Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

UPDATE: It turns out that the only connection between the DNA sample lifted from a subway gate at a recent Occupy Wall Street protest and DNA collected in the unsolved 2004 murder of Juilliard student Sarah Fox was an NYPD lab worker who processed both, the Daily News reported Wednesday.

The matching DNA was found to be the NYPD employee’s, which means that the samples were contaminated. According to the Daily News’s sources, the employee, whose identity has not been released, will likely face departmental charges for failing to prevent tainting.

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It could be straight out of a pulpy crime drama, but this time it’s for real. A DNA sample collected at a recent Occupy Wall Street protest eerily matches DNA collected in the unsolved 2004 murder of 21-year-old Juilliard student Sarah Fox. Does this point to a connection or mere coincidence? Was the DNA lifted at the protest in fact that of a protester, and, further, what would have prompted the NYPD to lift DNA from the scene in the first place?

(by Alissa Fleck)

The sample collected in connection with OWS was found on a chain used to “prop open the gates at an East Flatbush subway station…designed to let straphangers ride for free,” reports am NY. Realistically, the sample could have come from anywhere.

The DNA is a match to that taken from Fox’s CD player, which she brought with her on a jog in May of 2004, immediately prior to her disappearance and murder.

The shared DNA did not hit on any known criminal in the database, reports am NY. Officials are quick not to jump to conclusions, saying it’s possible evidence was simply handled by a common officer in both cases. The sample on Fox’s CD player was never shown to match her case’s primary suspect or any friends or family.

So is it simply coincidence, or is there a more sinister element at play—could this discovery provide renewed hope for the 8-year-old unsolved murder?

Dr. Lawrence Koblinsky, a forensics expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told NBC New York, “the likelihood is high the person who left that DNA on the CD player is the killer of Sarah Fox.”

The link is odd and serendipitous enough as is, but additionally strange seems the decision to collect DNA evidence in the case of an OWS protest. The collection of DNA in an isolated incident like this one begs the question of when it is protocol for the NYPD to collect a DNA sample. What sort of cost does it incur and how useful is it, in most cases?

The NYPD’s press office did not immediately respond to requests for such information, but the New York State Legislature reached an agreement on a bill in March of this year which would allow for the collection of DNA from those convicted even of misdemeanors. WNYC reported this would make NYS the first “all crimes DNA” state in the country, according to Governor Cuomo.

“DNA collection is one of the most reliable and cost-effective tools that we have in law enforcement,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement.

While this may not directly apply to this particular case, it shows New York’s heightened emphasis on the importance of DNA collection, even in cases where it might seem largely unnecessary. Still, many questions remain unanswered in this stranger-than-fiction discovery.

Meet Christopher Ziemba, jazz pianist at Juilliard

“There are no mistakes in jazz,” the old saying goes, and Christopher Ziemba is no exception. A pianist in Juilliard’s prestigious Artists Diploma Ensemble, he arrived on the Upper West Side last fall from Rochester.
The 25-year-old is already fully immersed in the musical scene that is New York City. A typical week for him could include performances at Dizzy’s Club, the Central Park Boathouse and David Letterman’s birthday party. Since he doesn’t have a piano in his apartment, he spends much of his day at Juilliard, ready to compose music on their Fazioli grand piano.

West Side Spirit: When did you start playing?
Christopher Ziemba: From what my parents tell me, we had an old family upright, and as soon as I could reach the keys, I started playing. I used to play nursery rhymes that I had picked up from ear. I grew up in a musical environment; my father is a percussionist in the Buffalo Philharmonic orchestra.

How did you come to specialize in jazz?
I had taken classical piano lessons for 10 years. When I got to high school, they needed a pianist for the jazz band. There, it was either sink or swim—for the first year, it was mostly sink. I went on to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester for my undergraduate and master’s degrees. I was a double major in jazz piano performance and music education. My master’s is in jazz piano.

So then you went to Julliard?
When I finished school, I expected to move to New York, but it wasn’t going to be in the context of school. Then I took a lesson from Frank Kimbro, who is part of the piano faculty at Juilliard, to prepare for a competition. At the end of the session, he said, “We have an opening in our Arts Diploma Ensemble.” Normally, auditions are held in February, but this was already mid-May.

How did you end up mastering jazz?
My mother tells me that I really didn’t like it in the beginning. Having been trained classically, it was frustrating. With classical music, you’re given a piece and you learn the notes on the page. In jazz, you have to read chords. You’re responsible for improvising, making up whatever chords you want to play. It’s like its own language. The only way to get really good at it is to spend time listening to and analyzing records.

What’s the biggest compliment ever given to you?
Recently, I was playing at the Thalia Cafe at Symphony Space. There was an older man and his caretaker watching. Whenever we performed a familiar standard, he would sing along, even though we were mostly a background attraction. After we finished, I went over to say hello. He introduced himself as the cousin of drummer Roy Haynes, a jazz legend who had played with many of my past heroes and still plays around town in his eighties. He told me I sounded just like pianist Bud Powell, with whom Roy once played. Powell is considered one of the most important figures in the history of jazz piano.

For a list of Ziemba’s upcoming performances, visit www.chrisziemba.com.

By Beth Mellow

Downtown New York City, with its matrix of trendy neighborhoods, is no stranger to celebrity sightings. You don’t have to stray too far into Soho or Tribeca to stumble upon a well-known actress, a venerated singer or a titan of business. But along these avenues, streets and alleys can also be found a different kind of notable: a top-performing gymnast, a football player consistently covered by the New York Post, a Juilliard-trained musician, an award-winning video game designer and a singer/thespian who has appeared on Lifetime and ABC Family—none of whom have graduated from high school yet.

These are the remarkable talented tweens and teens who work or study below 14th Street. They are defined not only by their prodigy-like skills but by an intense drive to succeed in their chosen fields. As Dr. Susan O’Doherty, a New York-based psychologist who works with artists, explains, young phenoms possess certain characteristics: “A kid can be gifted and lazy or gifted and driven. For some, the dream is just that, while others pursue it aggressively.” These youngsters are pursuing their dream with vigor.

For all articles, please go to:
The Juilliard Virtuoso, Lydia van der Swaagh
The Turning Point for Jesse Manning
Searching for Downtown Prodigies: The Talented Ms. Filsoof
The New, Fresh Face of Gaming
William Solomon is a Lion on the Field
A 12-Year-Old Future Olympian

Are you a Downtown parent looking for a summer camp for your child? New York Family magazine can help. The publication will run a series of Camp Fairs in the coming weeks to help parents make informed decisions about which camp is “the perfect fit” for their child. At the fairs, New York Family and the American Camp Association-NY (ACA-NY) bring more than 60 camps to parents and provide previews of the summertime experience that can have a positive impact on campers. For more information or to pre-register for any of the scheduled fairs, visit newyorkfamilycamps.com. (Those who pre-register will not only receive a gift bag at the fair but will also qualify to participate in a raffle that includes a chance to win a Camp Trunk from Lesters or the grand prize of a family trip).

Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011
Upper West Side
Ethical Culture Fieldston School
33 Central Park West (betw. 63rd & 64th Sts.)

Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012
Upper East Side
St. Jean Baptiste School
173 E. 75th St. (betw. 3rd Ave. & Lexington Aves.)

Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012
Downtown
Grace Church School
86 4th Ave. (betw. 10th & 11th Sts.)

Dance performances were taking place on the World Trade
Center Plaza during the week when the terror attacks occurred, and the Evening
Stars series was scheduled to present Parsons’ company on the 11th. As it
turned out, the performance by Twyla Tharp Dance on Sept. 8 turned out to be
the last one to take place before the towers fell.

Choreographers, so many of whom live and work in lower
Manhattan, have reacted to the fateful day’s events often and with varying
approaches. Some created works as specific memorials and tributes. Mark Morris’ V and Paul Taylor’s Promethean Fire—eloquent masterworks that premiered soon after the events—though abstract and in no way specifically linked to September 11, emerged as inspiring, hopeful responses to the tragedy.

On this anniversary, the first dance event will coincide
with the time when the first plane struck the World Trade Center. Jacqulyn
Buglisi’s Table of Silence Project will offer a ceremonial, spare procession by 100 dancers in white who will form a peace labyrinth encircling the Lincoln Center fountain. It will begin at 8:20 a.m. and culminate at 8:46 with the mass of dancers raising their outstretched arms in a gesture of universal peace.

Buglisi intends the piece as a way of opening this somber
day with a prayer. The 100 dancers represent many nations and a wide variety of backgrounds and dance experience.

“I hope the Table of Silence Project provides hope and global understanding. It’s not really a dance, but an expression of our humanity in a universal language,” she said recently after rehearsing 70 of the dancers at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

As waves of dancers moved through grounded, cyclical phrases, she emphasized the importance of breathing and the specific force and intention of each step. Those participating include her own company members as well as students from Juilliard, Martha Graham Center, the Ailey School, National Dance Institute, Ballet Hispanico, STEPS on Broadway and Peridance Capezio Center.

Sarah Skaggs’ 9/11 Dance%u2015A Roving Memorial, performed by 20 dancers (including herself), will migrate through lower Manhattan with performances in three parks during the afternoon. For this occasion, Skaggs has broadened Dances for Airports, a solo, into a group piece that will also be
performed the same day at three sites in Washington, D.C., and also in
Shanksville, Penn., at the memorial park on the site where Flight 93 went down.

The original solo was something Skaggs began shortly after
the attacks. She lived 20 blocks from the World Trade Center.

“What are we supposed to do after something like that: go back into studio, isolate ourselves and continue with our work as if nothing had happened?” she says. “It changed what the function of dance was, for me. Without being a didactic, political piece of art, could it have another focus? I started to reassess what was the function and meaning of dance. Was it really this ecstatic thing in the body? I started by standing still in the studio, and one of my dancers handed me Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, and I began to make a solo that was really slow and reflective and tapped a new kind of dance vocabulary for me.

“I had a eureka moment in May where I thought, I have to
teach this—I can’t just do this dance by myself in rarefied concert form; I
have to go teach this dance to all kinds of dancers. We’re going to walk around
on 9/11 with this material as a movement choir. I called it an inverse flash
mob in the beginning, but that was confusing people. It’s a meditative,
reflective dance that infuses the public’s fear with the body in a beautiful,
flowing way. At these outdoor performances, the piece will be be embedded in
the park itself, so we’re among the people milling around. It begins very much
guerilla style; you don’t know that it’s actually started, but you figure out
something is happening.”

The performances of Skaggs’ 11-minute work will take place
at noon in Union Square Park, at 1 p.m. in Washington Square Park and 2 p.m. in Battery Park, at the north end of each park.

The day’s final dance event takes place in Rockefeller Park,
located at the northern end of Battery Park City. The Joyce Theater Foundation
is presenting this evening of dance and music on both Sept. 10 and 11 at 5 p.m.
The Limón Dance Company will perform Jose Limón’s Missa Brevis and the Paul Taylor Company will perform Brandenburgs. Matthew Rushing of the Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theatre will dance Ailey’ A Song for You, while Ailey dancer Jamar Roberts will appear in a new work by Jessica
Lang commissioned by the Joyce for this occasion. The Voices of Ascension and
the Orchestra of St. Luke’s will provide music.