Sunday, October 16: Nelly Berman Memorial Gala Concert

Nelly Berman, founder and director of the Nelly Berman School of Music on the Mainline, is no longer with us. On Sunday, October 16th, 2016 at 3:00 PM, students, faculty, alumni and international guest musicians will come together to honor this great lady in a memorial gala concert.

Mrs. Berman came to America from Odessa 39 years ago, carrying musical scores and a few belongings in three cardboard suitcases, with only $17 in her pocket. Her dream was to teach music to talented children here. She accomplished this dream with the Nelly Berman School of Music, which she established in 1983 with seven students, and has now grown to 400 students. At her school, she set a new level of high standards for American music students to work hard and dedicate themselves to classical music. She believed that young people who overcome technical difficulties and learn to persevere and work through frustration achieve the most in life — and so it was. One after another, the Nelly Berman School of Music students have succeeded in many different spheres of life: as investment bankers on Wall Street, as medical researchers at Harvard, as eye surgeons, opera composers and music professionals.

“There is no song, once sung, made still forever:” Nelly has made music sing with a full voice and her achievements still resound in the halls of the Nelly Berman School of Music. Sounds of piano, voice, strings, winds, and brass sing to her in testimony of her contribution to classical music in Philadelphia. For gifted and hardworking students to achieve their full potential, Nelly believed that they needed two or more lessons a week, as was common practice in Russia. Realizing that having two lessons a week was not financially possible for all families, Nelly created a merit based scholarship program which has supported hundreds of talented children. We invite you to make a tax-deductible donation to the Nelly Berman Scholarship Fund, the NBSCMI a 501 (c) (3) that supports extraordinarily gifted and hard-working students in a serious, well rounded music curriculum, so that “Nelly’s song will be sung forever.”
We hope you can join us in commemorating Nelly and paying respects to one of the most influential music educators in Philadelphia.

To find out how you can help, please reach out to our office at nbsmusic@comcast.net or 610-896-5105.