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THE SOREL ORGANIZATION


The Elizabeth & Michel Sorel Charitable Organization Inc. is a 501©(3) private foundation, established in 1996 by pianist Claudette Sorel and named for her parents. The American pianist and educator was a passionate advocate for women in the arts. The mission of The Sorel Organization (www.SorelMusic.org) is to expand opportunities and stretch the boundaries for women musicians in the fields of conducting, composition, film scoring, performance, arts leadership, technology, education, and scholarship.  


Notable activities of The Sorel Organization include The Sorel Classics Label, Sorel Medallions in Choral Composition and Recording, collaborations with the American Pianists Association, prominent choral organizations and symphony orchestras, as well as scholarship funds in film scoring at New York University and in solo piano at SUNY Fredonia, where Claudette Sorel taught for many years.


Throughout her career, the American pianist and educator Claudette Sorel was a passionate advocate for women in the arts. Before her death in 1999 at age 66, Ms. Sorel placed an endowment for women conductors and composers at the New York Philharmonic. The fund has supported Philharmonic commissions by Julia  Adolphe, Lera Auerbach, and Kaija Saariaho, and podium appearances by Jane Glover, Emmanuelle Haim, Susanna Maalkki, Jeannette Sorrell, Simone Young, and Xian Zhang, among others.



CLAUDETTE SOREL


Claudette Sorel was a child piano prodigy. Born in Paris of French-Hungarian parentage, she was trained
in the United States under 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 at Carnegie Hall. Her scholastic honors include completing high school in three years as valedictorian and simultaneously attending The Juilliard School on full fellowship, from which she graduated with highest honors and as its youngest graduate. At the Curtis Institute of Music she received an Artist Diploma with highest honors. This was accomplished while she was also a student at Columbia University, from which she received a degree in Mathematics, Cum Laude.


During her career Ms. Sorel made more than 2,000 concert, recital, and festival appearances and appeared as soloist with 200 orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, NBC Symphony, and London Philharmonic. Her signature work was Edward MacDowell’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and she gave world premieres of music by Lukas Foss, Harold Morris, Paul Creston, and Peter Mennin, among others. Her numerous awards and citations 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, and recorded for the RCA Victor, Monitor and Musical Heritage labels.


Ms. Sorel held professorships at the University of Kansas, Ohio State University, and the State University of New York at Fredonia, where she was the chairman of the piano department for 13 years. She was the first woman to be named Distinguished University Professor by the Trustees of New York State’s university
Claudette Sorel's publication, "Mind Your Musical Manners."http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Musical-Manners-Claudette-Sorel/dp/0793552745?tag=s601000020-20http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Musical-Manners-Claudette-Sorel/dp/0793552745?tag=s601000020-20http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Musical-Manners-Claudette-Sorel/dp/0793552745?tag=s601000020-20shapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1
system, among a faculty of 30,000.



PHILANTHROPY


Endowments


  1. New York Philharmonic: The Claudette Sorel Performance Fund

  2. New York University: The Claudette Sorel Film Scoring Scholarship

  3. SUNY Fredonia: The Claudette Sorel Fellowship in Solo Piano



Organizations


  1. American Composers Forum

  2. American Pianists Association

  3. Music & Arts Programs of America

  4. National Arts Club, NYC

  5. New Music USA

  6. New York University: Screen Scoring Summer Workshops

  7. Recording Inclusivity Initiative

  8. SongFest

  9. Sparks & Wiry Cries

  10. SUNY Fredonia: The Claudette Sorel Piano Competition & Fellows Program;

  11.         The Claudette Sorel Visiting Artist

  12. The Town Hall, NYC

  13. Voices of Ascension, NYC



Sorel's Esteemed Composers List


The following composers have received support from the Sorel Organization through Sorel Medallion programs, commissions, recording grants, and through grants to nonprofit arts organizations.

  

  1. Lera Auerbach

  2. Dawn Avery

  3. Juhi Bansal

  4. Emily Bear

  5. Melinda Bargreen

  6. Eve Beglarian

  7. Abbie Betinis

  8. Lisa Bielawa

  9. Jenni Brandon

  10. Margaret Brouwer

  11. Lucia Caruso

  12. Goussy Celestin

  13. Judith Cloud

  14. Haiqiong Deng

  15. Alexa Dexa

  16. Christine Donkin

  17. Emily Doolittle

  18. Melanie Dyer

  19. Mira Eom

  20. Reena Esmail

  21. Gabriela Lena Frank

  22. Dorothy Frisch

  23. Stacy Garrop

  24. Sarah Goldfeather

  25. Anna Gruman

  26. Jocelyn Hagen

  27. Juliana Hall

  28. Jennifer Higdon

  29. Gao Hong

  30. Annie Hsieh

  31. Chiayu Hsu

  32. Laura Kaminsky

  33. Leanna Kirchoff

  34. Yumi Kurosawa

  35. Yea Kyung

  36. Lori Laitman

  37. Sally Lamb McCune

  38. Libby Larsen

  39. Chris Lastovicka

  40. Anne LeBaron

  41. Erica Lindsay

  42. Shara Lunon

  43. Missy Mazzoli

  44. Jessie Montgomery

  45. Joyce Solomon Moorman

  46. Tamar Muskal

  47. Niloufar Nourbakhsh

  48. Sheena Phillips

  49. Shulamit Ran

  50. Augusta Read Thomas

  51. Christina Whitten Thomas

  52. Pauchi Sasaki

  53. Nina Shekhar

  54. Marilyn Shrude

  55. Sheila Silver

  56. Nina Siniakova

  57. Cecilia Smith

  58. Sarah Kirkland Snider

  59. Allison Sniffin

  60. Martha Sullivan

  61. Dobrinka Tabakova

  62. Nancy Wertsch

  63. Ayanna Woods

  64. Chen Yi

  65. Bora Yoon

  66. Judith Lang Zaimont



PEOPLE


Board of Directors

  

  1. Walter T. Killmer, Jr., President

  2. JoAnn Falletta, Vice President

  3. Wende Persons, Managing Director



Advisor Advocates


  1. Tony Caramia

  2. Caroline Croen

  3. David Dubal

  4. Joel Harrison

  5. Neeme Järvi

  6. Tania Leon

  7. Kevin Mostyn

  8. Melissa Ngan

  9. Liz Norman

  10. Vanessa Reed

  11. Vanessa Rose

  12. Ronald Sadoff

  13. Janet Sarbaugh

  14. Arlene Shrut

  15. Brann Wry



Administration

   

  1. Wende Persons, Managing Director, Board of Directors

  2. Dmitri Shelest, Administrator & Recordings Consultant

  3. Kendra Harvey, Sterling Foundation Management




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