Marvin Hamlisch and Lily Safra | ISEF
Piano Man Gets Lucky
Doing A Good Deed Story and Photos by Tim Boxer  ARLY on Marvin Hamlisch learned a valuable lesson that served him well in life. It happened when he worked as rehearsal pianist for Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl four decades ago.
One Saturday night he got a call from someone who needed a piano player at a party that night. Marvin didn’t feel like running out on a minute’s notice. But he knew others who were desperate for jobs. "I’ll try to get someone for you," Marvin said. "By the way, who’s it for?" It was for Sam Spiegel, the famed producer of Lawrence of Arabia and On the Waterfront. "Oh," Marvin said. "I’ll be right there." As a result he got to do the music for Spiegel’s next film, The Swimmer, Marvin said at the ISEF Foundation gala at the Mandarin Oriental New York. Marvin assisted ISEF president Nina Weiner and benefit co-chairs Yvonne and Abraham Cohen, Alexandra and Daniel Roubeni, and Katrin and Tony Sosnick in honoring founder Lily Safra. In its 30 years, Safra said, ISEF has awarded more than 16,000 college scholarships to needy youth in Israel. | 
