Dear K-State Symphony Orchestra Alums and Friends, March 13, 2021
Greetings from the Kansas State University String Division! Our school year is well underway, and while instruction looks different this year, our program is still thriving. This fall we welcomed over ten new string majors and minors to K-State and twenty-three new string players to the KSU Symphony Orchestra. In addition, the orchestra recently completed a successful 2019-2020 season featuring works by Beethoven, Dvorak, Holst, and Gershwin, as well as Fanny Mendelssohn, Jessie Montgomery, and Rebecca Clarke. Even during a pandemic, the orchestra continues to grow musically, rehearsing in small chamber orchestras to prepare for their concert on Anderson Lawn this month and creating videos for an invited performance at KMEA this February. While we are excited and grateful for these experiences, and thrilled with the growth in our ranks, this embarrassment of riches comes with a price - one we may not be able to pay in the very near future without your help.
For nearly 50 years, the K-State String Division has sponsored hundreds of student string players-- maybe even you!-- through the String Fling Scholarship Fund. String Fling is an annual festival that brings hundreds of middle-school orchestra students to our campus for a weekend filled with music, fun, and community. The student registration fees from the event, after expenses are paid, provide a 100% profit revenue source for future scholarship dollars. However, because of Covid-19, we were not able to hold our traditional event this year, creating a vacuum of funding for future (and some current) String Fling scholarships. We did host a wonderful virtual "String Fling @ Home" in January, featuring workshops in playing fiddle, mariachi, playing fast and playing with a beautiful sound, talks by a luthier on instrument making, games, and an escape room-- but with Zoom fatigue, financial uncertainty, and teachers having less time with their students in general, attendance was less than a fourth of a normal year, with a very reduced registration fee.
Without the ability to raise these funds, future scholarships for K-State string students will no longer be available. It is for this reason we write you today.
This letter is our humble request for your help this year. Would you consider making a donation to the fund, or even sponsoring a scholarship recipient for the next one or two semesters? Scholarship levels range between $200-500 per semester, and we normally award around $10,000 of scholarship money each year. Most recipients are not music majors, as we have university scholarship funds specifically designated for those students. It has been a long-standing tradition of KSUSO, carried on by Dr. Dirks, to encourage our future engineers, doctors, teachers, computer programmers, architects and the like to continue playing in college. We believe that music can and should be a life-long avocation.
Your support will provide incredible KSUSO experiences for current students and the next generation of orchestra members. You can read about some of our current students, and what the orchestra means to each of them, here. As a token of gratitude, your contribution will be acknowledged in all KSUSO programs for the next two seasons.
We know that there are many financial demands these days. Please know that any amount of giving, large or small, would be gratefully received. Each contribution brings us closer to maintaining the wonderful support we’ve been able to offer K-State musicians over the past 45 years.
To support the student musicians of K-State, you can make your contribution to the String Fling Scholarship fund by completing one of two options:
1) You can send a check, payable to Kansas State University (please write String Fling in the memo line) to the following address:
2) You can make a contribution through Paypal using the button at the bottom of the letter.
Thank you for your generous consideration of this request. We hope you will join the KSUSO for future concerts, whether they be online or on campus. You can find out more about what’s new with the KSUSO on the orchestra’s website or Facebook page, "K-State Orchestra." Please know that your friendship and support is treasured.
With Best Wishes,
Cora Cooper, D.M. Rachel Dirks, Ph.D.
String Division Chair Director of Orchestral Studies
Applied Violin & Viola Applied Cello
Chamber Music String Education
Greetings from the Kansas State University String Division! Our school year is well underway, and while instruction looks different this year, our program is still thriving. This fall we welcomed over ten new string majors and minors to K-State and twenty-three new string players to the KSU Symphony Orchestra. In addition, the orchestra recently completed a successful 2019-2020 season featuring works by Beethoven, Dvorak, Holst, and Gershwin, as well as Fanny Mendelssohn, Jessie Montgomery, and Rebecca Clarke. Even during a pandemic, the orchestra continues to grow musically, rehearsing in small chamber orchestras to prepare for their concert on Anderson Lawn this month and creating videos for an invited performance at KMEA this February. While we are excited and grateful for these experiences, and thrilled with the growth in our ranks, this embarrassment of riches comes with a price - one we may not be able to pay in the very near future without your help.
For nearly 50 years, the K-State String Division has sponsored hundreds of student string players-- maybe even you!-- through the String Fling Scholarship Fund. String Fling is an annual festival that brings hundreds of middle-school orchestra students to our campus for a weekend filled with music, fun, and community. The student registration fees from the event, after expenses are paid, provide a 100% profit revenue source for future scholarship dollars. However, because of Covid-19, we were not able to hold our traditional event this year, creating a vacuum of funding for future (and some current) String Fling scholarships. We did host a wonderful virtual "String Fling @ Home" in January, featuring workshops in playing fiddle, mariachi, playing fast and playing with a beautiful sound, talks by a luthier on instrument making, games, and an escape room-- but with Zoom fatigue, financial uncertainty, and teachers having less time with their students in general, attendance was less than a fourth of a normal year, with a very reduced registration fee.
Without the ability to raise these funds, future scholarships for K-State string students will no longer be available. It is for this reason we write you today.
This letter is our humble request for your help this year. Would you consider making a donation to the fund, or even sponsoring a scholarship recipient for the next one or two semesters? Scholarship levels range between $200-500 per semester, and we normally award around $10,000 of scholarship money each year. Most recipients are not music majors, as we have university scholarship funds specifically designated for those students. It has been a long-standing tradition of KSUSO, carried on by Dr. Dirks, to encourage our future engineers, doctors, teachers, computer programmers, architects and the like to continue playing in college. We believe that music can and should be a life-long avocation.
Your support will provide incredible KSUSO experiences for current students and the next generation of orchestra members. You can read about some of our current students, and what the orchestra means to each of them, here. As a token of gratitude, your contribution will be acknowledged in all KSUSO programs for the next two seasons.
We know that there are many financial demands these days. Please know that any amount of giving, large or small, would be gratefully received. Each contribution brings us closer to maintaining the wonderful support we’ve been able to offer K-State musicians over the past 45 years.
To support the student musicians of K-State, you can make your contribution to the String Fling Scholarship fund by completing one of two options:
1) You can send a check, payable to Kansas State University (please write String Fling in the memo line) to the following address:
- Cora Cooper
- Kansas State University School of Music, Theatre, and Dance
- 109 McCain Auditorium
- 1501 Goldstein Cir.
- Manhattan, KS 66506
2) You can make a contribution through Paypal using the button at the bottom of the letter.
Thank you for your generous consideration of this request. We hope you will join the KSUSO for future concerts, whether they be online or on campus. You can find out more about what’s new with the KSUSO on the orchestra’s website or Facebook page, "K-State Orchestra." Please know that your friendship and support is treasured.
With Best Wishes,
Cora Cooper, D.M. Rachel Dirks, Ph.D.
String Division Chair Director of Orchestral Studies
Applied Violin & Viola Applied Cello
Chamber Music String Education
The January 2020 String Fling crew.