Enjoy an update from Laurie Smukler, Kneisel Hall’s Artistic Director.
Laurie is part of our violin faculty, and returns as part of our 2025 season.
In her own words…
What’s keeping me busy this year?
Besides organizing and planning for Kneisel Hall summer 2025?
I have a packed teaching schedule at Juilliard: 26 private students, a weekly studio class, and six chamber groups, including three that are part of the freshman String Quartet Survey class.
SQS is a required class for ALL freshman violinists, violists and cellists, so I get a chance to coach all of them! That is a great pleasure, as knowing them as freshmen, I can then watch and listen as they grow through their years in school.
In addition to my ubiquitous teaching, attending student performances, and my involvement in school search committees and meetings, I am always engaged in some performing project of my own.
Some highlights from this season have been Weinberg/ Shostakovich Trio concerts with KH faculty members Gwen Krosnick and Qing Jiang, two different chamber music concerts to support food insecurity in New York, an upcoming trip to teach and give a recital at Tianjin Juilliard School, in Tianjin China, and other chamber concerts coming up with lots of repertoire and wonderful colleagues.