Tag: 9159

Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: N’Kenge and Prince Mario-Max to Co-Host Star-Studded Viva Italia Masquerade Gala in NYC

New York’s cultural calendar has a new crown jewel. On June 12, 2026, the N’Kenge Foundation presents the Viva Italia Masquerade Gala — an evening of artistry, philanthropy, and celebration co-hosted by acclaimed artist N’Kenge and H.H. Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe.

The gala supports the foundation’s mission of educating, inspiring, and uplifting young artists, and the lineup reflects that ambition at every level: Broadway stars, television favorites, opera singers, honorees from the worlds of education and entertainment, and a national talent competition — all wrapped in the elegance of a Venetian-style masquerade.

A Lineup Across the Arts

The evening’s performers and guests span the performing arts world. Michael James Scott — beloved as the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway — brings theatrical star power, while Hisham Tawfiq, known to millions from NBC’s The Blacklist, adds television prestige.

Opera is beautifully represented by Grammy-nominated singer Kenneithia M. Mitchell and Metropolitan Opera artist Jahzara Martina. Broadway’s Thayne Jasperson of Hamilton fame joins the celebration, as does Yoann FreeJay, winner of The Voice France, underscoring the gala’s international reach.

Honoring Excellence, Launching Futures

The evening honors Rain Pryor — celebrated for Head of the Class and her wider contributions to the arts — alongside Antoinette Quarshie, Dean of Riverdale Country School, recognized for her leadership in arts education. Peter Avery of New York City Public Schools will also be part of the festivities, highlighting the gala’s commitment to youth mentorship.

One of the night’s most anticipated moments is the Showstopper Competition, a national showcase for exceptional emerging performers. Mia Sanchez, the 2025 Showstopper winner and American Idol standout, embodies exactly the kind of artistic journey the foundation exists to support.

A silent and live auction will drive the evening’s fundraising, fueling educational programs that give talented young people real pathways into the arts. With N’Kenge and Prince Mario-Max leading a lineup that bridges Broadway, television, opera, and education, the Viva Italia Masquerade Gala is set to be one of the season’s defining nights — where masks, music, and mission come together beautifully.

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Originally published on Times Square Chronicles.

Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: Opinion: Buy the Ticket — Support the Arts, Sharpen Life

Walk out of a great show and you carry more than a ticket stub. You carry new language, sharper curiosity, a wider sense of what life can become. That is the conviction behind H.H. Dr. Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe’s call to support the arts — not as charity, but as one of the soundest investments a person and a community can make.

Attention is the scarce resource

We live in a culture that rewards speed. A performance demands the opposite: sit still, listen closely, watch carefully, consider lives beyond your own. That sustained attention is where imagination starts — and imagination, more often than we admit, is where leadership starts too.

Success rarely comes from technical skill alone. Confidence, communication, empathy, timing, taste, the ability to see possibility before others do — these are the qualities that separate routine careers from remarkable ones. The arts train them quietly. A person who watches performers shape ideas, move audiences, and express emotion with precision absorbs lessons no seminar teaches.

A classroom without desks

Think of what a single production contains: years of craft in every performer, teamwork across lighting, costume, direction, and sound, the visible result of practice and resilience. For a young person, one evening in a theater can plant a dream — or teach, by example, that presentation and storytelling are instruments of influence. For adults, cultural life refreshes the mind and returns you to work with renewed energy. In professional life, creativity is so often the difference between competent and original.

It is also an economy

Behind every show stand actors, musicians, dancers, writers, technicians, designers, ushers, educators, producers, and venue workers. Every ticket purchased sustains real livelihoods, training, mentorship, and opportunity. Supporting the arts means supporting work.

And it means supporting the places that hold communities together. A theater, gallery, or concert hall can become a civic landmark — somewhere residents gather, celebrate, and take part in something larger than themselves. Towns with active cultural life tend to feel more confident in their identity, and that confidence compounds.

Make it a habit

The Prince’s message is simple and deliberately optimistic: make attendance a habit. Bring friends. Bring family. Treat performers as contributors to public life, because they are. Culture is not an accessory to a successful society — it is part of the foundation, teaching people to dream with structure, feel with intelligence, and succeed with humanity.

A richer cultural life builds richer human lives. That belief, championed here, is both timely and built to last.

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Originally published on Times Square Chronicles.