Testimonials

Back in New York, I settled in to work on skills ... voice and acting. Another actress sent me to a tough, canny, and loving teacher, Gerard Russak, who became the director for Response Time.. - Judith Rock, minister-dancer-cop-writer-actress, from "The Grace is in the Transitions" (Image,, a Journal of the Arts & Religion, Winter 1997)

Jerry is one of those rare teachers who with much passion, patience, and compassion made it safe for me to be real, who saw my talent when I couldn't see it, and who opened the door to the big, beautiful sound hiding inside me. - Barbara Baumgarten Ph.D. former Broadway actor, now psychotherapist

The Russaks invented me as a singer. They took a painfully immature english girl—passionate, yet entirely without direction—and set in motion the momentous process of turning her into an expressive singer, a woman, and later an insightful performance coach and devoted advocate for the vocal arts. The warmth and supreme intelligence of their teaching and coaching on a daily basis in my early development was that rare gift more usually associated with a bygone era. The combination of private lessons and the invaluable bi-weekly performance classes trained my novice ear with impeccable musical taste on the grandest of scales, while creating—out of virtually nothing—an instrument with which to sing my heart out. Suffice to say Jerry and Jean gave me the tools to live a wonderfully fulfilling life in the international music world—from Vienna to San Francisco—culminating now in creating LIEDER ALIVE! This ground-breaking program in the teaching of German Lieder was recently inaugurated by Thomas Hampson. Marilyn Horne will teach in June 2009, and Thomas Quasthoff and Christa Ludwig are considering following suit. This is who a lifelong student of the Russak Studio hires to help keep Lieder on the map! - MAXINE BERNSTEIN, program director

Two of the most wonderful people I know, Gerard (Jerry) and Jean Russak, are exceptional voice & piano teachers on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I have studied voice with Jerry and know, first hand, how transformative his teachings can be. If you know anyone looking to study VOICE or PIANO in NYC, please direct them to the Russak Studio. - Sherry Sadoff Hanck