Do-Re-Mi School of Music & the Arts

Congratulations to Hezekiah Ismailov on his success in the Continental Mathematics League (CML) contest for the 2025–2026 school year!

CML is a - a nationally recognized school-based contest series that emphasizes problem solving and mathematical reasoning rather than routine computation.

Hezekiah has been Ms. Olga’s student for over a year and has shown particular enthusiasm for Problem Solving assignments—from the Beast Academy series to our proprietary thought-provoking problems inspired by Russian teaching methods that help us to develop strong analytical thinking, confidence with complex problems, and genuine love for mathematics.

We are very proud of Hezekiah's achievement (he was the only student in his class to receive this recognition in the Continental Mathematics League (CML) 2025–2026 competition!) and look forward to his continued growth.

Yesterday, the Do-Re-Mi School hosted the award ceremony for the highest achievers for each level of our chess program. All 8 recognized students, Dimitrios Broustis, Neil Rao, Ivan Krupenin, Arhaan Rao, Teddy Wang, Cayden Robles, Veer Singh, and Misha Rubin have shown great progress throughout the school year, gaining between 200 and up to 780 rating points each! This qualified them for a simultaneous exhibition hosted by Master Max.

In addition to the achievers, also participating were Sofia Bejenari recognized for 10 years as a student at Do-Re-Mi, and Zander Venutolo, recognized by the "Bon Voyage" gift that we traditionally award to our graduates. Greogry Yudin, our math and art student, was also presented with the 10-Years-Together award.

In the end, Coach Max was able to defeat all 9 participants, although not without some major challenges. His student, Neil Rao, rated 1437 USCF, was challenging him for a significant portion of the game after Max made an early tactical oversight! In the process, Max was able to pull off a comeback and prevail against the combined efforts of Neil and fellow participant Arhaan Rao.

Congratulations to all the participants!
Have a great summer and keep playing and learning chess!

It's performance season!
With many recitals happening at Do-Re-Mi, we wanted to share a recital that one of our teachers will be performing in!

Voice teacher Lauren Gismondi will perform at the 2nd Annual Park and Bark Concert
at the Park Avenue United Methodist Church in New York City on Sunday, June 14th at 2PM. As a Mezzo-Soprano soloist, she will perform pieces from the musical theater and operatic canons, as well as the Great American Songbook.

More information available in the first comment! Congrats Lauren!

Will the Russian studies have a lasting effect, or will the kids forget it as soon as they leave a Russian-speaking home and the parents stop driving them to weekly lessons?...
Congratulations to our graduate (2022) Edel Schnyder! Not only did she not "forget" Russian in college, but she also received three awards:
Bronze medal for the USA National Essay Contest,
2nd place in the Heritage category at the Rutgers Essay Contest, and
For outstanding achievement in the study of the Russian Language.
As per Dad, the homework is huge.
All the more so — well done!

CONGRATULATIONS to all the participants, their teachers, and families on the children’s wonderful performances yesterday! It was such a pleasure to see you all and to witness how much the students have grown.

Families and friends enjoyed four concerts featuring ditties, poems, songs, and skits in Russian, performed by our Russian and RSL students, from our graduating students, recipients of the NJ Seal of Biliteracy, taking the stage for the last time, to our “Russian for the Young” students performing for the very first time, and everyone in between.

Thank you, Ms. Angela, Ms. Dasha, and Ms. Natasha!

When I was a first-time new mother, I came across a quote:
"Как бы высоко ни возносила нас судьба, наше счастье или несчастье - в наших детях."
"No matter how high fate may raise us, our true happiness or sorrow is found in our children."
May there be happiness, and may all the years of care and worries be returned many times with joy!
Happy Mother's Day!