Once a year, the teachers play. And the students who came back.
Masterworks is the annual faculty recital. The musicians who spend every Saturday coaching children take the stage themselves, joined by the COS Alumni Orchestra, and the children get to hear what their own teachers can do.
About the series
Faculty and alumni, open to the community.
The Masterworks Concert Series is an annual recital by the professionally trained music instructors of the Children’s Orchestra Society. The faculty, devoted to developing young talent, hunger to express themselves through their art. For its first decade it was a faculty and friends concert. Since the 50th anniversary year the COS Alumni Orchestra has shared the program, so the evening now brings together the people who teach here and the students who came through.
Masterworks is the older tradition. It ran as a faculty and friends recital for its first decade, with the faculty performing alone, before the alumni were ever part of it. Separately, COS had talked about forming an alumni orchestra for more than ten years without managing the continuity such a thing needs. In the 50th anniversary year the two were brought together, and the COS Alumni Orchestra launched inside Masterworks, sharing the program with the faculty.
I literally cried. I was overwhelmed, overcome by my own emotions. I could not believe that kids I had seen twenty years ago came back and played, and they were so good.
Masterworks runs once a year on a Sunday evening in early April, in Manhattan rather than at the Syosset teaching location. It is a ticketed concert and open to the public. The 22nd Annual is on April 11, 2027 at 7pm.
