Steady Beat 2008-2009 Annual Report Our Year-End Message to Our Friends Roy E. King, Jr. Henry Miyamura Selena Ching President Music Director Executive Director Steady Beat: It’s not the most exciting part of playing music but it’s crucial to a well performed piece; a fundamental building block of music. And it was our mantra through‐ out the 2008‐2009 year. With economic woes hitting every sector of support for our organiza‐ tion, our main goal was to hold the line and stay a steady course. From the governance level to the front lines, everyone at HYS pulled together to keep the beat, avoiding layoffs and program cuts. Shifts were made in the way we approached our work and we focused on our business practices to ensure we would weather the financial storm. We took modest steps to maintain programmatic momentum, but we were cautious about pursuing overly aggressive goals that could throw off the beat. The end result was a year of sound financial health, moderate program growth and sensible forward movement. In a healthier economy, we would have gone to greater lengths to expand programming and create more accessibility. However, given the climate in which we were op‐ erating, we believe HYS’s deliberate strategy of careful, reserved steps forward—avoiding the loss of any ground—to be a great success for fiscal year 2009. Our music programs continued their boom, showing no decline in demand. We offered services to 505 students, ages 6‐18 years, from 108 schools on Kauai, Oahu, Maui and the Big Island. The numbers are fewer than last year because of a one‐year hiatus of our Pacific Music Institute, HYS’s summer intensive course, which usually serves 115 students statewide. Our Symphony Program ran with our three, full, 90‐plus member orchestras. It also hosted our free Chamber Music Program for 35 students from 13 schools. The three symphonies performed 18 concerts during the season. The chamber groups added two recitals to programming and also performed eight community service concerts at the State Capitol, memorial services for the Hon. Duke Bainum and Charles Cooke Spalding (the founder of the Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii), the Mayoral inauguration, and several retirement and recovery residences around town. Page 2 Hawaii Youth Symphony HYS debuted its first percussion chamber ensemble in FY09 Our outreach Listen & Learn educational concerts offered by our Symphony Program helped 10,700 students from 76 schools on Oahu and Maui meet their school arts standard. Eight concerts were offered at Blaisdell Concert Hall, Pearl City Cultural Center and Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Photo by Careen Arakaki We put a little more steam into the HYS Academy, our early‐ learning music institute at the Boys & Girls Club in McCully. We continued with our String Program serving absolute beginner to intermediate‐advanced players each Saturday morning during the regular season. Thanks to the receipt of TANF (Temporary Assis‐ tance for Needy Families) funds through the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, we were able to build out our Music in the Clubhouse program which includes a FREE Music4Kids general music class and a FREE beginning band class. These classes are our response to the growing need for accessible, basic music programs Music4Kids students perform on recorders. These free classes jeopardized by shrinking school budgets. meet two times per week at the Boys & Girls Club. We continued to provide the greatest access that we could to our programs, with the continuation of our financial assistance program which dis‐ tributed more than $23,000 in aid. Financial assis‐ tance reinforces our commitment that we will never turn a child away from our programs based on financial need. Jake Shimabukuro conducted a workshop for Music in the Our annual benefit, He Makana O Na Mele, Clubhouse students. welcomed one of our biggest blockbuster guests. We are proud to claim that the incredible and versatile Willie K made his true operatic debut with the Hawaii Youth Symphony. Seven hun‐ dred people witnessed an inspiring program of Willie K arias with our Youth Symphony I orchestra. More than $50,000 was raised that evening for our music programs. Where Hawaii’s Youth Make Exceptional Music Together Page 3 HYS took Willie and his talents on the road with us, performing three, free concerts at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Feb‐ ruary. The on‐going standing ovations from the 900 guests who attended Youth Symphony I and Willie’s community concert remind us of the extraordinary tal‐ ents of our islands, and what can be achieved when we work together. The orchestra and Willie also shared their music with 2,000 Maui children at two Listen & Learn educational concerts. HYS closed our season by graduating 54 seniors at our Aloha Concert Luncheon featuring the vocal talents and wit of the legendary Karen Keawehawaii. Among her Hawaiian favor‐ ites, Karen sang a haunting rendition of Misora Hibari’s Kawano Nagare No Youni. The day included a tribute to Saburo Watanabe, one of Hawaii’s greatest music educators, whose tireless efforts raised the value of our state’s school music programs. A creative way to keep our students thinking about music with minimal capital outlay was the establishment of our “Musicians must also unearth first essay contest. We know our HYS students are passion‐ their courage and find the ate about music and we want to hear what they are think‐ ing outside of our rehearsal halls. The contest invited all audacity to put themselves in students, no matter where they are seated or how long they front of an audience, not just have been playing an instrument, to express themselves on physically, but emotionally as paper. Winning entries are published in HYS’s newsletters with possibility for future publication. well. Performing can be likened to laying one’s soul bare to fellow human beings, open to scrutiny. Although playing an rn instrument is an unnatural, Lea man-made action, the music form reflects the performer’s genuine Per emotions and evokes in the audience an array of emotions. ” —Teresa Ou, YSI violin 2008 essay winner Grow Div I (grades 10‐12) Page 4 Hawaii Youth Symphony Finally, one of the strongest initiatives that surfaced from operating in a lean environment was the implementation of our PlayOut campaign. PlayOut, a concerted effort to reach out and play together, demonstrates HYS’s commitment to making ourselves better and more impactful to benefit our students and ensure the organization’s long‐term sustainability. PlayOut, adopted by our board and management team, encourages new ideas and think‐ ing beyond our individual organization. It calls for collaborative thinking and partnerships to reap greater rewards than what we can achieve alone, creating improved programming and cost benefits. It changes the way we look at ourselves, and we are incorporating it into our way of doing business. Thank you for being a part of our HYS family. Our 2008‐2009 year was an important one for us to assess what we do, and adjust to internal and external drivers to continue meeting our mis‐ sion. It is the silver lining in an era of difficult times. We look forward to keeping the beat in our communities, and even strengthening them through excellent music and the inspiration of our youth. These qualities do not dim during periods of economic difficulties but rather lead us to a beat that keeps us all together. Mahalo for your support. Roy E. King, Jr. Henry Miyamura Selena Ching President Music Director Executive Director Youth Symphony I performed with the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus at HYS’s Spring Concert. The two ensembles performed Paliuli, “The Romance of La‘ieikawai,” an original opera by Dr. Neil McKay Photo by Gary Arakaki Where Hawaii’s Youth Make Exceptional Music Together Page 5 2008-2009 Board of Directors & Staff BOARD OF DIRECTORS MUSIC STAFF ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Roy E. King, Jr. Henry Miyamura, Selena Ching President Music Director Executive Director Conductor Ann Doike Chris Yuen Youth Symphony I President‐Elect Programs Manager Founder & Artistic Director Pacific Music Institute Janet Morita Jill Shimokawa Higa Programs Associate Tina Lau Michael Nakasone Leslie Murata Conductor Meredith Prescott Vice Presidents Youth Symphony II Administration and Finance Manager Richard Ing Susan Ochi‐Onishi Secretary Conductor Kelly Shigeta Hannah Watanabe Special Projects Jean Tsukamoto Associate Conductor Treasurer Concert Orchestra Thomas Bingham Charlotte Fukumoto Krislyn Hashimoto String Program Coordinator Conductor Gladys Hirano Beginning String Ensemble Martin Hsia Daniel Momohara Chad Uyehara Alan Okami Conductor String Orchestra Ensemble Michael Onofrietti Concert String Orchestra Keith Sakamoto Summer String Program Marjorie Tanoue Helen Nguyen Conductor Intermediate String Ensemble Wayne Fanning Director Beginning Band Ruth Komatsu Instructor Music4Kids Board members Keith Sakamoto, Jean Tsukamoto, Roy King and Gladys Hirano help organize HYS’s food drive for the Hawaii Foodbank. HYS participated in the League of American Orchestras’s Orchestras Feeding America initiative. Page 6 Hawaii Youth Symphony Finance Beat for fiscal year ended June 30, 2009 Financial records have been independently audited by Gerald Y. Ushijima, CPA. A copy of the auditor’s report is available for viewing at the Hawaii Youth Symphony office: 1110 University Avenue, Suite 200, Honolulu, HI 96826-1508. Special Event REVENUES Sum m er (net) Other Income Programs 8% 1% Contributions $209,258 7% Registration Fees 145,705 Box Office & Contracts