Outreach

 

Consistent with our mission of transforming peoples' lives through the sharing of classical music, Coastal Concerts engages in several activities in the community.  These include the awarding of scholarships to promising young musicians, bringing our performers into local schools to offer master classes and perform, collecting gently used instruments from local residents to give to students who can't afford to purchase an instrument, and providing performance opportunities in different venues for rising artists. Each of these activities is described below in detail.  

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Scholarship Program

 

As part of Coastal Concerts’ Outreach Program, and with support from many of our patrons, Coastal Concerts is proud to sponsor an annual Scholarship Competition for musically talented secondary and middle school students. This program is designed to help students continue their music education, and since the program’s inception in 2002, we've awarded more than $47,000  in scholarship monies to deserving students.   

Scholarships are available to all middle school and high school students in the Delmarva Peninsula.    

Students compete only against those in their own age group and the scholarships awarded are based upon performance. The Scholarship Awards can be used for music camps, university courses, instrument purchase/repair, or music lessons. The scholarship application period runs from November 1st, to February 1st each year.  Scholarship decisions are made in February and the Awards are given at the last concert of the season. 

 

Specific information on HOW TO APPLY including a Program Flyer,  Application, Scholarship Requirements, and other materials will be available on this site in the fall.  Please visit this site often for updated information on the Scholarship Program. If you have questions they can be directed to Carol Dennis, Executive Director at executivedirector@coastalconcerts.org.

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School Concerts and Master Classes

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This past season you could “hear a pin drop” in the auditorium of Mariner Middle School on the afternoon of January 17, 2020 when Tom Gallant and the Tesla String Quartet performed an In-School Outreach Concert to an audience of 90 very enthusiastic middle school music students.  In coordination with  Mr. Brian Mahoney, Instrumental Music Teacher at the school, the students had a rare opportunity to meet and dialogue with this outstanding group of artists, including Tom Gallant an internationally renowned oboist.  Tom is a First Prize Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International New York Competition and one of very few musicians to win this competition as an oboe soloist.  The Tesla String Quartet is praised for their “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play, regardless of era, style or technical demand” (the International Review of Music). The Tesla Quartet. It was hard to tell who was having more fun that afternoon…the students or the artists performing!

 

Beacon Middle School was the location of an In-School concert given by the Brasil Guitar Duo (Douglas Lora and João Luiz) on October 18th, 2019. In the audience were  200+ music students and teachers from the school.  Coordinating with the Band Director at Beacon, Mr. Robert Barbarita, the students were given the opportunity to hear the group perform, ask questions, and meet/dialogue with the artists at the conclusion of the concert.  Needless to say, Coastal Concerts was invited back again with more music and outstanding artists!

 

The Brasil Guitar Duo was the 2006 winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and hailed by Classical Guitar magazine for its “maturity of musicianship and technical virtuosity,” is equally at home on a classical or a world-music series. Its innovative programming features a seamless blend of traditional and Brazilian works, resulting in a full global touring schedule and a growing catalogue of critically acclaimed recordings.  The Duo has appeared internationally on major concert series and at festivals in Cuba, Germany, England, Canada, South Korea, Colombia, Brazil, Austria, Panama, Poland, and Bermuda. 

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RAVE: Rising Artist and Venue Expansion

 

In November 2018 The Longwood Foundation awarded Coastal Concerts a grant to operate the second iteration of our RAVE program (called RAVE2). This program runs from May 2019 through September 2021 and has Coastal Concerts collaborating with key community partners in underserved areas of southern Delaware. We have developed partnerships, including the Seaford (Seaford HS) and Indian River (Geogetown MS) School Districts, La Esperanza and First State, with others on the planning board. 

 

In October 2019, we arranged an outreach at H.O. Brittingham and Milton elementary schools and an open-to-public concert at Georgetown Middle School. The events featured Washington DC’s Trio Caliente, highly entertaining and internationally traveled performers of Spanish and Latin American music. The events were free and bilingual (Spanish/English). The outreach included a special Q&A session for immersion track Spanish students. In January 2020 we were a sponsor and participant at the second annual MultiCultural Night held at Seaford HS. CoCo board member and bagpiper extraordinaire Lani Spahr piped in the colors to start the event. We also donated several instruments to Band Director Matt Gurevich’s program. 

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“Toot Your Own Horn” Instrument Donations

 

Coastal Concerts provides aspiring young musicians access to quality musical instruments and equipment through our “Toot Your Own Horn” Program which, since 2004, has provided over 150 gently used, but playable, musical instruments to students in southern Delaware.  Through the generosity of  local residents, who donate usable musical instruments that they no longer play, Coastal Concerts is able to sustain this wonderful program. Instruments are distributed to students through the school music education programs in the area, including the Cape Henlopen School District and the Seaford School District. 

 

In October 2019, Coastal Concerts held its first Musical Instrument Donation Day at the Lewes Library.  Over 30 instruments were collected that day!   Other donation events will be held in the future, and will be communicated on Coastal Concerts’ website and in the local newspapers. If you have an instrument or instruments you would like to donate,  please contact Denise Emery, Chair, of the “Toot Your Own Horn”  Program at denise.emery@gmail.com.  Instrument pick-up from your home can also be arranged.  

 

Donations of musical instruments through “Toot Your Own Horn” may be tax-deductible.