Brabson Library And Educational Foundation Full Grant Proposal Form Thank you for your interest in the Brabson Library And Educational Foundation. Please return this Form to [email protected]. This is the template to be used for a grant application. Only after you have been assured by a member of the BLEF Board that you have passed the PreApplication level should you fill out this Full Grant Proposal Form. Unless you write like Gone With the Wind, your completed proposal should not be longer than five single-spaced pages. After the Foundation Board reviews your Proposal you will be notified of the results. Thank you. 0. DATE: April 4, 2013 1. INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION: Year established: 1972 Name of Organization: Opera Southwest Mailing Address: PO Box 27671 City/State/Zip: Albuquerque, NM 87125 Contact Person: Anthony Zancanella Telephone: 505-550-7941 Email: [email protected] 501(C)3 Organization: Yes ( X ) (The Foundation makes grants only to 501(C)3s.) Current total budget: $550,000 2. NAME OF YOUR PROJECT: Amleto (Hamlet) 3. SIZE OF REQUESTED GRANT: $20,000 in first year, $50,000 in second year. 4. PERIOD GRANT WILL COVER (Generally, 1 July to 30 Jun. How many years?): 1 July 2013 – November 2015. Two fiscal years. 5. WHAT IS THE BASIC PURPOSE OF YOUR ORGANIZATION? (A short summary including history and major accomplishments.) • Opera Southwest (OSW) is a professional regional opera company with a forty year history of producing opera in Albuquerque. • Our mission is to produce quality, professional, enjoyable and accessible opera in an intimate setting for audiences of all ages. • OSW produces 2 major operas in their original languages each season with three or four performances and at least one open dress rehearsal of each in an intimate 631-seat theatre, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. The scenery is designed and constructed in our own scene shop. Costumes are most often rented from other companies. • For many years, with the support of the BLEF, OSW has presented special educational programming. • The previous four seasons have been a time of tremendous artistic and organizational growth for the company – our annual budget has increased more than 25% over this period. Ticket sales have grown substantially, and with improved marketing, have become a more reliable source of revenue for the company (about 30% of operating income). Additionally, we have been able to hire more than 23 players from the defunct New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. 6. WHAT IS THE PROJECT TYPE? (You may check more than one category.) (x ) Arts (Creation) ( ) Arts (Education) ( ) Arts (Operating Support) ( ) Education (Creation) ( ) Education (Dissemination) ( ) Education (Operating Support) ( ) Other (Please specify _____________________________ ) 7. WHAT DOES YOUR PROJECT PLAN TO ACCOMPLISH? This project will present the first performance of the composer Franco Faccio’s Amleto in more than 140 years, anywhere in the world. What is the problem? The MET in HD live opera broadcasts have dramatically reshaped the world of live regional opera. In a field where there were previously no significant competitors or alternatives, we find ourselves in direct competition with an ersatz version of a live opera experience. At the same time that it competes with us, it paradoxically increases the demand for opera experiences – provided that they are different and unique. In short, in a landscape transformed by the MET in HD, it is not enough to simply put on a lower budget, local version of the same classics. The companies that are able to meet this challenge and thrive must offer a unique value proposition to their community. Opera Southwest is able to meet this challenge in two ways: one, through the intimacy of our venue, which provides an experience quite different from most large American opera houses, and two, through the presentation of adventurous repertoire. How will your project address this problem? Presentation of Amleto will help us meet the challenges we face by offering our audiences and community an opera that is extraordinary and rare, while at the same time written in a familiar and popular musical idiom. What will be accomplished? Therefore, we plan to offer 4 performances of Amleto. Who will receive the funds from the grant? Funds from the grant will be used to pay our artists, singers, musicians and technical staff. Because this opera has not been done for so long, it faces much the same technical and artistic challenges as mounting a world premiere, including the need for slightly extended production cycles and significant score preparation by our artistic directors. Who will be affected by the results of your project? Our community and audience will be directly affected at the performance. Our artists will experience a unique opportunity for artistic growth and advancement. More broadly, the operatic field will benefit from the revival of an undeservedly lost work. How many will be served/affected? We expect to reach ~3100 patrons live in the theater, and a significantly larger number through the digital release of excerpts from the project. What are the geographic and demographic ranges of your recipients? Albuquerque is a city of 800,000. In 2008, the last time research was conducted, 87% of our DATA audience came from Albuquerque, 11% from the rest of the state, 2% from out of state. 78% were Anglo, 20% Hispanic, 2% Other ethnicities. The audience was comprised of 14% students and 38% were over 65. Since this survey was conducted, the company has shifted homes from the KiMo theater to the National Hispanic Cultural Center, a move that we believe has shifted the demographics of our audience to include more Hispanic members. New research is being conducted this month that we expect to corroborate this belief. Because of our location at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, we try to focus on South Valley and central Albuquerque schools for our education programs, a population historically underserved by the arts and cultural sector. Some representative schools include: % % English % African % % % %Native Free/Reduced Language American Asian/Pacific Caucasian Hispanic American Price Meal Learners Rate Adobe Acres 1.8 0.6 5.8 89.2 2.7 87.3% 48.1% Atrisco 1.5 0.3 7.3 88.9 2.0 86.5% 31.0% Monte Vista 3.7 4.1 51.3 35.3 5.7 27.2% 7.1% Truman MS 1.7 0.3 6.1 89.6 2.4 88.1% 24.7% 8. WHAT NEEDS OR ISSUES WILL BE ADDRESSED? How do these needs and issues relate to the Mission Statement, Vision, and Values of the Brabson Foundation? This type of programming is certainly “Bold [and] Innovative” and gives our artists the “opportunity to excel within and beyond traditional artistic paths.” 9. HOW WILL THIS PROJECT BE SUPPORTED? How much of the project support will come from the Brabson Foundation? Approximately 28% What have you requested from other organizations? $7,500 from New Mexico Arts, $30,000 Garcia Foundation, $6000 Hancock, $3000 Bank of Albuquerque, $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts What efforts have you made to leverage your requests? Our NEA funding application requires that we match those funds with private giving, and our individual giving campaign is typically conducted as a “matching campaign” to match our foundation funding. 10. WHO WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR SEEING THE PROJECT THROUGH TO COMPLETION? Managing Director Anthony Zancanella joined the company in 2012 after receiving an MBA in Arts Administration from the University of Cincinnati. This appointment is a shared appointment with the chamber music organization Ensemble Music New Mexico, for which he acts as 1/4 time Business Manager. This unique partnership allows both organizations to be managed professionally and achieve administrative synergies. Mr. Zancanella’s previous experience includes working as Operations Manager for the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati and as a marketing/development intern for the Cincinnati May Festival. From 2009-2010, he sat on the board of directors of Opera Southwest as a representative of the chorus, and was Treasurer for the organization for that time. Mr. Zancanella holds a degree in Voice Performance from the University of New Mexico, and has studied on a short-term basis at the University of Hull in England (music) and Audencia Ecole de Management in Nantes, France (arts management). While studying at the University of New Mexico, Mr. Zancanella began his involvement with Opera Southwest as an intern, as part of a collaboration in arts administration education with the University of New Mexico. The appointment of Mr. Zancanella as a paid professional manager represents an enormous leap forward in the company’s administrative capacity, and represents a significant return on the company’s previous investment in training the next generation of arts leaders. Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Anthony Barrese, winner of the 2007 Georg Solti Award for young conductors, appears regularly as conductor of productions with the opera companies of Dallas, Sarasota, Boston and others. His wide experience and knowledge of singers has brought to Opera Southwest a series of outstanding casts for our productions. Director of Artistic Operations and Principal Stage Director David Bartholomew has directed productions at Wolf Trap, and with the Boston Lyric Opera, Colorado Music Theatre Festival, Western Opera Theatre, and the opera companies of Fargo-Moorhead, Eugene and Mobile. He is former Department Chair for the New England Conservatory of Music, Artistic Director of Tacoma Opera, Rochester Opera at Eastman and head of the Opera Department of the University of Nebraska. What is his/her relationship to your organization? SEE ABOVE What are his/her credentials? SEE ABOVE 11. WHAT IS THE BUDGET FOR THIS PROJECT? (Please include an itemized budget for this project, including a timeline with milestones.) See Attached Budget.