Contact:
Carl Herko
Vice President, Media & Public Relations
503-416-6347
cherko@orsymphony.org
August 1, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(PORTLAND, Ore.) – Tiny Tillamook is justifiably known across Oregon for everything from the quality of its dairy products to its spectacular coastal scenery, but it could well acquire another reputation – as Music Central – when musicians from the Oregon Symphony adopt the coastal community as a sort of home-away-from-home during a special two-year collaboration.
Tillamook will be the site of the Oregon Symphony’s seventh Community Music Partnership from 2008 through 2010, the orchestra has announced. The partnership – the orchestra’s largest community-engagement activity – is a nationally recognized, one-of-a-kind program that aims to strengthen music education in small rural communities across Oregon.
The first year of the partnership will see Oregon Symphony musicians, conductors and educators regularly traveling the 115 miles from Portland to Tillamook to present some 350 musical activities ranging from master classes to small ensemble performances and chamber music concerts. In spring 2009, first-year activities will culminate with community and youth concerts featuring the full orchestra.
During the second year, the focus shifts to sustainability projects such as teacher workshops and planning for continued community involvement in music education. Throughout, the Oregon Symphony will work closely with its primary partnership collaborators – Tillamook School District #9 and the Monday Musical Club of Tillamook – as well as other local arts groups.
For each new partnership, Oregon Symphony staff members work with a local advisory committee and schools to design activities based on their own community’s goals.
“It’s not about us coming in and doing everything for them,” explained Monica Hayes, the orchestra’s education and community-engagement program director. “It’s them designing a curriculum focus and the community concert lineup they want and need, using our resources. Inevitably, these planners act like kids in a candy shop as they plan their year with the orchestra.”
Tillamook, with fewer than 5,000 residents, was chosen by the orchestra as its 2008-2010 partner because of its commitment to rebuilding an economically devastated music program after five years of offering no music education in its elementary schools.
“This new partnership with the Oregon Symphony will give our students the gift of music that has been missing in our elementary schools for the last few years because of budget issues,” said Ed Armstrong, grants and foundation director for Tillamook School District #9. “We are very excited as a school and a community to bring this new partnership to the Tillamook students and teachers.”
The Oregon Symphony’s Community Music Partnership receives funding from the Ford Family Foundation of Roseburg, Ore., and the Oregon Arts Commission.
“As one of the funders of the Community Music Partnership over several years, it is particularly gratifying to see the initiative and community-building spirit evidenced by Tillamook’s application and selection,” said Norm Smith, president of the Ford Family Foundation. “Citizens in this community continue to work on the vitality of the city and the region with great energy and vision. We offer our warmest congratulations to Tillamook and the Oregon Symphony.”
Community leaders are eager to welcome the orchestra back to Tillamook.
"I am absolutely thrilled that Tillamook has been awarded the Community Music Partnership,” said Marianne Gienger, cultural events director of the Monday Musical Club of Tillamook. “When the Oregon Symphony first came to Tillamook in 1994 for a community concert, it left such a big impact on our town that we were encouraged to bring in other performing groups. Since that time, the Monday Musical Club has been successfully providing from four to seven cultural events each season.
“We look forward to the presence of the Oregon Symphony during the next two years and the impact they will leave on our schools, as well as our community."
Previous Community Music Partnerships have taken the Oregon Symphony to nearly every part of the state, from Klamath Falls, North Bend and Redmond to Baker City, Estacada, La Grande and Cove. In 2005, the Community Music Partnership program was honored by the League of American Orchestras with its MetLife Award for Excellence in Community Engagement.