Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 12/30/2010 10:55 PM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 12/30/2010 10:57 PM
Expires: 01/01/2015 12:00 AM
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A Thank You Letter~By Lynnette Lipp, Amador Student Music Fund
Amador County, CA....We, at the Amador Student Music Fund, thank you for your support this past year and extend our good wishes to you and yours for a happy and healthy New Year filled and complete with the beautiful sounds of music. Without you and your support of our music activities, many of our Amador County children would not have the opportunities they have now… to study music, to learn to play an instrument, and to perform for their peers and the community. We all know the state is in budgetary disarray and the money coming to our schools across California is greatly lacking, and might be even more lacking in the coming years…so are musical opportunities in our state schools lacking. Hence, the reason for the music fund’s existence......
This past year we have sponsored five youngsters in Piano, Flute, Clarinet, and Drums. They are all quite talented and your contributions have given them a life-long gift of music.
I would like to tell you some of the many reasons why I love being involved in the Amador Student Music Fund.
I love that I see these youngsters become self assured in so many areas of their lives. Self assured in the study of their instrument, self assured in how they discipline themselves in practice, and most of all, how self assured they become among their peers, in school, in their school studies, on their test scores and best of all, I love seeing them maturing into youngsters who have a purpose in their lives in addition to the roles they play in their families and among their schoolmates.
Another reason that I love doing this job is that when these youngsters perform, I find a constant smile on my face. I feel their nervousness in auditions, and in performances too; sometimes my heart pounds because I know a lot of the music they play and I know where those difficult parts are about to appear….yet those hours of practice and perfecting their craft really comes through and I can feel the beauty of their music and how they make that music...as if it’s a part of their person, of their being.
An important reason that I really love about working with the fund, is that I’ve been able to see and hear children here in the county who have innate gifts of perfect pitch, who hear music
inside their heads at all hours of the day and night, and who have a feel for the compositions of centuries-old masters as well as those of pop, rock and roll, the blues, jazz, country, etc.
Not all of these students study through the Student Music Fund, but they’ve either had a very observant teacher notice their inborn abilities, or their parents have seen that gift present and followed through in giving their children the opportunity that they, themselves, had as children, or didn’t have, and want for their children, and most of the time at great sacrifice. I love seeing parents making the home ready for musical practice, driving them to and from their lessons, and altering their lives to be sure the music students they are raising have what is needed.
Some of the youngsters in the county have studied music for a long time. I love when I hear students like Kellsey Long and Jake Guidi sing. They move me to tears with their instrument which is always there with them. They are truly so gifted and so talented, but it has taken so many years and hundreds of hours to get to where they are right now. And they still have quite a ways to go; years more of study, hundreds of experiences needed to perfect their art.
When I see and hear Ben and Sam Warren with such talent at their respective young ages, I love knowing they will have music in their lives forever. And I just love the idea that they can be professional musicians And their teachers, Jeff and Steve Chambers, who give so much of their time in teaching these two youngsters this art which they will perfect as time goes on.
Then, I love the opportunity I’ve had on occasion to watch John Bosch teach two drum students, Jacob Dobler and Alex Case. John is a really fine teacher, one of the best I’ve ever seen. He has the gift of organization, of the importance of the skills needed for his students to progress, and when I read his notes on their evaluations, I read them sometimes two and three times, because John has a knack of finding the words to describe their good qualities, and knows what’s needed to improve and he really “sees” them just as they are. And I also love the respect these children have for their teacher. It’s like they know they have to learn everything being taught to them right now by these professionals. They perform during lessons for their teachers with all they’ve got, no matter how young. I even love seeing them get mad at themselves for perhaps making an error, or even not playing something in the right rhythmic pattern.
I love to watch Rosa Serrato learning to read music with her teacher, Karen Reed. Rosa hears music in her head all the time. She can hear a piece of music once, maybe twice and then can reproduce what she hears on the piano... That is a gift in itself, along with perfect pitch. I loved when she came to audition for the music fund and was told to turn around facing away from the piano and a rather intricate pattern of notes was played for her. She was able to replicate exactly what she’d heard! She composed her own music, yet she had to do it from memory because she couldn’t read music. So I have to love the fact that soon she will be able to write down the beautiful music she creates inside her head.
Then, there is John Johnson, a very talented trumpet player whose parents have provided the best in music education for him that is possible. Now on academic and performance scholarships at The University of the Pacific as a musician, I love that John has the opportunity to spend the rest of his life playing music. Music is truly an integral part of his being, just as it is for his parents.
The same goes for a very gifted music student on the clarinet, Jacey Mayronne. I love the depth of sound she gets out of her instrument and it’s really amazing to hear. Once you have opportunity to hear her perform, you’ll know immediately what I mean. She is also a music major in her first year at the UOP and on academic and performance scholarships.
I especially love to watch Sam Price perform. He is extremely talented on several instruments, and unrelated instruments at that! He’s a serious musician and understands how important his music studies are. Sam, like Jake, like Kellsey, like John and Jacey, are all a bit older then our current music fund students and have a greater understanding of the lessons they are learning due to the years they have spent working in music. Although very serious in their performances, and practice, I love that they are genuinely very nice kids; mature in certain ways their other classmates are not. Yet they interact with great humor and knowledge, without seemingly being “a brain”. And yes, they are mature beyond their years, and have been so for quite some time. And I just know that their music has helped to mold them to be the persons they are now and will be in the future.
I love the fact that I have a great board of directors to work with, all with the love of music that is so important to the teaching of our children. Marie Bedard, an opera college graduate, who is a very gifted singer, does at least one fundraiser for the music fund yearly. Her clients at More than Just Hair in Sutter Creek are generous with their donations for the Music Fund. Composer, singer, and all around terrific musician, Adam Gottstein, who also has the group Over the Edge, is a self taught musician, who also works at publishing. I love to bounce ideas off him, since he can just pick up something I’ve thought about and run with it. He helps me bring the idea to fruition. Ben Price, another member of our board, owns Mother Lode Music in Martell and is Sam’s dad. Ben storages our donated instruments for children who don’t have instruments, and orders repairs when necessary. Ben has also done wonders for the fund and our children by getting our local teachers to teach Music Fund students at reduced rates, so that we can help more children with lessons. And, by doing this, Ben helps to keep our money local. There’s Jan Geringer, who programs music concerts at the Sierra Ridge Winery, and who genuinely loves music and children. John Bree, owner of Sierra Ridge Winery has given of his beautiful winery, holding all kinds of musical events there. And being a businessman, he really helps keep us on track. Jim Guidi (Jake’s dad), owner of our radio station, is always helping us with publicity for our fundraising efforts. He publicizes musical performances on the radio, interviews us to help bring publicity to our purpose and was the announcer at our first fundraiser back in 2008 to raise the seed money for our Fund.
There are many more music students… too many to name here, as this letter is on its way to becoming a book! .But our community is filled with children of great talents and we need to nurture their musical interests. Our community is also filled with experienced musicians who will remain unnamed here, who are teaching some of the children in the county without charging any fees. They never talk about it, but they are giving something back every day. They are members of the Amador Community Band, members of the Speakeazy Jazz Orchestra, retired recording industry people and professional life-long musicians. Additionally, one is our school music teacher, Mr. Chris Tootle. I love too, that these musicians will help when needed for fundraising efforts to keep music alive in our community. They make a valuable contribution.
We have many ideas for the coming calendar year, and hope to bring some of these ideas forth for the good of the students and for our community.. We cannot do that without you!
It’s the end of the year! If you can give some of your allotted charitable contributions to the music fund, any donation we receive dated Dec. 31 will be receipted and tax deductible for 2010.
We also have a donor page on our website that explains some of the ways you can help online for the year 2011. We have a tribute page, where individual contributions in honor of a special occasion, or in honor of a pet or a life lived can be made. Our music calendar is emailed out each month via a large list, in hopes of having good audiences to hear music of all styles in our county.
Thank you for reading this rather long letter, but there’s so much to tell you about how I love working with music in our county.
Sincerely, Lynnette Lipp
Amador Student Music Fund
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