Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but for hundreds of New York City schoolchildren and their families, the Queens-born singer left his mark as a benefactor who put his time, celebrity and resources into bolstering arts education.
Bennett died on Friday morning in New York City, and representatives from the education community are singing his praises.
Bennett and his wife, Susan Benedetto, a former public school teacher, partnered with the education department and founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts high school in Astoria, Queens in 2001. The couple raised tens of millions of dollars for the school. Bennett often attended graduation ceremonies and in 2014, he surprised students by offering a master class with Lady Gaga.
Bennett recounted to ABC7 in 2009 that he named the school for Sinatra because that iconic artist once told Life magazine that Bennett was his favorite singer.
“I’ve never gotten over that,” Bennett said.
The school is located close to Kaufman Astoria Studios in Astoria, where Bennett grew up, and serves more than 800 students.
“We are saddened to hear of the passing of our beloved founder, the great Tony Bennett,” Principal Gideon Frankel wrote in a letter to the school community. “He loved the arts but loved people more and that was shown through his tenacity and commitment to creating and building a public arts high school for New York City students. His passion for the arts was unbridled and he wanted to be certain his legacy was for young people to have an opportunity to learn and share their art with the world.”
The Sinatra school is highly regarded by the education community.
“I love the school,” said Joanna Cohen, a public school principal whose daughter is a student at Sinatra. “It’s a place where I feel like kids can be who they are and be accepted for who they are. The teachers know the kids very deeply.”
Cohen says the arts programming at Sinatra is “top notch.”
Bennett and Benedetto also…
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