to decide what music to select. The living room is overflowing with dusty boxes filled with music: piano, vocal, organ, church, wedding, popular, art songs and more. One of my earliest memories was my mother playing "Red Sails in the Sunset." I sat near the pedal in wonderment. It was during the Great Depression; a Steinway was a luxury. For my mother, it was a necessity. And so, I grew up knowing that a piano in the home was essential for happiness, solace and discipline.
    By Elizabeth L. Forrester