Jennifer Eley Handler, the prize-winning concert pianist and principal keyboard artist of the Long Island Philharmonic who, as a teacher of both piano and cello, instilled the love of music in scores of Great Neck children, died on June 2, 2006 at her family's estate, "The Point", in Kings Point. She was 44.

Ms. Eley-Handler, who performed under her maiden name, Jennifer Eley, frequently performed at Long Island's Tilles Center with the Long Island Philharmonic. In March of 2004 she was a featured soloist in the Philharmonic's performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto.

A child prodigy, at the age of 10, Ms. Eley appeared as a soloist in the Music Festival of Salnika, Greece. Thereafter she appeared as a soloist with the Mexican State Orchestra in a series of televised broadcasts over Mexican State Television. Her first performance with the New York Philharmonic was at the age of 16 when she was chosen through competitive auditions to solo with the orchestra for a Young People's Concert in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. She went on to win the National Prokofiev Concerto Competition in Youngstown, OH. She was also a prize winner in the International D'Angelo Young Artists Competition in Erie, PA (1983) and went on to capture second medal at the 1988 International Piano Competition of Porto, Portugal where she was the only American to pass the qualifying competitions. Other prizes included the highly coveted Anne and Aaron Richmond Prize in Boston.

She performed as the featured soloist with the orchestras of St. Louis and Buffalo, the Boston pops, the Bordeaux Orchestra (France), the Duluth-Superior Symphony, and the Greater Palm Beach Orchestra, among many others.

One of her hallmarks as a performer was her unfailing accuracy and precision. Music reviewer Jonas Kover, in critiquing a performance of Ms. Eley-Handler with the Utica Symphony, observed that "she performed with an exactness and speed that kept the audience glued to her every move." Her performance of Ravel's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra elicited the further observation that "...the deft swiftness of Eley's piano during the first section...ended in dazzling pyrotechnics." With her exact crisp style she won over such critics as Robert Sherman of WQXR Radio who called hers "a blazing performance." In reviewing a recital performance staged at the Flagler Museum by the Greater Palm Beach Symphony, music critic Herbert Perez-Vidal opined that, in performing Beethoven's Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 - Waldstein, "precision prevailed in the entire work...simultaneous trills in both hands and steadily repeated octaves in the left hand provided ample testimony to Eley's skill. She lent a porcelain-doll delicacy to the melody in the upper register while maintaining a perfect balance in the lower levels...Eley hurled into the final movement to end the piece brilliantly, at times sounding like rolling thunder."

The late Christopher Keene, General Director Designate of the NY City Opera and former Conductor of the Long Island Philharmonic, had invited her repeatedly to perform at ARTPARK in Buffalo where she performed the concertos of Tchaikowsky and Gershwin. At that time Mr. Keene stated that, "on each occasion she played with brilliance and distinction, arousing the admiration of her colleagues and the public alike."

Ms. Eley-Handler worked with the English Chamber Orchestra in making the world premier recording of the reconstructed Concerto for Piano in E Minor by Felix Mendelssohn, which was recorded in 1994 in the Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead, England which was specially selected due to its acoustics. The piece had lain dormant from the time Mendelssohn abandoned it in 1844 until it was uncovered by Duke University professor R. Larry Todd in the late 1970's. The CD also includes her playing other selections including works by Robert and Cara Schumann and Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn.

Known as a fun-loving individual with a great sense of humor, she once surprised a packed Tilles Center audience when, as an encore to her appearance playing the Beethoven Choral Fantasy, instead of returning to the piano, she was given the baton by conductor David Wiley and, switching places with the conductor himself, she then conducted the orchestra in a reprise of the finale. David Wiley, music director of the Philharmonic said, "Hers was a rare and special gift - an artist of supreme talents and warm personal communication. I and we in the Long Island Philharmonic treasured each opportunity to work and make music with her. She will be sorely missed."

An unusual component among the throngs attending her funeral was the large number of young people from Great Neck and other communities of Long Island. She affected and significantly influenced many Long Island children and young people due to another major dimension of her life in music: her private teaching. She gave private lessons in piano and in the cello which she also played at a professional level. Her performance as a cellist in the recording made by a well known rock band further endeared her to her younger students. But far more than a mastery of the particular musical instrument was learned by students at her Great Neck studio; an extraordinary and long lasting relationship between student and teacher evolved affecting the student in many meaningful, sometimes life-changing ways.

"I felt like I lost a family member," said student Nicholas McClean, a 10th-grader who regularly traveled from Dix Hills to Great Neck. The experience of Fran Morris, a student at Great Neck South Senior High School, is also representative. He had previously had four cello teachers in one year. "Of everyone I've ever studied with, she was the most fun," Fran Morris said, who had taken cello lessons with Ms. Eley-Handler since 2002. "I've had teachers who knew only etudes and scales that didn't have any soul but she always explained the emotion behind the music; it mattered more to her that I enjoyed the music I was playing and from that joy came a higher level of performance and mastery. She was fun and always had stories," observed Morris. "She was full of stories all the time."

Typical of the manner in and extent to which Eley-Handler changed her students' lives is the story told by cello student Fran Morris. "One of my friends was kind of spoiled and preoccupied with the superficial and very materialistic and had long nails. When she came for cello lessons, Jennifer told her to cut her nails. She started crying." Morris recalled. "She cut the girl's nails anyway, and she tells me to this day that she hasn't grown them back because she realizes it isn't important," he said.

Jennifer Eley was a native of Great Neck, having been born at Long Island Jewish Hospital to Jean and Lewis Eley, both professional violinists who performed on national television as members of the Fred Waring Orchestra and were founding members of the Long Island Philharmonic. Her sister, Karen, is an international prize-wining violinist.

She grew up in Great Neck, first living in Thomaston and attending the Kensington-Johnson elementary school and Great Neck South Middle School. The family then moved to the Kennilworth area of Kings Point and she attended North Senior High School. With a home life that instilled a steely commitment to music, Ms. Eley practiced for hours each day, and, at age 13, began attending Julliard while continuing to take part in some of the most well-known piano competitions one of which awarded her a scholarship to study in France and perform with the Bordeaux Symphony.

She went on to earn a bachelor's and a master's degree from Julliard, under the tutelage of Jane Carlson and Martin Canin; the latter performing a musical tribute to her as part of the funeral services. She won a scholarship based on merit to the doctoral program at Boston University, where she studied under Anthony di Bonaventura. In 1990 she gave her debut solo concert at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.

In 1991 she married John Handler. Their home, "The Point", located at the northern most tip of the Great Neck peninsula, is thought by many to have been the setting for Jay Gatsby's house in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. Eley-Handler was also highly athletic and was sometimes seen riding horses with members of her family down Kings Point Road. She was also a member of the Steppingstone Sailing Club and a fierce opponent when playing ping-pong or croquet. Surrounded by water, large trees, horses and botanical gardens, she and her husband opened their home to scores of friends, students and family members for twice-yearly musical recitals. She had been scheduled to receive honors later in June for performing a highly successful benefit recital which raised money for the fight against breast cancer. Ms. Eley Handler is survived by her husband, F. John Handler, an attorney, and two daughters, Emma, 9, and Olivia, 12. She is also survived by a sister, Karen Eley Galvez and brother-in law Jimmy Galvez, residents of Great Neck and her mother-in-law Marjorie B. Kern, a noted herbalist and lecturer at the New York Botanical Gardens.

The funeral took place on June 6 at the Church of Our Saviour in Manhasset with over 400 in attendance, including many of her students and their families. Internment was at All Saints Cemetery in Great Neck.