Young Audiences win with music gala

Musician and educator Marta Casals Istomin can bring a tear to the eye as easily as she can draw a bow across the cello strings.

A cellist by training, the former artistic director of Kennedy Center who now is president of the Manhattan School of Music, was honored Monday at the annual benefit gala for Young Audiences of the District of Columbia for her commitment to young performing artists. In accepting the award, she spoke of her early years growing up in Puerto Rico — long before she had met and married cellist great Pablo Casals and worked with him to build up numerous musical organizations in her native land. After Mr. Casals’ death, she married pianist Eugene Istomin.

“I grew up in the country and went to a school that was rather a shack,” the petite dark-haired Mrs. Istomin told patrons gathered cafe-style in the ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel for entertainment and a buffet supper. She then kept everyone spellbound with stories of how her mother brought a portable organ to the school for two hours each week and provided the spark that ignited her interest in musical education for young people that continues today.

“Please, please bring music to children,” Mrs. Istomin concluded. “It opens their minds, their spirits, their hearts. Thank you for supporting this cause. It’s worth it.”

The cross-section of local arts supporters hearing her plea included Jaylee Mead, John Peters Irelan, Evelyn Nef, YACA board member Preston Brown, Linda Stern (widow of violinist Isaac Stern), and Dr. and Mrs. LaSalle Leffall. They were royally entertained.

Seventeen-year-old piano wunderkind Sarah Daneshpour, a Washingtonian studying with Leon Fleisher at Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, was star soloist of the night playing two Chopin pieces. In addition, five musical groups that YADC regularly sends into local schools took turns performing throughout the evening. Among them was the Music Coop, a jazz ensemble whose leader and namesake Jeffrey Cooper says prefers elementary school-age children “because they have no inhibitions and they don’t get to hear music all the time.” The group also passes on a message: “Listen to classical music when you do your homework because studies show it helps with learning,” the children are told.

— Ann Geracimos