Lt Joseph P Kennedy Community Center

I loved going to the Kennedy Community Center in Harlem. I started playing the trombone with some friends from high school who also attended. Mr. Kenneth Roane was the band leader and musical director of the music program at Kennedy at that time. Ms. Jones was the director of the center. I began playing at the center at age 14. By the time I was 16 I had passed an audition for the Juilliard School of Music. I performed with the orchestra, at Juilliard, spending the summer of 1963 in Residence at Dartmouth College for 8 weeks. I did graduate and now am an alumnus Juilliard. I went on to play for the New York Youth Symphony under Leonard Slatkin for 3 seasons. I now live in the San Diego County Area. I was injured while serving in the military and can no longer perform on the trombone. I currently play the violin instead. I highly recommend this center to anyone. It has existed for a very long time and has served the community well. I invite any former Kennedy Center members to contact me. It would be great comparing notes.
Ralph

I was 10 years of age when i attended this center after school. It was well run and a wonderful place for latchkey children, like myself, to enjoy sports and recreation. It was here where I got my start in music under the tutelage of Mr. Kenneth Roane, and ended up being accepted into the the High School of Music and Art, now the Fiorello H Laguardia School of the Arts.