Sheffer was born in the Bronx, grew up in Greenwich Village and attended Brooklyn College.

He paid in cash with a bill from his wallet. Almost miraculously he secured a 30-year mortgage for $10 down. Wanting to be inclusive, he also enlisted Jessica Beels, a 16-year-old high school student. Sheffer recruited foundation support and signed up board members, among them Schuyler Chapin, dean of Columbia University’s School of Fine Arts and the flutist Eugenia Zukerman. The Thalia would later be incorporated into Symphony Space. The lower portion of the building had once been the Sunken Gardens restaurant and in more recent years the Thalia Theater, which showed art movies. Sheffer lent a hand, walking the neighborhood to collect it mainly in $5 donations. The owner said he would rent it to these fledgling impresarios for $300, and Ms. The first offering was a 12-hour free marathon of music called 'Wall to Wall Bach.' According to the NY Times' obituary: Sheffer and Allan Miller opened Symphony Space on January 9, 1978, in an old ice skating rink and movie theater at Broadway and 95th Street.

, the Upper West Side cultural institution, announced on Friday that its co-founder and founding artistic director Isaiah Sheffer passed away, 'Whether you knew Isaiah intimately, or simply as that warm resonating voice from the radio on Selected Shorts, everyone can agree that we lost a special soul who will be dearly missed by all.'

Symphony space short stories