Annual Performathon helps provide musical access for all!

First presented in 1988, the annual Performathon involves scores of Music School students performing virtually non-stop throughout the day to support the Financial Aid Fund. Ranging in age from young children to adults, from beginners to advanced musicians, students perform as soloists and in ensembles – classical, jazz, popular and folk music.

You are invited to drop in for part or all of the day’s performances. And, if you like what you hear, we invite you to make a gift to support the Music School’s Financial Aid Fund. The goal for the day is $12,000. (Pledge Central is just down the hall from the Community Room, or drop your gift in the green bowl at performances.)

True to its mission to make music accessible to everyone, the School has offered students financial aid since its first year, beginning with $250 to help three students. In 1998, the School’s Music in the Community Initiative (MICI) proactively expanded that mission of access by forming partnerships with human service agencies and public schools to serve students who could not study at the Music School because of income or disability.

This year, the $100,000 Financial Aid Fund that is supporting 150 students, plus the $100,000 in contributed income that funds 540 weekly students in our Music in the Community Initiative, greatly expands access for students from low-income families by providing 49 percent of our 1,400 weekly students with free or reduced-cost instruction.

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The financial aid support provided by the Performathon complements generous gifts from:

2013 - 2014 Financial Aid Funders:

Oleonda Jameson Trust

J. Henry Hanhisalo Charitable Trust

Rolfe and Rumford Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation

The Frederick Smyth Institute of Music

Oliver S. & Jennie R. Donaldson Charitable Trust

Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust

Rock On Foundation

Rotary Club of Concord

Norman N. & Gale R. Hochgraf Charitable Foundation

Ruth "Penny" Zinz Memorial Scholarship

Mrs. Jeanette Stevenson Ruiter Scholarship Fund

Rose White Winship Scholarship Fund

Warren N. Boulter Scholarship Fund

Carolyn Parrott Scholarship Fund