We are launching our 35th anniversary year with a new tradition at Midori & Friends, and we would love for you to be part of it from the very beginning.
Please join us for A Luminary Breakfast, celebrating the leaders who keep the arts vibrant in New York City schools.
Thursday, January 14, 2027 | 8-10 AM
The Cosmopolitan Club, 122 East 66th Street
The morning features Midori in conversation with Dr. Erica Halverson & Dr. Eric Blake, performances by six-time Grammy winner Samara Joy and special guests, and a Luminary Award for Principal Patricia Hanley of PS 54Q. Additional panelists and Luminaries will be announced shortly.
Interested in becoming a sponsor of A Luminary Breakfast?
Contact Luz MacManus, VP of Development at Lmacmanus@midoriandfriends.org.
A Luminary Breakfast is sponsored by
Radiance Sponsor
In Conversation
Midori
Founder, Midori & Friends
Midori is a visionary artist, activist and educator who explores and builds connections between music and the human experience and breaks with traditional boundaries, which makes her one of the most outstanding violinists of our time. She has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and has collaborated with some of the most outstanding musicians of our time, including Leonard Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma, and many others.
As someone deeply committed to furthering humanitarian and educational goals, she has founded several non-profit organizations: the New York City-based Midori & Friends; MUSIC SHARING, based in Japan; Partners in Performance (PiP), which helps to bring chamber music to smaller communities in the U.S.; and the Orchestra Residencies Program (ORP), which supports American youth orchestras. In recognition of her work as an artist and humanitarian, she serves as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and in 2021, she was named a Kennedy Center Honoree.
Author of How the Arts Can Save Education
Dr. Erica Halverson
Dr. Erica Rosenfeld Halverson is Professor of Curriculum & Instruction and Chair of Theatre & Drama at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Halverson is a lifelong arts educator; she has dedicated her career to studying how people learn in and through the arts and creating opportunities for young artists and arts educators to shine. She is founder of two artist-in-residence programs - Play Makers Lab (neé Barrel of Monkeys) in Chicago, and Whoopensocker in Madison, WI—both of which offer arts-integrated literacy programming for elementary school students in their classrooms.
The Whoopensocker program is also available online through a partnership with PBS Education Wisconsin. Her 2021 book, “How the Arts Can Save Education,” describes how arts practices can transform how we do teaching and learning across all disciplines. She is host of the award-winning podcast, “Arts Educators Save the World,” where successful artists and their mentors talk about how arts education has impacted both of their lives.
Dr. Eric Blake
Superintendent, District 28, NYC Department of Education
Dr. Eric L. Blake is a veteran educator with more than 30 years of experience spanning classroom teaching, school leadership, and higher education. Beginning his career in Jamaica and later serving in the New York City Department of Education, he has taught English, literacy, social studies, and composition at both K–12 and university levels. As a school leader, Dr. Blake has served as Assistant Principal, Resident Principal with New Leaders for New Schools, and Principal of the Science, Technology and Research Early College School in Brooklyn, where he led the school for 15 years to New York State Recognition Status and national ranking by U.S. News & World Report. He holds advanced degrees in English, Administration, and Education, and is a Cahn Fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Blake now brings his commitment to academic excellence, equity, and student empowerment to NYCDOE’s District 28.
Luminary Performance By
Samara Joy
Six-time Grammy winning Artist
Few figures in jazz history have experienced the kind of meteoric success that vocalist Samara Joy has, especially at such a young age.
With six Grammy Awards to her name, including a Best New Artist win as well as an NAACP Image Award, Joy has achieved the kind of profile typically reserved for pop celebrities. Her performance history reads like a who’s-who of the most legendary venues and events in jazz, with appearances at the Newport, Monterey, and Montreal Jazz Festivals, as well as iconic stages like the Apollo, Carnegie Hall, the Village Vanguard, and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
A native of the Bronx’s Castle Hill neighborhood, Joy grew up surrounded by music. Her family’s musical legacy runs deep: her grandparents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, led the Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes, and her father, musician and songwriter Antonio McLendon, toured with Andraé Crouch and recorded his own work. As a child, Joy was captivated by classic R&B and honed her singing skills in her church’s gospel choir. Her journey into jazz began in her teens, while attending Fordham High School for the Arts, where she won Best Vocalist at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s prestigious Essentially Ellington program.