Huntington - The Center for the Creative and Performing Arts is now entering its 42nd season, and will open its series of Festival Concerts, and private educational performances for its students, on Monday, June 29 at the Center's 200-acre woodland campus. These will be in addition to many special workshops offered by the visiting artists for Usdan students. The Center's 2009 season runs from June 29 to Aug. 14. Usdan is located at 185 Colonial Springs Road, in Huntington, Long Island.

The daily concerts are presented at Usdan's 1,000-seat McKinley Amphitheater at 12 noon and again at 12:30 p.m. The concerts expose students to the best of music, dance and theatre while they are pursuing their studies in these fields. After several weeks of attending the artist performances, students take over and perform onstage themselves. In addition, there are on-site exhibits displaying the work of visual arts students.

This year's schedule of Festival Concerts opens Monday June 29 with Metropolitan Klezmer. On succeeding days, artists include the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet; Broadway's Cady Huffman, Tony Award-winner for "The Producers," in a musical theater performance; jazz singer and Usdan alumna Jane Monheit; Justin Greer of Broadway's Shrek in a special dance performance with cast members of Broadway's "Wicked" and others; Empire Brass; Ballet San Jose, which recently toured China to great acclaim, directed by Dennis Nahat, former Joffrey/ABT star, and a visiting Master Teacher in Usdan's Dance Department; Metropolitan Opera soprano Monica Yunus, creator of "Sing For Hope," in which stars of music, dance and theatre perform fundraisers for a variety of social causes; Pat Hall, an award-winning dancer and choreographer with an ensemble of musicians and dancers who perform in Afro-Haitian styles; Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinetist of the MET Orchestra, and featured performer at the inauguration of President Barack Obama; cellist Edward Arron with pianist Jeewon Park; and Polish jazz pianist Mateusz Kolokowski, a prizewinner of the International Chopin Competition.

Other special artist workshops include an all-Bach string seminar conducted by Vincent Lionti, violist with the MET Orchestra, culminating in a performance by Usdan's String Orchestra IV on July 10; a July 17 and July 24 workshop with Carl Strommen, one of America's foremost composers of music for student ensembles; and a writing workshop with Broadway playwright Michele Lowe ("The Smell Of the Kill," "String of Pearls"), on July 20.

Usdan Center has introduced the arts to more than 50,000 Tri-State area children since its founding in 1968. The Center is open to all young people from ages six to 18. No audition is needed for most programs – rather, admission is based on an expression of interest in the arts. Each summer, 1,600 students are transported to the Center in air-conditioned buses each day. One-third of Usdan's students attend on scholarship. Although the mission of the Center is for every child to establish a relationship with the arts, the unique stimulation of the Center has caused many to go on to arts careers. Alumni include singers Jane Monheit and Mariah Carey, actresses Natalie Portman and Lisa Gay Hamilton, and members of major music, theater, and dance ensembles such as the Boston Pops and the New York City Ballet.

In addition to its regular programs, Usdan offers special opportunities for advanced high school-age performing and visual artists. These include Music Staff Internships, a Summer Ballet Intensive, and a year-round program of immersion in the visual arts for selected high school students, the Usdan Honors Art Collective. The Collective, open to talented art students in grades nine to 11, begins at Usdan Center during the summer, and continues through the following May with bi-weekly meetings at Usdan, and at New York's great museums and galleries.

For more information contact Reva Cooper at 718-965-0486; revacooper@earthlink.net.