We end the school year - mostly virtual - with a sense of accomplishment for a job well done, despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic. We applaud the MusicLink teachers who found creative ways to continue to teach online, with unique performance experiences through YouTube for their students.

This issue highlights Spring fund-raising events that collectively raised $10,000 for the MusicLink Foundation. The MusicLink Foundation will again provide camp scholarships to students seeking summer experiences as well as achievement awards for outstanding seniors. Anyone seeking to be part of our camp sponsorship program will find details in this issue. We thank our wonderful teachers, donors, and business pertners who all help us bring ongoing music lessons to students in need.

A Successful MusicLink
Virtual Playathon

The first MusicLink Virtual Playathon premiered on YouTube on May 1st, featuring 38 performances by musicians from ages eight to ninety-one! We thank all our performers, who submitted videos representing 12 states, from New York to California. Performances featured a variety of instrumentalists, vocalists, and pianists. The finale featured David Kim, our Alumni Coordinator accompanying a vocalist from Virginia Commonwealth University and Justin Kauflin, a MusicLink alumnus and professional jazz pianist who has toured with Quincy Jones.

Our thanks to board member Ginny Gutierrez for finding professional videographers, Juliet and Ben Valazquez, to organize separate videos to produce a full hour-plus long presentation.

Thus far, the playathon has raised $4000 for the MusicLink Foundation. We encourage you to view the performances and donate online to assist us in reaching more MusicLink students through lessons and camp scholarships.

Virtual Playathon on YouTube

Mu Phi Epsilon
Benefit Recital for MusicLink

On Sunday afternoon March 14th, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon held its 22nd Annual Benefit Concert with the theme of "Focus on Composers". Four local performer/composers, Carmelita Guse (voice), Sharon Kaplan (piano), Jim Reilly (voice) and Rachel Brandwein (harp) were the featured artists all performing original compositions. Rachel was assisted by soprano, Hannah Armstrong and alto, Krista Costin.

The concert raised funding for Music Education for Young People and the Minnesota MusicLink program shared as beneficiary with Hopewell Music Cooperative North and the St. Paul Public School Music Program.

The hour-long concert was a beautifully organized virtual event and raised $1,000 to benefit young musicians in the Twin Cities MusicLink program. The Minnesota MusicLink program is honored and grateful to have been chosen as a beneficiary of this event.

2Gether Productions MusicLink
Playathon Raises Over $5,000

Kathryn and Andy Karg

On the first two Saturdays in March, 2Gether Productions of St. Paul hosted a virtual MusicLink Playathon to benefit the Minnesota MusicLink program. Kathryn and Andy Karg, who own 2Gether Productions, organized the event which showcased performances by over 50 students from their studio—including students from other states who take online lessons from the couple.

We are so grateful to Kathryn and Andy for hosting this wonderful event which raised over $5,000 for the Minnesota MusicLink program.

MusicLink Collaboration
with Back to Bach

Back to Bach Project (www.backtobachproject.org) is a nonprofit organization aiming to inspire and develop music and arts education to children while teaching them the value of hard work and passion. Through a mentorship program, they partner with various schools and organizations to provide practice help for students who are in need. All MusicLink students are eligible for this free mentorship program! All mentorship and presentations are currently online.

Back to Bach mentors help students practice orchestral, chamber music as well as private lesson material. They aim to show the importance of grit and never giving up.

Back to Bach mentors are highly accomplished student artists. The high school mentors attend recognized pre-college music programs while the undergraduate and graduate student mentors study music as a major or as a double major. Additionally, all mentors go through intensive mentorship training by distinguished music professionals. The selective process aims to provide our communities with the highest quality of mentorship.

Back to Bach also offers presentations to schools and community groups to expose children to instruments and promote interest in learning an instrument.

If you are interested in connecting one of your MusicLink students with a Back to Bach mentor to help them with practicing what you assign at their lessons, please contact Washington State Coordinator Amanda Snell amandacs87@gmail.com.

Back to Bach on YouTube

E-Z Notes and Promise
to Practice Events

The summer months are a perfect time for a MusicLink Promise to Practice event in teacher studios. Students promise to practice a certain number of hours, setting a goal for the summer or towards a recital or performance.

As an incentive to promote this event, e-znotes.com is offering a complimentary E-Z Notes magnetic board for teachers and E-Z Read Card Games for students who raise $50. In addition, E-Z Notes offers a MusicLink member discount of 50% on all of their educational products, including popular learning tools: E-Z Key/Scale Blocks, E-Z Rhythm Blocks, large E-Z Notes double-sided magnetic board for classrooms and more!

MusicLink Spotlights

When you enter the MusicLink Foundation website's home page you see three different spotlight articles featuring a MusicLink student, teacher, and alumnus. We encourage teachers to send in these spotlights to share with readers seeking to know more about what we do through MusicLink. The spotlights currently featured on the website are Ngorli Paintsil, student of Sylvia Lange (MN), teacher Judy Zylstra of Villa Grove IL, and alumnus Alejandro Galdo, former student of Cora Lee Khambatta (VA).

We also enjoy featuring students through our MusicLink Video Spotlights that are distributed through email to all who receive the LINK. We are featuring different levels of students to emphasize MusicLink's goal of bringing music lessons to students in need, from beginning to advanced levels. The May Video Spotlight featured Maya Hasegawa, a freshman at Stony Brook University who studied with Tara Slobodkin for 15 years through MusicLink.

Maya Hasegawa Spotlight

Music Camp Sponsorship Program

The MusicLink Foundation provides camp scholarships of $250 to any MusicLink student who has taken lessons for over six months and shows an interest in the opportunity of a summer music program experience. Students choose the music camp they would like to attend and the MusicLink Foundation works with the teachers and camps to help fund these valuable summer experiences.

Individuals who wish to support a specific student or group of students for these camp scholarships can request to be a camp sponsor with a donation of $250 or more. The organization will provide the name of the student and camp that he/she will attend to personalize the donation. Donors should specify Music Camp Sponsorship Program when they contribute online or with a check in the mail.

Individuals who wish to sponsor one of our more advanced students may wish to make a contribution of $1,000 or more to help these students attend the more prestigious camp programs that last for multiple weeks and can often cost $5,000 or more. Contact the national office at 703-534-9490 or info@musiclinkfoundation.org

Meet our Assistant Director

While not a musician or music teacher herself, our MusicLink Assistant Director Andrea Shore loves helping kids have access to music lessons and supporting the teachers and coordinators who help make that happen. Andrea has been our Assistant Director for 6.5 years, the last 20 months of which she has also been working full-time as a school administrator at a small private school. When she isn't working, Andrea is often driving her 11-year-old around, encouraging her 18-year-old to do his homework, or Facetiming with her 20-year-old daughter in England. Despite being born in California, Andrea grew up in Arlington, Virginia, where MusicLink was founded and continues to be headquartered. Andrea's undergrad and graduate degrees are from the George Washington University, though she happily spent three semesters attending college in Paris. Andrea and her husband live in Annandale, Virginia, with their kids, dog and baby turtle.

New Teachers for MusicLink

The following teachers joined MusicLink in the past two months bringing our current total to 286 and our overall total to 3,980.

CA: Cassandra Lindop; FL:Yvette McCrory-LoPrete; IL: Patti Nyien returning; LA: Ruth Roland; MI:Tamara Melton; MN: Megan Bauman, Eric Bell, Elysia Larson, Laura Potratz, Liz Raihala; NC: Ted Chaffman; OH: Humay Gasimzadeh; OK: Courtney Toumayan; OR:Emma Downing; SC: Esteban Pope; VA: Matt Richardson.

New Partners for MusicLink

MusicLink added Forrest Kinney Publications as a new business partner and the following organizations as alliance partners: Binghamton Philharmonic (NY); Columbia Music Teachers Association (SC); Headwaters Music & Arts (MN); Back to Bach Project