For the past three years Winsor Music has collaborated with the Mather
Elementary School in Dorchester to provide classical music in a classroom setting. We do not make them sit through a sonata and expect them to listen intently; instead we create a program that is interactive for the children through performing songs they know, creative expression and experimenting, non-traditional music making, stories, and dialogue. For the kindergarteners at the Mather School, classical music becomes accessible through engaging activities with student and professional musicians. We perform popular children's songs with classical instruments; the music and activities are so captivating that the children start to sing and dance along with the performers. This program demonstrates how music can transform our lives, and how music can express many things: ideas, activities, landscapes, animals, and emotions.
The Children's Concert Series inspires young children to find music in everyday life, to cherish classical music, and to make music themselves. Not only do these concerts foster a love of music, they promote creativity because we give children the tools they need to make music, and inspire their own creativity. Through creative thought and action children learn that they have a voice, and they have the ability to create something beautiful and something truly their own.
Who are we?
"Winsor Music, under the direction of Peggy Pearson, is a bright light in our musical lives. Much in the way a lighthouse beckons a sailor, Winsor Music is a beacon of intelligence, excellence, integrity, and artistic beauty and it enriches the lives of everyone it touches."- John Heiss
Winsor Music is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization focused on using music to educate and empower local youth through performance, outreach, and scholarships.
We sponsor a chamber music concert series that features young artists from the Boston area who perform with the musicians at Winsor Music. These spectacular concerts combine new contemporary American works and chamber music from the past. Since its inception, the Winsor Music Chamber Series has presented world or Boston premieres of over 20 works.
Here is our concert schedule for the fall
Winsor Music prides itself on being an advocate of new music. We are committed to the development of new repertoire through transcription of older works for the oboe, and commissioning new chamber pieces that feature the oboe.
Our Education and Outreach program is at the heart of our mission and goals. We are deeply committed to a positive relationship with the Boston community through outreach and education. We have a profound belief in the healing power of music and its value in today's world, so Winsor Music regularly performs concerts for those who could not otherwise attend them. We also focus our time on educating and mentoring young musicians in the Boston area through our Scholarship Programs, and our yearly collaboration with Emmanuel Music and Oberlin College during the Bach Institute.
Artistic Director Peggy Pearson says: “My favorite part of Winsor Music is how the many branches of our organization dovetail with each other.” Students from the Scholarship Program often perform in community outreach concerts, and some have gone on to perform as professional musicians on our Chamber Music Series. Students from the Bach Institute perform on outreach concerts and in the Mather School, and one of our Young Artists, Lev Mamuya, has also been a commissioned composer for our New Repertoire initiative. It is this mutual participation and enrichment that defines Winsor Music.
Why is our project important?
Music inspires creativity. Creativity promotes change, self-expression, abstract problem solving, and innovation. Creativity sparks joy, and fosters an appreciation for the process rather than the result. The children who have benefited from the Mather School Concerts learn that music making is not only for professionals. Music can be found anywhere, and can be made in the most unlikely of places. Most importantly, these children learn that they have the ability to create. They hold the key to their own creative and intellectual expression.
What is our plan?
We are proposing twelve children’s concerts over the next two years at the Mather School. Since we have started this collaboration we have given eight children’s concerts in a three year period. It is our plan to increase this number and visit the school three times a year (with at least two concerts per visit).
Winsor Music is asking for $4,000 to complete our project with the Mather School. This money will be used to cover costs of professional musicians, transportation, and other logistical expenses.
Our hope is to produce 12 children’s concerts in 6 visits to the Mather School. A typical performance lasts 45 minutes and we perform two of these back to back so that more students have the opportunity to participate.
Our Financial Plan:
Each visit costs us approximately $1,000. Here is how we calculated this:
We follow union wage scales which state that in school, educational and demonstration concerts should pay $163 per performer for two 1-hour concerts within 3 hours. Union wage scales also determine that rehearsals for a concert of this nature cost $91 per performer.
So the expense for one performer (including rehearsal time and concert time) is $254.
We have 3 performers for each concert which brings our expense to $762
Our other main expense is transportation. This includes getting the performers to and from the concerts, as well as making sure that their instruments get there safely. This sometimes means extra expenses for moving large instruments (cartage) and labor costs for moving the heavier equipment. This costs us about $200, bringing the total cost to about $962.
The $38 difference is used to cover miscellaneous costs such as new sheet music or supplies for the concerts.
The $4,000 that we are asking for will cover 4 visits to the Mather School. To complete the 6 visits that we are hoping for we need to raise more money. However, we have determined that it is more important that we produce some concerts (8 if we raise the $4,000) rather than the intended 12.
$4,000 would be just enough money to produce 8 concerts, but if we want to fulfill our goal of 12 concerts we will need to raise more than what we are asking for. It is our hope, through Kickstarter’s ‘all-or-nothing’ plan, to raise more than $4,000, so we can properly produce more of these one-of-a-kind educational concerts.
Our Core Musicians:
Each one of our children’s concerts is unique. Each visit has different material, and different performers. Some of our main musicians include:
Peggy Pearson, oboe
Megan Henderson, piano
Eliko Akahori, piano
Gabriel Diaz, violin
Tony Rymer, cello
Students of the Bach Institute
The Bach Institute is a collaborative music education program between Winsor Music, Emmanuel Music and Oberlin College, where college-aged students have the rare opportunity to study Bach with the musicians of Emmanuel Music. Through the Winsor Music Outreach Program, these students provide insight and enthusiasm to the children’s concerts and often come up with their own interactive musical demonstrations for the kids at the Mather School.
Every Mather School concert is different, and different performers bring different activities and ideas to the children. We believe it to be very important that the kids at the Mather School see many different musicians who play a variety of instruments. Winsor Music’s versatility and variety at these concerts help to inspire creative thought, problem-solving skills and encourages them to think out-of-box.
Why is this our mission:
We do these concerts with the children because they’re fun for the kids. We want to show them, more than anything else, that music is fun, that it can bring so much joy into their lives. Anyone who witnesses the involvement by these kids, and how much they love music, will know that it must be one of the most important things we can do for children: to bring music alive for them. Music inspires creativity, action, commitment, and passion. Music can transform our lives.
Risks and challenges
Since we have performed these concerts before, we feel that we understand what needs to be done in order to produce a successful concert. Winsor Music has the professional performance experience to undertake a task such as the Mather School concerts, and because of this, producing a children's concert series should be easy and well-executed.
The biggest pitfall we have in completing our project is finding a date and time that is convenient for every performer. However, Winsor Music has many dedicated performers, so it is easy to substitute one player for another if a concert date becomes inconvenient or impossible to attend.
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Funding period
- (30 days)