Access for Equity Campaign: 2020-2021 Case for Support

Access for Equity Campaign 2020–2021

Case for Support

Access for Equity Campaign Co-Chairs

Rob Straus Bronwyn Lamont Leadership Donors

Sandy and David Bakalar Gene and Lloyd Dahmen Lindsay and Garth Greimann Harriet and David Griesinger Bronwyn R. and Jeffrey S. Lamont Ruth McKay and Don Campbell Virginia Meany Kristin Mortimer Jane and Linton Moulding Win Quayle and Deborah Manegold Don and Jen Schroeder Rob Straus Jeannette and Arthur Taylor

Antiracism Statement Our commitment to racial equity is ensuring access, amplification, and powershifting. As leaders, teachers, learners, and music-makers we are coconspirators dismantling racism in music and higher education, thereby confronting racist power in society.

Message from President Karen Zorn We have always believed great musicians come from all backgrounds—it is the variety in our experiences that allows us to create powerful art. It is why Longy is committed to antiracism. We accept students based on their passion and potential, on their desire to use their music to change the world. But despite our open doors, structural problems run deep in the world of classical music: homogeny, pedigree, and exclusion. These tropes cause immeasurable harm to our field. We must do our part to dispel them.

We will remove the barriers that prevent a musician from accessing training and development. We will amplify the voices of those who have been suppressed, supporting them in their convictions and fostering greater understanding among us all. We will uproot the inequity that keeps us apart in ways both seen and unseen. We will lead by example, showing our students what the world of classical music can be, and giving them the tools to build it.

The goal for our Access to Equity Campaign is a total of $270,000. I am delighted to report that with early leadership giving we have raised $127,000 (as of December 17, 2020). With these funds we will: •

Provide Equity Scholarships for students with the deepest financial need. Longy already provides 97% of its students with financial aid.

Equity Scholarships will remove the barrier determining whether a deserving student attends Longy at all.

•

Underwrite a School-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion process to propel Longy forward in creating a sustainable, equitable conservatory.

•

Launch a Fellowship program that offers generous scholarship support and professional experience with Longy’s Artistic and Social Change team.

•

Continue building Longy’s signature social change programming such as Sistema Side-by-Side, providing school children with high quality music education, and the Music as a Healing Art Initiative, training students to serve the most vulnerable in our community.

Please consider making a gift to support the Access to Equity Campaign.

You will give a new generation the opportunity to hone their talents and tell their stories. They will bring music to those in need, and, in doing so, truly make a difference in the world. The world needs music more than ever, and so we need you more than ever.

Equity Scholarships Goal: $50,000 (5) scholarships RAISED: $20,000 At Longy we believe our students’ potential counts.

Whether they found music at age 2 or 22, there’s a place for them at Longy. All lived experiences and skills are welcome here—a conservatory where all kinds of musicians succeed.

Longy invests in musicians who will make a difference in the world by removing barriers to their conservatory education. For example, when we award scholarships, we look at the breadth of the student’s potential both artistically and personally.

In 2020, Longy increased its financial aid from $4.8M to $5.4M. Even with very generous financial aid packages, some students need to have 100% of their tuition covered to make their conservatory education possible.

You can make access for equity real with your contribution of $10,000 for a named Equity Scholarship. Help us close the gap between a student’s dream and achievement.

Equity Scholarships will be awarded in Spring 2021 and announced in Fall 2021.

$10,000 Named Equity Scholarship $5,000 Co-Named Equity Scholarship

Longy’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Work Goes to the Next Level: A Year of Reflection, Planning, and Actualization Goal: $120,000 RAISED: $97,000 At Longy, we know music has the power to incite change.

All Longy stakeholders are invested in a yearlong Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) process to pave a path forward in equitable conservatory education. Supported by experts in the field, Longy will engage in faculty, staff, and board development to achieve the following outcomes.

•

Ensure employees have the skills and resources to foster a School culture that honors all students’ lived experiences.

•

Root out and remove barriers in recruitment and retention of students and faculty of color underrepresented in classical music.

•

Continually examine and expand repertoire studied and performed, with emphasis on inclusion of composers and artists of color, women, and queer individuals.

•

Invest in power-shifting among Longy’s leadership and staff to reflect our increasingly diverse student body, as well as the communities that we serve through our social change programs.

With your help, Longy will advance the conservatory model and the classical music canon. In doing so, we—all of us—will thrive.

SOCIAL CHANGE PROGRAMS Goal: $50,000

Sistema Side-by-Side This year-round program pairs children ages 6-18 from El Sistema-inspired music education sites across Massachusetts with Longy conservatory students for rehearsals and extraordinary performances. Through this innovative program, Longy is enriching the lives of children, preparing conservatory students to build meaningful lives in music, and addressing a pressing need for high-quality music education for young musicians who may not otherwise have access Your gift to Sistema Side-by-Side will have an impact:

$5,000 Co-sponsor a Longy Teaching Assistant Sponsor a faculty teaching artist for Side-by-Side and the El Sistema Summer Academy $2,500 Fund the cost for one child to participate in the year-long Sistema Side-by-Side program $1,000 Fund two full scholarships for children with financial need to participate in two weeks of musical immersion and inspiration at Longy’s El Sistema Summer Academy $500 Fund a full scholarship for El Sistema Summer Academy Sponsor the Summer Academy Young Mentor Program, where youth leaders are compensated for mentoring younger children in the Summer Academy

Impact Statement Longy’s El Sistema-inspired Side-by-Side Program values each child. The music they share—and who they are becoming—makes our communities better.

“Leila made great strides through the music program.

Before she started, she was having some issues with school.

She was an average child with C’s and B’s, and she was having difficulty reading. Then, she was introduced to the violin through the Kids 4 Harmony music program.

“Music helped Leila with education. She initially was an average student, struggling with reading and verbal skills. Once she got involved with music, her grades shot up. I don’t know if it was the note reading or music reading but she was reading better.

Since starting the violin she’s had straight A’s. She’s now a high honors student.

“I think every opportunity they give her pushes her to be better because she starts feeling more comfortable with herself. She tries to push to see what else she can do—she’s always looking for the next step.”

—Parent of Leila, violin

Music as a Healing Art For many, music is a calling. Musicians can relieve suffering, bring comfort, and give respite. We train our students so that they can use their talents to make a difference in the world by helping those in need. Our class, Music as a Healing Art, explores the human response to music and its therapeutic capabilities.

Longy’s Certified Music Practitioner® program, in conjunction with Music for Healing and Transition Program, Inc.™ (MHTP), prepares musicians for the art and science of live therapeutic music—for individuals in hospital, hospice, and other healthcare settings.

Your gift toward Music as a Healing Art will have an impact:

$5,000 Sponsor a year-long residency at a partner site $3,800 Provide a full Scholarship for Certified Music Practitioner® Certification $2,000 Provide a partial Scholarship for Certified Music Practitioner® Certification $1,000 Underwrite one module for one student at Longy and MHTP summer institute leading to Certified Music Practitioner ® Certification $500 Keyboard for use in partner sites that lack piano on site

Impact Statement When Job Salazar Fonseca was a student at Longy, his son, Aksel, was born prematurely and had to spend his first weeks of life in the NICU. The medical team was doing a great job, but the baby was struggling to eat and breathe on his own. Job and his wife hoped and prayed that Aksel would progress quickly, while thinking of other ways to help.

Although the nursing staff was initially hesitant, Job was able to utilize his training as a Certified Music Practitioner® to enter the nursery and play his violin at Aksel’s bedside.

“Bringing my violin and providing live therapeutic music to Aksel at the hospital every day was a blessing. It helped him learn to eat on his own better, to breathe on his own more consistently, to remind him that he is alive and loved by his father and mother, and eventually to leave the hospital and come home with us.

“Now, not only is my son thriving, but I am able to finish my education at Longy because of generous scholarship support—a miracle I was not expecting.

“The training I’ve received here has already equipped me with the skills to make a difference in this world.”

—Job Salazar Fonseca

Artistic and Social Change Fellowships Goal: $50,000 (5) scholarships RAISED: $10,000

At Longy, we prepare musicians to make waves. We find students who are passionate about social change and give them the tools they need to impact communities and change lives.

This newly launched fellowship program will help students explore and amplify their aspirations through professional experience in artistic planning/production and social change program planning and administration. Given the breadth of the School’s artistic and social change programming, students will gain firsthand knowledge and critical skills to create meaningful change through music. Fellows will be mentored by socially engaged musicians from Longy’s extended family to provide guidance from their own experience. .

We have seen our alumni at work and know the power of their impact. Help us show the next generation of students how much their music matters.

Donors have the opportunity to sponsor or co-sponsor a fellowship, which will be awarded in Spring 2021 and announced in Fall 2021.

$10,000 Named Artistic and Social Change Fellowship $5,000 Co-Named Artistic and Social Change Fellowship

Message from Assistant Dean of Artistic and Social Change

IAN SAUNDERS Talent is universal; access to nurture that talent is not.

This is what drives my work as Longy’s Assistant Dean of Artistic and Social Change.

The School’s belief in the transformational power of music to make a difference in the world is real, and the Artistic and Social Change Fellowships offer yet another innovative learning opportunity for our students. At this conservatory, our students can realize their potential while advancing meaningful change in the world as citizen musicians and leaders. The portfolio that I oversee at Longy gets right to the heart of the reckoning that must happen in classical music.

I know that the professional experience our students will have with these Fellowships will support their growth as humans and artists ready to serve with their music and make a meaningful difference in their communities.

To discuss your gift, please contact: Allison Cooley, Chief Development Officer acooley@longy.edu 617-831-1768 Courtney Keller, Associate Director of Annual Giving and Donor Engagement ckeller@longy.edu 617-831-1784

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