Dalia Sakas   (interview 1999 photo 1999)

   Dalia discovered the "Hudson Heights" area through friends who already resided there and who had nothing but good things to say about it. In 1997, she purchased a one-bedroom apartment there in a pre-war building. It has a windowed dining area and an ample foyer. Priced out of the Upper West Side market, she had searched in Brooklyn, near the Brooklyn Museum, as well as in Hudson Heights. She needed an apartment with a big living room for entertaining and a space that could contain sound well, as she is a musician.

   Dalia has recently earned her doctorate in Musical Arts. She is an adjunct professor of piano at William Patterson University. and is the director of the choral program at The Lighthouse Music School, which teaches the visually impaired. Additionally, she gives private lessons for children and hopes to get more students from the neighborhood.

   "One of the things that appealed to me most about this neighborhood was, I think it takes you back to another era. An era where there were many artists and writers and musicians, living in close proximity to one another down in the Village . . . you know, the earlier part of the century where you step out your door and you run into someone. A compatriot. Someone you could soul search with, commiserate with, discuss, be inspired by -- and this neighborhood affords that . . . leads to that. I wanted a place that was comfortable so that I could invite my friends here. As a musician, you just can't play your program one time. You have to play it fifteen times (laughs). So you need to have a big audience to choose from . . . fifteen different rehearsals! I have other friends who like to perform. When we get together we always sing and play.

   "There is no other place in New York that I know of where I can walk out my front door and be back inside my apartment in fifteen minutes, having accomplished every errand that I needed to do. I once moved my car and got a haircut, all in the space of fifteen minutes. The little shops around here offer everything. You don't have to get in your car, you don't have to walk two or three blocks and bump into a million people, like you do on Broadway on the Upper West Side."

   For transportation, Dalia uses the subway, as well as the M-98 express bus to 34th Street, which runs weekdays from 6:00 - 9:30 a.m. and from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m.