By Allison Perrine
RED BANK – Passionate. Resourceful. Committed.
That’s how Adam Philipson, president and CEO of Count Basie Center for the Arts, describes Red Bank resident Yvonne Lamb-Scudiery, founder of the nonprofit’s performing arts programs, who is now retiring. She and the community look back on her decades of art education with such fondness, though she’s not taking her final bow with the Basie just yet.
“She is one of the most committed persons I have ever met,” Philipson said. “In terms of just her ability to have taken her life work and her life passion and be able to share and inspire other artists in the future – she’s a rare breed.”
Scudiery was born in Rhode Island and spent her childhood in California. She described her younger self as a shy little observer who watched others carefully. Her godmother suggested dancing school and her mother decided to try it, despite their tight finances at the time. And when Scudiery began classes at a “very strict” Russian ballet school, she felt as if she had found her home. “It was life altering,” she said.
“It was very strict and very quiet…I loved that the most about it. And then of course the classical music, which has always been my driving force. It’s why I continue to dance and why I danced,” she said. “How the music made me feel, I couldn’t even explain it. As a little kid it could make me cry.”
She danced with the San Francisco Ballet Company for some time before moving to Hollywood, California, and then to New York where she danced in many different types of shows, at nightclubs, air force bases, in Summer Stock and road shows.
“It was fun. It was very cool and it’s where I got a tremendous amount of my education,” she said.
Scudiery also taught arts programs privately before joining the Basie family in 2001. A parent of a child in one of her private ballet classes who was a managing director with Count Basie informed her of an upcoming position in the education program and asked if she would apply. She took them up on the offer. The rest is history.
“Many of the programs that began to put the Basie into the light of being not just what’s on stage but what’s happening behind the scenes, really was a product of Yvonne,” said Philipson.
There were a limited number of education classes at the Basie before Scudiery got involved, but under her direction it expanded tremendously. She started by establishing the Cool School arts academy and taught acting, theater and dance programs for individ- uals of varying ages. You name it, she has taught it. “I mean, in 20 years, I’ve tried pretty much everything,” she joked. She has helped with some of the “Disney junior”-style shows that have been very successful with between 40 to 70 children participating. When the Basie did “Beauty and the Beast Jr.,” there were about 1,200 attendees who came to see it, Philipson said.
“Yvonne’s knowledge, vision and wisdom have led the Basie’s education programs to a scale and ex- cellence unique in our community and our state,” said Michael Parent, a member of the Basie board of trustees and co-chair of the organization’s Education Com- mittee, in a press release. “As importantly, her heart and soul animate the Basie mission to inspire and enrich the lives of all students of the performing arts. We applaud her selfless efforts to build our programs and capacity for the benefit of all learners, and recognize that she has succeeded in making our community, and indeed the world, a more joy-filled place.”
Scudiery spearheaded the nonprofit’s arts education programs in the Red Bank, Keansburg, Fair Haven and Long Branch school districts, along with professional development programs for local teachers through her work with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts’ Partners in Education program, according to the Basie.
“You’re bringing the artsinto the classroom,” she said. “The art form is taught and is regarded as highly as the curriculum is, so you don’t just use it to enhance a class; you’re actually learning as much about dance or music or theater as you are about social studies or history or science.”
Some of her proudest accomplishments include having conducted two original ballets, one based on the “Wizard of Oz” and the other on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” both filled with classical music. She also shared pride in her creation of the popular Basie Awards, a Tony Awards-style ceremony that honors excellence in high school theater throughout Monmouth County. Starting with 13 schools, evaluators would visit each participating school, send them critiques of their theater programs and make nominations. Today, the program has grown to 30 participating schools countywide.
“It has developed a whole family (that’s) very supportive of one another. All of the kids go see one another’s shows and the directors all want to communicate with one another,” said Scudiery. “Most recently we had some Zoom meetings to get everybody together.”
The arts mean so much to Scudiery, but the deeper impacts of the arts on others fascinate her. She said so many of the ballerinas she knows have gone on to be engineers, doctors, law- yers, and it all relates back to discipline and classical music, she said. Her theory is that mindfulness trans- lates to higher executive function, like problem-solving skills and self-control.
“Who is more mindful than a classical musician who is studying and totally focused?” she asked. And she said the same goes for dancers. “You’re quiet, you’re silent, you have this music in the background. You’re totally focused in the moment and engaged in what you’re doing.”
While there are many things she will miss about her role at the Basie, her students and members of the arts community will be something she misses most. She’s had over 200 people reach out on social media after news of her retirement broke, some of whom were her students when she first started teaching.
Chrissy Theresa Maber said while she was not a direct student of Scudiery’s, she met her through Keith Heimann at the Basie.
“As Dr. Heimann led us through voice technique, before performing in front of an audience, we needed choreography. This is where Ms. Scudiery came in. I vividly remember working with Ms. Scudiery on Saturday mornings on the second floor above Count Basie Theatre for hours on end. She made sure that we felt confident in what we were performing before walking on stage,” she said.
Scudiery will remain involved with the Basie Awards and will be a consultant for the nonprofit’s annual fundraising galas. But with more free time she plans to possibly teach private adult ballet, take a few vacations and work on her Portuguese language skills.
As for the Basie, Saman- tha Giustiniani and Lucy Chen, DMA, have been appointed co-directors of its education department. Giustiniani, senior director of education and outreach, will head the department’s performing arts programs, according to the Basie. Chen, who joined the non-profit in 2018 as head of its Monmouth Conservatory of Music, will also serve as head of the Basie’s music programs, such as the summer opera and jazz camps, Red Bank Middle School’s strings program and the Basie Center Gospel Choir.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with Yvonne for nearly a decade,” said Giustiniani in a press release. “Under her guidance and mentorship, I have learned to be a better artist, teacher and leader, and to appreciate the real power and impact of the arts. I’m privileged and honored to have the opportunity to share everything I’ve learned from her so that our Academy and educational outreach programs continue to grow.”
“In music, traditions and values pass from one artist to the next: Haydn gave piano lessons to Beethoven, and Lady Gaga cites Elton John as a mentor,” said Chen in the release. “As a classically trained ballet dancer and choreographer, Yvonne has always understood and championed the value of music education – that through practice and hard work, students build grit and perseverance while enjoying the emotional benefits of a creative outlet.”
