NYU Steinhardt Dean’s Council member and philanthropist Gale Drukier (BS ’72) has generously donated her treasured silver flute that she played as a student.
The Gale Drukier Flute will be added to a collection of musical instruments maintained by the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions (MPAP), where it will be offered to talented student musicians to use for practice and performances.
Ira Drukier, the Drukier's grandson Flint, Gale Drukier, Linda Mills, Cherrie Short, and Jack H. Knott.
At the age of 14, Drukier selected the flute from the Powell Studio in Boston. With it, she went on to become the top-ranking flutist in Massachusetts as a teenager. When she became a student at NYU Steinhardt, she auditioned for the NYU Orchestra and was named the first-chair flutist, even though she was not a flute major.
“This flute is very special to me and my NYU experience,” says Drukier. “The significance of this gift is to bring back and share with future generations of NYU students the joy the flute brought me as a student. I hope the Gale Drukier Flute will be well loved again, and I hope NYU students, especially recipients of the Gale and Ira Drukier Scholarship for Flute Players, will appreciate and flourish from the instrument.”
After graduating from Steinhardt with her undergraduate degree in speech pathology and audiology, Drukier went on to receive her doctorate degree in audiology from Teachers College at Columbia University and served as a tenured professor in the field of audiology at Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey). When she retired from teaching, she joined her family's business, BD Hotels, where she managed properties on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Meghan Bennett playing with the Gale Drukier Flute.
In addition to the Steinhardt Dean’s Council, Drukier is also a member of the NYU Board of Trustees, where she is on the Academic Affairs Committee after serving as committee chair for several years. Much of Drukier’s philanthropy centers on University programs, medicine, and the arts. At NYU Steinhardt, she has endowed the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean and the Gale and Ira Drukier Scholarship for Flute Players.
“We are honored to have the Gale Drukier Flute once again bringing the joy of music to NYU Steinhardt,” said Jack H. Knott, Gale and Ira Drukier Dean. “We are deeply grateful to Gale for this special gift which will be treasured by generations of woodwind students in the years to come.”
Meghan Bennett, music assistant professor and the new director of woodwind studies, performed with the Gale Drukier Flute at a special instrumental performance at the Paulson Center on October 26.
