WCPE Education Fund contributors, take pride this summer! You have made it possible for a North Carolina high school student who auditioned for a five-week masterclass with the Eastern Music Festival to afford this great opportunity. Students from around the world audition for the festival’s masterclasses held each year in Greensboro. The competition is steep and the reward is great. Music Director Gerard Schwarz works with every last one of these students and they take classes with noteworthy musicians who also come from all over the world.
With a fifty-year history of rich performances and educational opportunities, the festival is quite prestigious. What’s motivating is the knowledge that each of the world class musicians contracted for the festival willingly agrees to teach a student. The attention, guidance and professional leadership the students receive is what makes this arrangement so exciting! The WCPE Education Fund committee worked with the EMF staff to target one North Carolina student who auditioned well but would not be able to afford the tuition of $2,500. The total cost for the five week program is actually $5,275 (including room, board and other fees) and the EMF does not generally award full scholarships. They want to see that the student has been resourceful and showed a determination to make it. A valuable first lesson on their professional journey!
This summer, you also sponsored a young man to perform side by side with
the Brussels Chamber Orchestra during their summer festival in Cary, North
Carolina. The Cross Currents Chamber Music & Arts Festival is now in its
fourth year. This young timpanist is delighted be able to participate in
the workshops and perform side by side with the orchestra on several
numbers. Talented as he is, he would have easily been accepted into
several other full summer programs, but his family does not have the means
to send him, so this is the only summer enrichment he will be
receiving...and we hope it will be wonderful for him!
You have made the WCPE Education Fund the most popular Thank-You Gift, as of our Spring 2011 membership drive. What does that tell us? I’m sure it’s not that you undervalue coffee mugs. Seriously, we applaud your decision to improve the community through classical music education. I don’t need to remind you that the arts are continuously losing funding. Whether you are actively writing to your representatives, volunteering at your local arts council or contributing to the WCPE Education Fund it is up to us to foster an appreciation of the arts. We may never be able to quantify the benefits so when you are looking to explain the value of arts education look no further than your own life. How much richer it has been for the beauty, empathy and passion gained from our shared love of classical music!
This spring, the WCPE Education Fund announces its second dispensation- a gift in the amount of $2,500 to KidzNotes in Durham, North Carolina to help with their summer mission. Executive Director Katie Wyatt will make arrangements for the children in this program to attend summer camps and classes to prevent attrition. Summer is when the largest gaps begin to develop between children. If skill sets learned during he school year are not practiced over the summer, those skills may atrophy. We want to see the KidzNotes kids return strong and ready to achieve more in the fall. This donation will help with the practical costs associated with transporting the children to their summer learning grounds. To the first sixty children of KidzNotes, we offer our support, congratulations and giant round of applause. Encore!
To find out more about KidzNotes, please visit KidzNotes.org
During our Spring Membership Drive we will be asking for your contributions to the Education Fund. We have set a goal to raise funds enough to sponsor a North Carolina high school student to take masterclasses with a world class musician at the Eastern Music Festival. We will be working with the staff at Eastern Music Festival to identify a student who would not otherwise be able to cover tuition. The cost for tuition for one student is $2,226, but additional fees (including room and board, private lessons, and other general fees) bring the cost for each student to $5,275. Each member of the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra must agree to teach 2 students in masterclasses in order to be included in the Festival’s orchestra. These top-notch players come from all over the world. Students in the masterclass program also come from all over the world, passing rigorous auditions and a competitive application process. What’s even more exciting is that the five best overall students in the masterclass program will get to perform with the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra in their concerts!
More information: easternmusicfestival.org
We are also hoping to sponsor a student from the Community Music School for the Side-By-Side program at the Cross Currents Chamber Music Festival in Cary this July. The festival, now in its 5th year, is the summer project of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra and it includes many free and educational events. The student we hope to sponsor will receive masterclasses with a member of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra and will perform with the orchestra in their festival concerts. The cost per student is $400, and we are working to identify a strong student who would benefit from and enjoy this opportunity. Community Music School provides music lessons for $1 to students who qualify for Wake County's Free and Reduced Lunch program.
More information about the Cross Currents Chamber Music Festival: brusselschamberorchestra.com/crosscurrentsfestival
More information about Community Music School: cmsraleigh.org
Stay Tuned: The WCPE Education Fund committee is interviewing to find our next project. We look forward to telling you more about it during our Spring Membership Drive!
Remember, we need YOUR help! Tell us about classical music educators in the community and we may be able to help them achieve more (as long as they are a non-profit organization). Thank you!
Sarah Hicks on the WCPE Education Fund.
For tickets, program notes, podcasts, the blog and more, visit the North Carolina Symphony Web site at www.ncsymphony.org. Call North Carolina Symphony Audience Services at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.
Dear friends,
If you joined us during the Fall Membership Drive, you know that the Education Fund committee has
been hard at work! We now have official guidelines in place, and we dispensed our first round of funds.
The decision to support the pilot year of the North Carolina Symphony’s educational concerts for
middle- and high-school students is one that makes us proud. We hear from so many listeners telling
us that their childhood trips to the symphony were monumental. Some of those listeners went on to
play instruments themselves, while others waited until adulthood to revisit the magic of classical music.
Then, that process of rediscovery is a beautiful one because we remember how to open the doors of our
imagination. We find ourselves remembering how to listen, how to earnestly connect to our emotions,
and how to understand our innate yearning for harmony. Just think of what a helpful tool music can be
during the tumultuous teen years!
On September 28, 2010, the WCPE Education Fund committee awarded $2,500 to the North Carolina
Symphony to reduce or cover ticket prices for educational concerts for middle- and high-school students
who otherwise could not afford to attend the performances. NC Symphony Education Manager, Jessica
Nalbone, is working with teachers who enrolled their classes to attend concerts. Together, they will
target the students who need financial assistance to participate in this exciting field trip. What we love
most is the creativity involved in starting this trial run with no budget! The symphony piggybacked this
pilot year onto its (already educationally natured) Friday Favorites series, which will focus on art, dance,
and Shakespeare…in music.
Ms. Nalbone put out a statewide call for writers. From thousands of responses, she chose experts who
were eager to volunteer their time in support of this mission. In teams, they crafted lesson plans for
teachers to help prepare students and maximize the benefits of attending the concerts. We expect
to see some incredible cross-curriculum cooperation! In fact, we hope teachers open their doors and
invite cross-classroom cooperation. Already we have seen successful learning and development in this
program.
Thank you for helping WCPE reach this underserved age group and target the students who would
not have been able to partake in this monumental opportunity. We hope that this pilot year goes well
enough for middle- and high-school educational concerts to go solo and state-wide next year.
Here’s another piece of great news: the Education Fund facilitated the donation of a piano belonging
to a WCPE member. We covered the cost of moving the piano safely to its new home at the Holton
Center in Durham. The new El Sistema–based program KidzNotes will use this piano for their lessons
and performances. KidzNotes’ mission is to provide classical orchestral music training beginning
in the preschool years. As does the successful social program El Sistema, created by José Antonio
Abreu in Venezuela in 1975, KidzNotes aims to combat poverty, strengthen inner-city education, and
foster positive decision-making to unlock the world. Find out more about the program in Durham at
KidzNotes.org. We wish KidzNotes a successful first year!
The Education Fund committee welcomes your recommendations for classical music education
opportunities. Tell us what (and who!) works well in your community, or let us know about a project
that might need funding. With you acting as our eyes and ears, we will be better able to serve the
community. Together, we can make a difference!
Listen to Jessica Nalbone of the WCPE Education Fund give her personal thanks to all participants here! (MP3 Format)
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