The Gala, hosted by Anthony Roth Costanzo, honored the MSM International Advisory Board and included special presenter Alec Baldwin and remarks by Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton
Manhattan School of Music (MSM) hosted its 2025 Gala at the iconic Rainbow Room, Rockefeller Plaza, in New York City.
The evening was hosted by MSM alumnus Anthony Roth Costanzo and featured performances by alumni and soon-to-be alumni, current students in their final year of study at MSM. The gala honored the MSM International Advisory Board (led by Chair Carla Bossi-Comelli) with presenter Alec Baldwin paying tribute to the IAB’s important financial support of the School as well as its international advocacy work. The Gala also included remarks by MSM President James Gandre, Chair of the MSM Board of Trustees Lorraine Gallard, and special guest Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Performances included a solo performance of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” by Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Christian Sands; the “Sign-off Medley” arranged especially for the gala by Ingrid Jensen and comprising Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage”, Joe Hamilton’s “I’m So Glad We Had this Time Together,” and Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow” performed by June Cavlan, Ingrid Jensen, Bernie Williams, Ted Rosenthal, John Benitez and Kabelo Mokhatla; two operatic arias (and one popular standard) performed in turn by Hannah Jones and Anthony Roth Costanzo, with piano accompaniment from MSM Collaborative Piano faculty member Myra Huang; and a Frank Loesser medley arranged by MSM Musical Theatre Music Director David Loud, performed by Musical Theatre students Niko Charney, Emma Dalessio, Ayla Gittelman Ipek, and Jake Koch, with MSM Artistic Staff member Shane Schag on piano.
Lastly, there was an all-star performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet by Ilmar Gavilan, I-Jung Huang, Jinwoo Lee, Julia Choi, Shmuel Katz, Cong Wu, Tommy Mesa, and Niles Luther. All the evening’s performers were either MSM alumni or current students poised to graduate the following day at the School’s Commencement ceremony at The Riverside Church.
Some of the notable attendees included: Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, Carla Bossi-Comelli, Alec Baldwin, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Lorraine Gallard, Noémi K. Neidorff, James Gandre, Maribel Lieberman, Rupert Holmes, Bernie Williams, and Hilaria Baldwin.
About Manhattan School of Music (MSM):
Founded as a community music school by Janet Daniels Schenck in 1918, today MSM is recognized for its more than 1,000 superbly talented undergraduate and graduate students who come from more than 50 countries and nearly all 50 states; its innovative curricula and world-renowned artist-teacher faculty that includes musicians from the New York Philharmonic, the Met Opera Orchestra, and the top ranks of the jazz and Broadway communities; and a distinguished community of accomplished, award-winning alumni working at the highest levels of the musical, educational, cultural, and professional worlds.
The School is dedicated to the personal, artistic, and intellectual development of aspiring musicians, from its Precollege students through those pursuing doctoral studies. Offering classical, jazz, and musical theatre training, MSM grants a range of undergraduate and graduate degrees. True to MSM’s origins as a music school for children, the Precollege program continues to offer superior music instruction to 525 young musicians between the ages of 8 and 18. The School also serves some 6,000 New York City schoolchildren through its Arts-in-Education Program, and another 2,000 students through its critically acclaimed and pioneering Distance Learning Program.
Last modified: June 16, 2025
