April Lykos

Lewis Elementary Violin Residency Program Expansion Project wins a Gold Award of Excellence.

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LEWIS ELEMENTARY VIOLIN RESIDENCY PROGRAM

Gold Award of Excellence

The Gold Award of Excellence recognizes best-in-class programs or initiatives that have made a significant impact on their orchestras and can be shared for use by other orchestras.

Our Lewis Elementary Violin Residency Program is one of six entries throughout the country to receive this high honor.  Through our successful partnership with the Houston Symphony Society and our League’s amazing fundraising creativity we were able to put more than 80 violins into the hands of underserved children, and pay our Community Embedded Musicians (CEM) for weekly instruction. We also provided classroom observers to gage progress in many areas. https://www.houstonsymphonyleague.com/index.php/category/award/

League of American Orchestras Volunteer Council

Project Description:

Background:  In 2018, the Houston Symphony League was provided a unique opportunity to participate in the initial development of the Houston Symphony’s music education initiative – a Three-year String Instruction Program for Third, Fourth and Fifth grade students at an underserved HISD elementary school:  Lewis Elementary.   The Violin Residency was intended to develop as a model that could be replicated at other underserved elementary schools. 

The Symphony’s Community Embedded Musicians provided in-school violin instruction along with after-school violin classes.  In addition, the Symphony League helped support the purchase of 40 violins, sheet music and related supplies for ongoing maintenance of the instruments.  Not only was the program successful that year, but the After-School Program became oversubscribed to the point that additional violins and supplies were needed.  What began with some 20 children expanded to 40+ by the end of the school year.  The Symphony wanted to expand the After-School Program so that up to 80 students could participate.

Latest work:   In the second year of the program (June 2019 – June 2020), the League not only continued but stepped up their passionate involvement with this program to add 40 more violins and contribute toward the Musicians’ additional instruction costs.

Purpose and Goals:  The driving purposes were to (i) bring music to an underserved community with great needs and who would not otherwise have this exposure; (ii) increase access to music; (iii) improve the quality of life and bring joy to Houston residents; and (iv) enable people to make connections with music and the Houston Symphony.

Motivation and Need:

Education is a long-standing, top priority and initiative for both the League and the Symphony.  The need to create opportunities to provide consistent inroads and connections between music study, appreciation and understanding becomes greater each year with school budget cuts and less focus on the arts.

Expanding the number of violins would mean students could take a violin home to practice.  The school developed a check-out procedure that the parent and the student signed committing to the care and return of the instrument.

Timeline:

Since this submission covers the second year of the program, the strategy and content had been conceived and created, which was done in collaboration with the Symphony organization.  By this point, some of the bugs and details had been worked through and the League added fundraising, classroom observations and student/parent liaison to their participation.  The project ran the entire 2019-’20 school year.

August:  meetings with Symphony and League Education Departments; Classroom Observation format and other materials prepared for the current season.

September – Volunteers assisted students during a Mexican holiday after-school community event with other musical groups.

September – December: Classroom observations conducted by two League volunteers.  Community Embedded Musicians (2) worked on repertoire and lesson plans.

Fundraising:

In the second year, 2019-20, the League was asked to purchase an additional 40 violins (@ $300/ea = $12,000) and support additional instruction time of the voluntary After-school Program ($14,927 for 24 weeks or $621.95/wk).  The League had raised $22,314 by the time of the coronavirus shutdown. 

Most of the donations were from (i) individuals after hearing about the program; (ii) A “Conversation with a Musician” pop-up fundraiser and dinner held for 12 attendees @ $150/ea, raising $1,800; and (iii) the re-selling of 4 tickets at a salon concert/dinner at $300/ea = $1,200.  There were 2-3 mini-fundraisers on the drawing board for the Spring that got cancelled due to the shutdown.

Impact on the Community:

In addition to playing music, the growth in self-confidence, leadership, self-concept, cooperation, social and emotional growth of the kids led the Houston Symphony and League to understand the correlation of music and its profound effect on an underserved community.

Also, through this introduction to the violin and the Houston Symphony, parents brought their kids to the Symphony’s Saturday morning Family Concerts and started becoming engaged in a world previously unknown to them and a world that aids their kids in confidence as they learn.  One of the areas that they especially grew in confidence was math, which also led to success in overall academics.

The school saw the benefits realized and hired a second music teacher to aid in the growing number of students.

Olivia, 5th grade student: “At first I was a little nervous [to perform] but when you actually have a passion for the violin and you start playing, you feel the nerves go away and then at the end you feel proud of yourself. With playing the violin, you have to work hard to be able to play it. When I’m done playing the violin I go back to the class and work hard there too.”

April Lykos

Spotlight Award -League of American Orchestras – FUNDRAISING POP UPS

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The Houston Symphony League wins more prestigious awards. The most recent from the League of American Orchestras.  These award entries were submitted in early September by our representative April Lykos.

Project Description:

The Houston Symphony League was determined to meet the financial goal for the Symphony’s major holiday fundraiser.  How could they leverage all their skills and creativity toward making financial goals and raising money in these times?

With out-of-the-box thinking came the concept of Pop-Ups.  Pop-Ups are mini-fundraisers of unlimited variety, held to raise money and contribute toward the goal of a major event.

The major event to be supported was Magical Musical Morning (MMM), an annual holiday program that supports the Houston Symphony’s Education and Community Outreach.  The goal was $70,000.

To assist in meeting this goal, the League created two Pop-Ups: (i) Magical Musical Morning Salon Concert; and (ii) Magical Musical Morning Tea at Kiran’s.

Purpose and Goals: 

(i) raise money for MMM; (ii) delightfully engage audiences at a salon concert/dinner in a donor home with a HS musician and at a morning tea enhanced by a harpist, champagne and fascinators; (iii) hold events geared toward adults, where MMM is geared toward children and grandchildren; (iv) develop potential new patrons for MMM and the Houston Symphony by targeted invitations for each Pop-Up; (v) capture attendees who may otherwise not be able to support the major event, due to ticket price, timing, interest, etc.; and (vi) have fun and fellowship with patrons, league members, musicians and symphony subscribers!

Motivation and Need:

The League is always assessing how they can raise more net revenues and open opportunities to increase their membership base.  The Pop-Ups achieved that and more.  Its targeted, smaller scale and unlimited themes made it a perfect base to raise money and highlight the attributes of the League and the Symphony – thus, becoming attractive to donors and new members alike.

New Information/Ideas gained from the Project:

(i) The ‘Pearls of the Symphony’ were created; these are League volunteers who acted as hostesses/ambassadors and were assigned to different rooms/guests.  They also made party favors ahead of time in the host’s home; (ii) Pop-Ups are a great source of additional revenue and a way to gain traction for a larger event.  The major event gets several financial ‘bites at the apple’ instead of just one; (iii) The musician/attendee interaction was fun and engaging; (iv) Donor support is not one-size-fits-all; we raised money for the whole by providing unique, smaller, targeted and special micro-events that raised money to support the larger need; and (v) The events were lovely and a fun time was had by all!

Volunteer Requirements – number of volunteers and how were they used?

Salon Concert:  15, including the Pearls of the Symphony.  The Pearls acted as hostesses in each room location and were assigned to 14-16 guests.  They utilized color coding to assign guests to three different rooms for cocktails, dinner and conversation.  They led the guests into the concert area for the performance. 

Tea at Kiran’s:  3 Chairmen worked with Chef Kiran, considered the ‘godmother of Indian fine dining,’ to plan the menu; the Chairs provided champagne and guest favors, including fascinator hats made by one of the Chairs.  On-site, the 3 Chairs, along with 2 Symphony staff were on hand to ensure a seamless event.  Some of the Pearls were guests and also acted as helpful volunteers.

Timeline:

The beauty of Fundraising Pop-Ups is that they can be conceived, directed and executed in very short order.

Salon Concert:  In September, planning for the November 10, 2019 event began.  Betty Tutor, VP of Fundraising conceived the idea and put it in motion.  One of the Pearls created the invitation.  In October, invitations were sent.  In early November, the Pearls met at Betty’s house and worked on cookie favors.  Betty organized the meal and musicians.  Event was held Sunday, November 10, 2019.

Tea at Kiran’s:  In March, 2020 the idea was developed at a meeting for MMM.  In May, event date was set.  In late August, the Chairs met and drafted the invitation.  In October, the invitations were sent and the event was promoted at various League meetings and events for the Saturday, November 2, 2019 tea.

Fundraising:

The expenses for the Fundraising Pop-Ups are typically donated by the hosts; they can be as small or as large as the donor wants and are limited only by one’s imagination.  Several people can participate.    The net revenue generated:  $6,000 – Salon Concert and $4,000 – Tea at Kiran’s.

Overall, the Magical Musical Morning major event raised $107,500 (goal was $70,000).  The net revenue was $80,000.  $10,000 of that net revenue was contributed by the Pop-Ups.  Not only did the Pop-Ups contribute directly to the bottom line, but they also added excitement and build-up throughout the Symphony community and beyond.  People who supported a Pop-Up felt excited about supporting MMM, whether they were attending or not.  League members who may not generally get involved with MMM were excited about the Pop-Ups, which led to their interest in MMM.  A win-win situation!