The Omaha COnservaTOry Of musiC newsleTTer

Spring 2015 Edition

M u s i c a lB r i d g e s

Sprouts and the Symphony | Winter Festival Orchestra | Upcoming Events | Omaha Gives!

Omaha Conservatory of Music | 3504 S. 108th St | Omaha, NE 68144 | 402.932.4978 | www.omahacm.org

i n s i d e :

$5,000Provides underwriting

for big events like Winter Festival Orchestra, OCM Summer Institute,

Master Classes and Coffee Chats

$1,400Provides scholarship funds

for one year of private lessons for a student.

$400Provides scholarship funds

for a student to attend OCM Summer Institute

$200Provides an instrument for a

String Sprout

$100Purchase of musical scores

and parts for chamber music and orchestral programs

B r i d g e s

YOUR GIFT C a n B u i l d

Cindy & Mogens Bay • Cassling Family Charitable Fund • Anonymous (2) • Beth & Norm Holly • The John & Elizabeth Lauritzen Foundation • Sherwood Foundation • Eve & Fred Simon • The Todd & Betiana Simon Foundation • Annette & Paul Smith • Slosburg Family Charitable Trust • Weitz Family Foundation

$50,000+

$25,000+ Dr. David Jasper • Peter Kiewit Foundation • Wende & John Kotouc • The Lozier Foundation

Connie Cosentino • Carol Gendler • Heider Family Foundation • Katie Kelly • Nebraska Arts Council • Harley & Beth Schrager Foundation $10,000+

$500+ Janet & Ronald Brendis • Michael Crabb • Mary & Kurt Davey • Linda Davis • Robert Doucette & Theresa Giorlando (in honor of Genevieve Doucette) • Gregg Fuesel & Liz Carvlin • Mrs. Pamela & Dr. Harold Huff • Mr. Steven Martin & Dr. Amy Haddad • Prem Neelakanta & Archana

Janakiram • Mrs. Rosangie & Dr. Paul Madison • Madeline & Tom Matthews • Dryden Meints & Jacob Olson • Nripesh Palikhya & Sonia Bomzon • Susan Rothholz • Cricket & John Simmons • Erica & Donald Wogaman

P R E S T I S S I M O

P R E S T O

A L L E G R O

A N D A N T E

UP TO

$500ACG Nebraska • Vicki Adams • Marcelita Anderson • Valerie Avella • Mary & Jeff Barker • Mary Beth & Mike Barmettler • Anne Begley • Nancy & George Behringer • Karen Benson • Mary Bernstein • Lora & Neal Blomenkamp • Marcia Blum • Frances Blumkin • Joe Buschelman • Rebecca Carney • Jennifer

& Milo Coots • Troy Cox • Jean & Donald Crabb • Suzy & Ian Crabb • Mrs. & Dr. Glenn Dalrymple • Mary & Hal Daub • Claudia & Anthony Deeb • Amy & John Dempsey • Eunie Denenberg • Brandy & Jeff DeRuiter • Dr. Ariel Distenfeld • Gina Dvorak • Beth Eliason • Catherine & Terrence Ferguson • Hal France • Lois & Sol Friedman • Agneta Gaines • Ida & Michael Gibson • Kurt Gold & Sue Ellen Deverich • Erin & Stephen Gross • Judy & Terry Haney • Hearty Electric Inc. • James M. Hearty • Shari Hess • Joel Frederic High • Bonnie Horwich • Kristine Irons • Nancy & David Jacobson • Janice & Richard Jacobson • Mary & Jim Jansen • Johnson Livingston Fund • Michelle & Christopher Johnson • Marian Kaiser • John S. Katelman • Somjit & Greg Kunkel • Barbara & Marshall Kushner • Kristi Langford • Sharon & Michael Lawler • Marisa Leavitt • Lorry & Stuart Mahler • Patricia Malnack • Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Manger • Mark Sanford Group LLC • Marilyn Marsh • Nancy Meyer • Judith & Richard Mori • The National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century Nebraska State Society • Ralph Neuhaus • Nancy & Stephen Nielsen • Carolyn & J. Evan Nordstrom • Sharon & G. Larry Owens • Cara & M. Thomas Perkins • Brenda Peterson • Janet Powell • Mary Rankin • Christel & Doug Riddington • Dr. Diane Wells Rivers • Charney & Jerry Rosinsky • Madonna Runco & Sandy Bushaw • Carol & Edward Schneider • Molly & Toby Schropp • Alex Serwatowski • Lia & Gary Shyken • Suzanne Singer • Raissa & Nick Smith • Sandra Kay Squires • Carolyn “Rocky” Stern • Leslie & David Tien • Janice & John Van Newkirk • John Wehrle & Diane Owens • Lauren Wehrle • Renee Wehrle • Jim Welsh • Andrea West • Kara & Jason Wheeler • Steven White • Therese & John Wolters In Honor of Ruth Meints’s 10th Anniversary as Executive Director of OCM: Myung Hea Yoon • Ed Bennett & Margot Wickman-Bennett • Jooho Lee • Jiyoun & Jongsam Ahn • Drs. Sherill & Mark Domet • Patrick McNamara & Aviva Segall • Named Scholarships: Cosentino Scholarship • Dr. David Jasper Scholarship • Kohll Scholarship • Anna Lundberg Memorial Scholarship • Myron H. Ross Scholarship • Ruth & Victor Roth Scholarship • Beth & Harley Schrager Scholarship • Schrager Ambassador Fund • Annette & Paul Smith Scholarship

E S P R E S S I V O

2 0 1 4 - 1 5 D O N O R SOCM’s fiscal year runs July 1st-June 30th. Donors listed below have made gifts to

Omaha Conservatory of Music between January 1, 2014, and April 21, 2015.

Your

gift of

Your

gift of

Your

gift of

Your

gift of

Your

gift of

Thank you for your support!

V I V A C E

Carm Cosentino • Daniel A. & Jennifer T. Hamann Charitable Fund • Holland Foundation • Jackie & Terry Kroeger • Inroads to Recovery • Sunny & Dennis Lundgren • Darleen & Hugh Mahler • Oregon Trail Community Foundation • Dr. S. Pirzada Sattar & Fatima Basith • Valmont Industries, Inc. • Anonymous

$5,000+A L L E G R E T T O

Susan & Tom Baker (in honor of Yulia Kalashnikova) • Colleen & Andrew Batcheler • Leah Bauer • Michael Cosentino, Jr. • Betty & Michael Cosentino (In Honor of Marianne & Sam Cosentino • Ryan Ellis • Five Points Bank • Ramona & Deryl Hamann • Claire Hubbard Foundation) • Loye

& Stan Jaeger • Kohll’s Pharmacy & Homecare, Inc. • Susan & Gale Larsen • Stacey & Gregory Lickteig • Maginn Family Foundation • Dr. Jerry Moskus • Dr. Gordon Mundell (in memory of Elvira B. Garcia) • Mary Ann Nipp • Heather & Bryan Schneider • Betiana & Todd Simon • The Soener Foundation (in memory of Mary Belle Soener) • Fred Vakili & Sheila Christ • Maru & Greg Whitmore • Kristin & Eric Wiebe • Pamela & Richard Witt (in honor of Dr. David Jasper)NDANTE

($500+)

$1,000+

O n c a M p u s :

W h a t’s n e x t ?

May A huge welcome to TWO new Woodwind Artist-Faculty members, Qiudi Zhang (Clarinet) and Dr. Brian Levels (Bassoon, Clarinet, Flute, Oboe, Saxophone).

neW Face

s

Winter FestivalMarch Guest conductor David Barg returned once again, leading Winter Festival Honors Orchestra members through an intense weekend of rehearsals that culminated in a concert at Omaha’s Jewish Community Center. The concert event also featured outstanding solo and duet performances from this year’s talented merit scholarship winners.

gen

erO

sit

y

artistr

y

april Six of OCM’s most advanced violinists spent an afternoon with Susanna Perry Gilmore, longtime concertmaster for the Omaha Symphony, during our Inside the Mind of the Artist Master Class on Thursday, April 16. “Composers LOVE the violin because it can sound like the human voice,” she said. Perry Gilmore offered advice to the advanced players, sharing her insights with all in attendance on everything from bowing to tempo.

april On Sunday, April 26, we presented our second annual Sprouts & the Symphony concert at the Holland Performing Arts Center. The sold-out special performance showcased 500 String Sprouts playing violin and cello with the Omaha Symphony. The Omaha Conservatory of Music’s String Sprouts program brings free classes and instruments to 3- and 4-year-olds, at strategically selected areas of Omaha and beyond, who otherwise wouldn’t have access to such opportunities. Thank you to the many people in the Omaha community who have made this groundbreaking program and life-changing event possible!

legacy cOncertMark your calendar now for our special concert event with Orchestra Omaha at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 27, at The Salvation Army Omaha Kroc Center, located at 2825 Y St. — and you won’t want to miss the grand finale!

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced it will make a $10,000 award to OCM to support research related to the implementation of String Sprouts at the new Nelson Mandela Elementary School, slated to open at 6316 N. 30th St. in Fall 2015.

Ruth Meints, OCM’s executive director, said the grant was a milestone for the Conservatory. “In my 10 years as executive director of Omaha Conservatory of Music, this is among the highest honors we have received,” she said. “We are thrilled and elated to have been recognized for the research we are doing by the nation’s most influential arts funder.”

When Norm Holly recognized the need of kids who want to study at OCM, but who may need additional financial support, he remembered his own musical education.

Growing up in Springfield, Oregon, a town that Norm describes as a “blue collar suburb of Eugene,” his junior high school orchestra teacher suggested that he take private cello lessons, in addition to the private piano lessons he was already taking.

“So the next thing I knew,” Norm remembers, “I was taking cello lessons.”

“But it wasn’t until about 30 years later that my mother told me that my family could not afford to give me both piano and cello lessons. I received those cello lessons because of a generous Superintendent of Music for the Springfield Public Schools who privately paid for my lessons, along with other students like me.”

“I wish I could have thanked him,” says Norm, “But he had passed away long before I knew the full story.”

Norm and his wife Beth helped establish a financial aid fund at OCM in part to repay the generosity that Norm experienced as a young student. Norm would like to see lessons be available at OCM to anyone who wants to learn to play a musical instrument.

“If everyone on earth played a musical instrument, there would be less wars, less hate, and the world would generally be a better place to live.”

Holly is an OCM violin student in Melissa Tatreau Holtmeier’s studio. He has studied with Melissa for over three years.

OcMi suMMer instituteThere’s still time to register for OCM’s week-long summer intensive camp! You’ll get to learn, one-on-one, with world-class guest artists from around the country, all while having a blast and making tons of new friends.

Visit omahacm.org/ocmi to find out more and sign up!

Branching Out classesEnrich your summer learning with Branching OUT classes. These classes are for string players and vocalists (or anyone who loves to sing!), and all students will perform along Orchestra Omaha at the Legacy Concert.Check out omahacm.org/summer to choose yours!

spark!

March Jackson Berkey, long-time composer for Mannheim Steamroller, made a guest appearance on our March Coffee Chat with Hal France, entitled “The Compositional Spark.” Berkey and France gave attendees a look into the composer’s side of the music creation process.

sprOuts and the syMphOny

neW Building BlOg See the progress we’ve made at our new location! Follow our blog — complete with photos and videos as work progresses — at omahacm.org/newocm