"He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once."
– Robert Browning
Mission
The Elizabeth & Michel Sorel Charitable Organization Inc., established in 1996 by their daughter, Claudette Sorel, is a 501©(3) private foundation. Ms. Sorel was a child piano prodigy. She is the youngest graduate of The Juilliard School completing her degree at age nine. She became a distinguished professor of piano, at SUNY, Fredonia. Ms. Sorel passed away in 1999. Through our Medallion program The Sorel Organization intends to create opportunities for women in composition, conducting, piano, voice, and film scoring. Our mission is to keep musical excellence alive and to help stretch the boundaries for women in music.
About Claudette Sorel
Born in Paris of French-Hungarian parentage, Claudette Sorel was trained in the United States under famous teachers as Olga Samaroff Stokowski, Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. At the age of 10, she made her New York Town Hall debut and the following year performed with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Her scholastic honors include graduating high school in three years as valedictorian, and simultaneously attending The Juilliard School with complete fellowship. She graduated from there with highest honors and as its youngest graduate. Upon the death of Mme. Samaroff, the Curtis Institute of Music granted her a five year fellowship and she received its Artist Diploma with highest honors. This was accomplished while Miss Sorel was also a student at Columbia University from which she received a Mathematics Degree-Cum Laude. At Columbia she studied musicology with Mitchell, Ussachevsky and Beeson.
Miss Sorel made more than 2,000 concert, recital, and festival appearances and played with 200 major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, NBC Symphony, and London Philharmonic. One hundred of those performances were as soloist in the MacDowell Concerto No. 2 which is featured on a CD. She recorded for RCA Victor, Monitor, and Musical Heritage. Miss Sorel gave premiere performances of works by Lukas Foss, Harold Morris, Paul Creston, Peter Mennin and others. Her numerous awards and citations from the time she was 12 include the Ford Foundation Concert Artist Grant and the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Award (as its youngest winner). She judged for countless international and national music competitions.
Miss Sorel has held professorships at the University of Kansas, Ohio State University, and the State University of New York, where she was the chairman of the piano department for 13 years. She was designated by the trustees of SUNY the youngest and only woman "Distinguished University Professor," among a faculty of 30,000.