Jeremiah Bornfield (Composer) writes classical concert music and scores for film. His concert works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Taipei National Theater, with commissions from the St. Petersburg String Quartet, the KU Symphonic Orchestra, and the Gregg Smith Singers. He studied composition at Hunter College and chamber writing with Conrad Cummings at Juilliard. In 2019 Suzie Schuyler entrusted him with creating the first edition of Sound Economics.
jeremiahbornfield.com
The Henry George School presents
Sound
Economics
Third Edition
In memory of Suzie Schuyler
World premiere of October Leaves
by Jeremiah Bornfield, performed by INTERWOVEN
Remembering Suzie
Suzie Schuyler
President of the Henry George School of Social Science
Suzie was born into a family of Georgists. Both of her parents were involved with the Henry George School, taking part in its management and direction. She carried that commitment forward. She began her working life as head of the foreign languages department in public and private schools, then spent her career as an advertising sales director for several national magazines and their websites.
“Her passion for education, her generosity of spirit, and her unwavering commitment to the Henry George School of Social Science inspired all who had the privilege of knowing and working alongside her.”
From the School's statement, March 2026
In 2019 she entrusted composer Jeremiah Bornfield with creating the first edition of Sound Economics. The Third Edition returns to that beginning, with a new work written in her memory.
Program
This edition is presented in memory of Suzie Schuyler, late President of the Henry George School of Social Science.
Jeremiah Bornfield
October Leaves
For Suzie Schuyler
INTERWOVEN
Keiko Tokunaga, violin and artistic director
*Written for this evening.
How this concert came to be
- Jeremiah Bornfield meets Suzie Schuyler at the Peggy Rockefeller Concerts, where he is presenting new music with the St. Petersburg String Quartet
- The Henry George School founds Sound Economics. Suzie entrusts Bornfield with creating the First Edition, with the Cramer Quartet
- Second Edition, an Earth Day evening of music, graffiti art, and economics
- Passing of Suzie Schuyler
- Third Edition, with an original composition. Bornfield returns, and INTERWOVEN premieres October Leaves
Composer Jeremiah Bornfield's October Leaves, receiving its premiere with INTERWOVEN under the artistic direction of GRAMMY Award-winning violinist Keiko Tokunaga, is a musical remembrance of Suzie Schuyler, the longtime President of the Henry George School of Social Science and a formative presence in Bornfield's artistic life.
Bornfield created the first edition of Sound Economics at the Henry George School and now returns for the third, this time in memory of Suzie. He first met Suzie in 2018 at the Peggy Rockefeller Concerts, where he was presenting new music with the St. Petersburg String Quartet. She later entrusted him with creating the first edition of the School's concert series, which brings musicians, artists, scholars, and audiences together to explore the connections between music, economics, and social thought.
In composing a work in her memory, he returned to the string quartet, the same intimate form that surrounded their first meeting.
October Leaves is both a personal memorial and an expression of gratitude for the faith she placed in an artist, and for the creative life that grew from that trust.
About the artists
Keiko Tokunaga (Violinist) won the 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance as a member of the Attacca Quartet, for Caroline Shaw's Orange. With the Attacca she took First Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and served as artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She holds three degrees from The Juilliard School, plays an 1845 Vuillaume, and founded INTERWOVEN in 2021.
keikotokunaga.comINTERWOVEN (Ensemble) was founded by Tokunaga to integrate the sounds of East and West, and of old and new. Since its 2021 debut at the DiMenna Center it has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, and Roulette in Brooklyn. Tokunaga and Bornfield were classmates, and he has written for her for 20 years. Under her direction, INTERWOVEN gives October Leaves its first performance.
interwovenmusic.orgThe evening
Friday, October 23, 2026
- When
- 6:30 PM
- Where
- Henry George School of Social Science
149 East 38th Street, New York, NY 10016
View map - Admission
- Open to the public. This is an in-person evening at the School; there is no online option. Reservations help us plan seating and refreshments.
- Reserve
- Email admin@hgsss.org with your name and the number of guests, or call the School at (212) 889-8020.
The series
What Sound Economics is
Sound Economics is the Henry George School's concert series. It brings musicians, artists, scholars, and audiences into the same room at 149 East 38th Street to hear how music and economic ideas speak to each other: a live quartet beside a talk on land, a song cycle beside a conversation about climate risk.
The Henry George School founded the series in 2019, and Suzie Schuyler, then the School's President, entrusted composer Jeremiah Bornfield with creating its first edition. Each edition has paired a performance with an exhibit or a discussion. Admission has always been open to the public, and the School's donors make the evenings possible.
Past editions
-
Second Edition · April 18, 2024
Celebrating Earth Day Through Art, Music, and Economics
Stephen Kennedy Murphy's adaptation of Schubert's song cycle The Miller's Daughter, with classical vignettes on the economics of climate risk. A graffiti exhibition by Bronx artist Tony Cruz. Discussion led by Dr. Willi Semmler, with closing remarks by Prof. Chris Horn on climate risk and future ethics.
-
First Edition · November 19, 2019
Motives in Musical Economics
Jeremiah Bornfield introduced the Cramer Quartet, founded by violinist Jessica Park, as artists in residence for the inaugural season: a program of Haydn alongside lecture-concerts on the economics of music, the first time the School's ground floor was set for a quartet.
Support the series
Sound Economics is presented by the Henry George School of Social Science, a nonprofit chartered by the University of the State of New York. Gifts in Suzie's memory keep the series and the School's free economics education going.
Give in Suzie's memory