Send Our Cello Students to Summer Festivals

Incredible Musical Opportunities for Our Students

Two of our cello performance students at the University of Montana have been accepted to study and perform at two of the country's premier orchestral summer music festivals and academies - the Brevard Music Festival in Brevard, NC, and the Round Top Festival and Institute in Round Top, Texas. Attending these summer festivals will offer our Montana students unparalleled opportunities for performance, instruction, and networking in the field of classical music. We need your help to get our students to these amazing places! 

What Your Gifts Will Support

Our fundraising will offset the significant costs associated with attending these festivals. Funds will help to cover:

1. Roundtrip airfare and other transportation costs for our students and their cellos: Did you know cellists have to buy two airplane tickets? One for themselves and one for the cello!
2.  Tuition and fees: summer festivals and institutes charge tuition and a variety of fees to support their programming and educational costs. Your support will help our students avoid paying a second tuition on top of their college expenses.
3.  Room and board: housing and meals during a months-long stay in another state add up. The festivals arrange dormitory housing and cafeteria meals for students, but those plans aren't free.
4. If we exceed our goal: your donations will be saved for string students attending summer festivals in the future. 

The career-advancing potential of studying at a summer festival can be life-changing for students. These students will have weekly cello lessons with leading cello teachers from around the country. They'll perform in orchestra concerts every weekend, learning a ton of orchestral repertoire and gaining valuable insight into the life of a professional orchestra musician. The other students at these festivals will become their lifelong colleagues as they continue to advance in their careers as musicians. Your support will enable them to experience a musical summer of transformative impact.

Send-off Recital (5/27/22): You're invited!

Our two students will present a send-off recital in the University of Montana Music Recital Hall at 7:30pm on Friday, May 27th. They will perform cello concertos by Joseph Haydn and Dmitri Shostakovich with Mac Merchant on piano. Admission to the recital will be a suggested $20 donation and all proceeds will go towards this fundraising goal. Come celebrate them and enjoy two of the most-loved pieces of the cello repertoire.

From our students:

"I am incredibly excited to be attending the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival because I will receive an extensive education in my personal and orchestral playing abilities. This opportunity will allow me to focus solely on my individual skills as a soloist and ensemble member, making me a stronger musician when I return to the University of Montana in the Fall. I am eager to reap the benefits of such an intense program because I will have so much more to offer the UM School of Music, Missoula Symphony Orchestra, and broader Montana community. I cannot express how thrilled and grateful I am for this chance to expand my education beyond the limits I thought possible and to bring that back to Missoula."

"I first attended the Round Top Festival Institute during the Summer of 2018, fresh out of a post-High School gap year and looking to rediscover most of the passion for music that I had lost. Despite barely getting accepted, and being at the ‘bottom of the pack’ of the musicians in attendance, that summer was one of the most transformative of my life. For the first time, I was able to participate in professional ensemble playing, take lessons from multiple renowned cello professors, and make friendships with other great musicians from around the world. While I was there I played more each day than I ever had in my life. By the end of the summer, I was a much more knowledgeable and complete musician than when I arrived. I returned in the summer of 2019 and had many great experiences again. The Covid-19 pandemic has made learning and performing music has been difficult, even impossible at times. After two difficult years, I want to return to this place where my path to becoming a professional cellist was at its most illuminated. I will to perform, learn, make lasting friendships, and have fun doing what I want to do for the rest of my life."

From Adam Collins, Cello Professor at University of Montana:

It is an absolute joy to work with these two students at the University of Montana. They are talented and hard-working cellists who rise to challenges to excel as leaders of the cello studio on campus, as teachers of their own cello students, and members of professional orchestras around the state. The contributions they make to our musical life in Missoula and beyond are immense. I am thrilled that they will spend the summer at these prestigious festivals. Simply being accepted to the Round Top Festival and Brevard Music Center Summer Music Festival and Institute is an endorsement of the high level of playing that these students have already achieved. Attending these festivals will give them another vital leg up as they advance their careers. They will perform professional-level orchestra concerts alongside peers and faculty mentors from the leading music schools around the United States. They will hear nightly concerts of internationally recognized guest artists. They will learn from new colleagues of student and young professional orchestras, building a network of peer musicians that will enrich their career possibilities forever. The richness of musical education that summer festivals offer is incredible. I am so grateful to those who donate to help make this experience possible for our University of Montana students.