Jan Constantine
Co-Chair; Chorus Member
My name is Jan Constantine. I joined MasterVoices (MV) in the fall of 2016 after attending a fantastic performance of Dido and Aeneas at New York City Center with a gentle push from Lisa Rubin, a longtime singing member and MV board member. Paula Mermelstein, my good friend and a fellow thespian from Congregation Rodeph Sholom’s community theatre productions was a new singing member of MV and reinforced my decision to join the chorus. I auditioned for Julie and Ted in the summer of 2016. I joined the awesome Alto 2 section where another friend, Sybil Pollet, welcomed me with open arms to the MV family.
In my first season with MV I performed in the opera 27 at New York City Center, then in St. John’s Passion and Babes in Toyland at Carnegie Hall where I was cast as one of the widows in Toyland with a few lines. I was totally and irrevocably hooked by MV when I first looked out from the Carnegie Hall stage at the audience and pinched myself to see if this was just a dream.
Since then, I have joined the MV Singers Council, the MV Board of Directors and in November 2022, I was elected to serve as the MV Board’s co-chair along with Juliana Chen. From the beginning of my association with MV, I have been passionate about the organization and have looked for ways to show my appreciation for all the joy and fulfillment it has provided to me these past few years.
During most of my 45-plus years as an attorney, I participated in a tax-deferred retirement plan (such as a 401 (k), or an IRA) with my various employers allowing me to postpone paying taxes on plan contributions and investment earnings. When I turned 70, my plan adviser explained to me that, according to the IRS, I would have to withdraw a required minimum distribution (RMD) each year going forward or pay a significant tax on the amount not distributed. Since then I have directed that my RMD be transferred in designated monetary amounts to charitable organizations of my choosing, so that all donations would not be treated as taxable income to me. (MasterVoices is a tax-exempt charitable organization described in section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.)
Since joining the MV family, I have gifted a significant percentage of my RMD to MV. It is simple to do and the impact of the recurring gifts makes a difference to MV which has no endowment and relies on major donors, corporations and government funds to continue to provide exceptional performances ” … to bring the joy of choral singing, the art of musical storytelling, and the power of the human voice” (MV Mission statement) to an ever-expanding audience.
To sum up, thanks to the Charitable Rollover provision of the tax code, you too can rollover your tax-deferred plan contributions and earnings to MasterVoices and pay no taxes on the amount of the gift. All it takes is a phone call to your account administrator, filling out a short form designating MV as a beneficiary of your RMD and indicating a specific dollar amount or a percentage of the RMD as the amount of the gift or donation. You need only sign and return the form to your administrator who will then send your gift directly to MasterVoices with an acknowledgement that it comes from you. You, as the donor, will not have to pay any taxes if your RMD was completely “rolled-over” to MasterVoices or other charitable organizations. More importantly, you will be helping to support MasterVoices and enable Ted to bring artistic excellence to a broader audience and joy and fulfilment to other generations of singers long into the future.
