Celebrating what would be Dr. Schenck’s 142nd birthday, Founder’s Day events and activities will center on the Precollege Division in 2025; this is fitting, as the date falls on Saturday this year (when the all-day Precollege program is in session), and because at the time of our founding (1918) most of the instruction at the School focused on children and youth.
MSM founder Janet Daniels Schenck at her desk in the 1950s.
An immersive schedule of Precollege activities on November 22 will include concerts dedicated to Dr. Schenck, a special exhibit in the Library, the main floor monitors broadcasting a video about the founding all day, and the dispensing of some age-appropriate goodies for students.
In addition, last week (November 15), the Precollege Gala presented two alumni awards in honor of Janet Schenck; and the Interstaff Committee held a “Schenck & Sip” event (November 13) where attendees let their inner artist shine while sharing a glass of cheer with colleagues.
An Interstaff Committee event combined artmaking and community.
Long before this was a conservatory, before it had its own home or gave a concert, it was simply one woman teaching children — listening to them, encouraging them, and believing they deserved every opportunity to grow. Provost Joyce Griggs
Long before this was a conservatory, before it had its own home or gave a concert, it was simply one woman teaching children — listening to them, encouraging them, and believing they deserved every opportunity to grow.
Provost Joyce Griggs
On view in the Library are two newly-commissioned models of the School’s first two buildings (1921–1927 and 1927–1938).
In the early decades of the 20th century, amid the social ferment and artistic flowering that defined the modern era, one woman’s vision for the education of children through music took root in East Harlem and ultimately culminated in one of the world’s great conservatories. The enduring story of Janet Daniels Schenck (1883–1976) joins artistic training with a sense of civic purpose. It is, at its core, a story of teaching: of one woman’s conviction that music could shape lives, unify communities, and open young minds to beauty, discipline, and hope.
[Written by John K. Blanchard (MM ’89), MSM Institutional Historian & Director of Archives]
Born in Ohio to a family of thinkers and doers, Janet Daniels was drawn to the arts and its potential for personal transformation. Her educational outlook was indelibly marked by her studies in Paris with the celebrated pianist Harold Bauer, a protégé of Ignacy Jan Paderewski and who had premiered Debussy’s Children’s Corner in 1908. Bauer’s mentorship was pivotal: when Janet told him she wanted to found a school upon her return to New York, he did not doubt her. His faith in her would later put the wind in her sails at a crucial moment, giving her confidence to blend artistry with social purpose, a combination that would define a life’s work.
A Social Worker’s Classroom
Returning to New York, Schenck immersed herself in the rapidly expanding city, a mosaic of immigrants and working-class families seeking stability and opportunity during the period before World War I.
She continued her own studies at Columbia University and at the New York School of Social Work, combining her musical training with an interest in social service. Understanding that the new Americans coming to East Harlem came from cultures steeped in heritage, she believed that music could be both bridge and beacon: a way for youth to retain pride in their origins while integrating into the life of their new country.
She began teaching music at the Union Settlement House on East 104th Street, around the corner from where she was living. At the Settlement, one of the city’s pioneering social-service centers, she witnessed firsthand the transformative effects of music on children from immigrant families and saw it as a natural means of adjustment to their new surroundings. When wartime austerity forced the Settlement to cut its music program, Schenck faced a defining choice: abandon her experiment or strike out independently.
Her decision created a lasting legacy.
The Birth of a Neighborhood School
In 1918, with encouragement from Harold Bauer and the early support of other great artists including Pablo Casals and Fritz Kreisler, Schenck established her own institution. With a faculty of 23 and 120 students paying 50 cents per lesson, she created a space where talent and curiosity mattered more than wealth or background.
Her 1919 District Music Service offered free performances and became one of the first outreach programs of its kind.
At a time when women in the United States had yet to win the right to vote, Schenck’s leadership was both visionary and quietly radical. She understood that teaching music to the young (in addition to their parents and older siblings) was not simply an artistic mission but a civic one. It became an instrument of democracy: available to all, nurturing discipline, empathy, and shared joy.
Growth, Community, and Continuity
The construction of a dedicated building on East 105th Street in 1927–28 provided new, modern facilities and “our first real home.” Within its walls, music-making flourished; choruses, orchestras, and chamber ensembles gave a sense of belonging and accomplishment.
Schenck continued to recruit distinguished artist-teachers who shared her devotion to mentorship. Among them was the pianist Dora Zaslavsky, herself a prodigy of Ukrainian background, who began teaching at the School and remained for more than 60 years. Zaslavsky embodied the continuity of Schenck’s educational philosophy, rooted in individualized attention and the cultivation of imagination.
As the 1930s unfolded, the School’s mission broadened, but the teaching of talented children and young adults remained at its heart and soul. A nurturing presence among its faculty and staff reinforced what Schenck always believed: that a great school must be both a center of care and a center of excellence.
Transformation Onto the World Stage
By 1938, two decades after its founding, the institution formally rebranded itself from the “Neighborhood Music School” to “Manhattan School of Music,” signaling its growing stature. Programs were divided into two divisions: one for young students and beginners, and another for advanced students. This structure mirrored the founder’s conviction that learning should form a continuum, beginning with early curiosity and extending toward mastery.
Schenck organized high-profile benefit events to support the School’s finances that included a concert by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Arturo Toscanini; a Noël Coward play starring the playwright; and a Metropolitan Opera performance of Tristan und Isolde. The proceeds sustained scholarships and helped expand facilities, exposing her endeavor to a wider audience.
From Idea to Conservatory
By mid-century, the School stood at the crossroads of community service and higher education. Throughout the decades of growth, Schenck’s philosophy never wavered; she saw artistic training for the young not merely as preparation for professional life, but as a formative human experience. What Schenck had built was more than a conservatory — it was a living organism, an institution bound together by the belief that the arts could ennoble everyday life.
World War II brought hardship and new demands, yet it also solidified MSM’s standing as a serious educational institution. Even with state approval in the early 1940s to grant both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Schenck never lost sight of her beginnings. As programs expanded, the School continued to offer a complete curriculum for younger pupils, a tenet of her mission that survives to this day.
By the time she retired in 1956, at age 73, Dr. Janet Daniels Schenck had guided her institution from a modest dream to a respected center of musical study.
A Living Legacy
More than a century after Janet Daniels Schenck began teaching children in East Harlem, her vision continues to guide Manhattan School of Music. The spirit of mentorship, inclusivity, and opportunity that shaped her first classrooms continues to inform MSM’s mission. What began as a neighborhood experiment in 1918 has become a model for musical education worldwide, grounded in the same conviction that access to art can transform lives.
Each Saturday, the laughter and focus of students in the Precollege Division echo the sounds of Schenck’s earliest lessons. Their progress affirms her enduring idea — that music, when shared and taught with care, nurtures not only talent but community. The School’s strength lies in the simple truth that great institutions grow from the quiet persistence of teachers who believe in the potential of every child.
A page from Janet Daniels Schenck’s personal scrapbook, 1918
“In later years when almost insurmountable difficulties confronted us, my memory went back to these early years… the unifying and enriching effects of the music seemed increasingly apparent. And as the devotion of the parents and students grew, I became ever more convinced that there must be in the cities of modern America, schools of music for students of all financial backgrounds, where people of all ages could come together with their burdens and desires, and gain, through their contact with music, a reappraisal of values in living.”
— Janet D. Schenck, ADVENTURE IN MUSIC: A Reminiscence (1960)
AWARD-WINNING VIDEO: A 13-minute mini-documentary tells the story of Dr. Schenck and the founding of MSM.
SLIDESHOW (use arrows or SWIPE IMAGES W/ CURSOR): photos from the Archives of Dr. Schenck and the School's first campus at 238 East 105th Street
If you have questions about MSM’s Founder’s Day tradition or wish to discuss future activities in Dr. Schenck’s honor, please be in touch with John Blanchard (MM ’89), Institutional Historian and Director of Archives, at jblanchard@msmnyc.edu.
A 1970 painting by John Koch of Dr. Schenck, part of the Founder’s Day exhibit in the Library
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