Strings News and Notes, May 2010

Violinists Take the Stage

Congratulations to the 20 violin students who participated in the annual Kids in Concert program last week! It was a musical treat to see the district’s more than 100 musicians show off their talents. The strings students appeared poised, practiced and polished, and sounded terrific. Bravo musicians! And hats off to the district’s music teachers who worked so hard to make it happen.

Just minutes before the violinists entered the performance area, DoraThea Kastanas, Mohawk High School’s music director, shook hands with David Tasgal and nearby parents welcoming our ensemble to the school. She said she was very excited to have the strings players performing along with the elementary school bands and looked forward to seeing them at the middle and high school levels as the children advanced in years and musical abilities. It was great to have the program acknowledged and the students encouraged in this way.

Strings Program To Operate Strictly Through Fundraising Efforts

After a very successful, extremely productive year of music-making fun for 22 students, the strings program finds itself poised at a new beginning. Since 2001 the program has asked parents who could afford it to pay a sliding scale fee for weekly lessons with David Tasgal. Children whose families could not afford the program were offered a full scholarship. All program costs were supplemented by grants and the fundraising efforts of parents and volunteers.

Although this has been a successful way of doing business (we’ve always ended the year in the black), it has also been a rather irregular system, as students are typically not charged for enrichment programs offered during the public school day. Because of this, next year will be different.

Beginning in September 2010, children will be able to take violin (and cello) lessons for free. The only outright cost to families will be the rental or purchase of an instrument. However, the district will not be funding the program. All costs will be paid through the fundraising parents do.

As advocates for the many ways the strings program advances young players, we are pleased to offer this new “free” system to the community. As hardworking volunteers, we are a little nervous: This restructuring of the program means we’ll all need to step up our fundraising efforts to keep the program vital. In September we hope to add more students to the list of violinists. Likewise, we plan to hold a meeting inviting new volunteers to help us in our grant-writing and fundraising endeavors. Our hope is to have at least one parent from each class actively involved. As older students graduate — taking their parents with them — new students and parents will be needed to maintain the integrity and growth of the program.

Planning with the PTP’s already busy fundraising schedule in mind, we’d like to establish one or more fundraising traditions that will help keep the program fully operating — perhaps fun music and dancing events that invite the larger West County community to Heath. We look forward to your ideas!

Next Week: Musical Pizza (and Cookies)

A first step toward restructuring will be evident next week when all Heath students (not just those currently in the program) will be coming home with a pizza fundraiser packet. All students will be invited to sell delicious, organic pizzas and cookie dough made locally by Hillside Pizza in South Deerfield. This will be a two-week long fundraising campaign with orders due on May 28th, and pizzas and cookie dough delivered June 4th to baseball-weary and graduation-frenzied families. Look for the packet in your child’s backpack next Monday.

If you have questions about the program restructuring or pizza fundraiser, please feel free to call Rebekah (625-6260) or Phoebe (625-9883). As always, we’re happy to talk violins with anybody and everybody!

Our program has grown in numbers over the years and we are currently evolving at a rapid rate. It’s an exciting time to be involved! To all of those who have contributed time, tempo, money, car seats, and words of encouragement this year, we thank you for your invaluable support.

The Strings Leadership Team Rebekah Boyd-Owens, Phoebe Walker, Jorie MacLeod, Anne Marie Mislak