About Us

Our Mission
Our History
Our Programs
Leadership Bio
Donors
Board of Directors
Financial Statements and 990s
501(C)(3) IRS Tax Determination Letter

Our Mission
Ansonia Music Outreach is dedicated to bringing the gift of music to a broad audience, through our work with young people at public and private schools, our efforts to bring the musical arts to low-income and underserved communities, and our concerts and events for the elderly, the ill, and the physically disadvantaged. Our mission is to help establish the musical arts as a more essential and valuable experience in the lives of the general public.

Our History
Ansonia Music Outreach was founded in 1992 by graduates of The Juilliard School. After participating in the Juilliard Community Service Fellowship Program, they saw the great need to carry on this work as professional musicians. As the organization developed, the Phoenix Ensemble was formed, a chamber music group dedicated to the performance and recording of classical music, and to the mission and goals of Ansonia Music Outreach. Through concerts, recordings, and residencies in schools and communities, the Phoenix Ensemble has carried out the work of Ansonia Music Outreach, presenting hundreds of events designed to inspire a new and diverse audience for classical music.

There is a large population of people who feel that the arts do not relate to them, that the arts are only meant for a small minority, or that the arts will never fit into the daily enjoyment of their lives. These beliefs are untrue, and the work and accomplishments of Ansonia Music Outreach demonstrate this. The United States has predominantly borrowed the European model for arts presentation, and while this is effective up to a point, an effort must be made to inspire a new and wider American audience, through a more innovative integration of the arts into the community. Arts education and audience building efforts can be just as effective when directed towards adult audiences as they are when directed towards young people. A continued decline in funding for arts education, a quickly changing generational perspective, and greatly diminishing opportunities for the public to experience quality performances, fuels the growing arts crisis in this country. Since 1992, we have brought the gift of music to the underserved and to communities in need, enriching the lives of thousands, and inspiring many who previously were unaware of the positive influence the arts can make in their lives.

Our Programs
Our Access to Music program offers events such as free concerts, music classes, and interactive workshops to disadvantaged and underserved audiences in New York City.

Our Music for the Young program presents innovative concerts and events to young people designed to inspire interest in classical music and the arts, encourage creativity, and help make the arts an integral part of the school curriculum.

Our Composer Workshop gives composers of merit the opportunity to create new works, to make accesible important music of our time, and to work on ways in which the particular musical style or message of new works can be communicated to a general audience, particularly young audiences.

Leadership Bio
Mark Lieb, President and Artistic Director

Mark Lieb is the Founder of Ansonia Music Outreach. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and The Juilliard School, where he studied clarinet performance with Robert Marcellus, former Principal clarinet with the Cleveland Orchestra, and David Shifrin, former Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has been a professional freelance musician in New York City since 1991, and has performed and toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has recorded with New World Records, Mode Records, Furious Artisans, Newport Classics, Dorian, Innova Recordings, Albany Records, and BMG Classics labels. His arts education experience includes participating in the Juilliard Community Service Fellowship Program as a student at the school, and then after graduation, was the Manhattan and Brooklyn clarinet teacher for the New York Pops Salute to Music Program, worked for three years with Young Audiences of New Jersey, and one year with Midori and Friends. In addition to 21 years experience in nonprofit management with Ansonia Music Outreach, Mr. Lieb also has three years experience as Manager of Foundation Relations with the Big Apple Circus.

Donors
We thank the following Foundations, Corporations, and Government Agencies for their generous support:

Sonia Alden Foundation, Inc.

American Chai Trust

Bank Leumi USA

Blue Door Foundation

The Bodman Foundation

Edith C. Blum Foundation

Concordia Foundation

Con Edison Strategic Partnerships

The Florence Gould Foundation
The Heineman Foundation

Virginia Cretella Mars Foundation

Office of the Manhattan Borough President