Message from the President
Elizabeth Heard
“JOIN IN THE CHORUS!”
Dear Guild Members and Friends of the Guild,
Spring is just around the corner, and it feels like it is long overdue. It’s not fair to have a cold winter without any snow!
School Concerts are scheduled for Tuesday – Friday, March 19 – 22 from 8:45 am – 1:00 pm. Thank you to everyone who signed up already. We have slots left if you would be able to help. It is such a heart-warming experience. Music education is the foundation of our organization and our contribution to exposing children to orchestral music is important. It takes many hands to shepherd 20,000 students in and out of the Tanger Center quickly so please consider volunteering to assist – School Concerts Sign-up. Thanks to Amy Evans and Renee Anguili for taking the reins from Frances Vinoski, Nancy Bogard, Kim Littrell and team.
I hope you’ve had a chance to attend at least one Masterworks Concert during the Season of Seven. When you ask professional musicians how they found their passion, they usually speak about an experience in elementary school. I asked a couple of the Music Director candidates about how they got started. One said that in the fourth grade, his friend signed him up as a joke. He asked his parents if he could have an instrument and they said yes, so he decided to give it a go. Another was in sixth grade when he saw a high school student carrying a big, golden instrument. He asked the band teacher about the instrument and learned it was a tuba. He knew it was for him. I asked him if he was a big kid. No, but luckily for him his stepfather lugged the tuba around for two years until he was big enough to carry it himself.
We have our Spring Fling at Steinway on Friday, March 29 from 5 – 6:30 pm. Thanks to Annie Hadgkiss and Valerie Wolicki for helping to put this together. A very special Steinway pianist, Katie Mahan, will be performing. The daughter of a piano teacher and a solar physicist, Katie’s life has always been filled with music. She was first introduced to the world of live classical music at the age of two when she attended a performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Santa Fe Opera. At the age of four, inspired by attending a performance of Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Katie decided that she wanted to be a concert pianist. She subsequently began piano studies with her mother, Bobette Mahan, giving her first solo recital two years later at the age of six. I hope you can make it – register here – Spring Fling RSVP.
Classics should be on the lookout for the Spring get together. Details coming soon. Thanks to Peggy Follin, Anne Daniel, and Ellen Taft for planning this event.
At this time of year, you can subscribe to a Piano Key, for yourself, or in honor of or in memory of a friend.
Thank you for your continued support of the Guild.
2023-2024 President
Greensboro Symphony Guild
Music Matters!
