August, 2006


Welcome to our first LINK e-newsletter! MusicLink is growing so fast that we want to update our current and past teachers and students, parents, donors, and business partners on a regular basis through email. We will continue to send out our Fall LINK issue each year with donor recognition, teacher hall of fame, and spotlights of our senior graduates. We thank you all for your support and value your feedback and suggestions.

MusicLink Student Wins
$10,000 Cooke Scholarship

Andrea Johnson, a 16 year old pianist studying with Elizabeth Stern from Milwaukie Oregon, was one of 25 students chosen nationwide to receive the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award in the amount of $10,000 to further her musical talents. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation paired with the radio program, From the Top to identify and nurture talented young musicians whose lack of financial resources might otherwise impede their progress. Recipients have the opportunity to perform on a live taping of From the Top and participate in Cultural Leadership Training to become community advocates for the arts through outreach activities. Andrea recently performed live at a taping in Dallas, Texas which was well received by the audience as well as the staff of From the Top. Personality plus! Go to the News page of the website to find out more about Andrea.

Click HERE to read an article about
Andrea from the Oregonian Newspaper.

Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
Supports MusicLink
for Another Year

The MusicLink Foundation received a grant for an additional $75,000 from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to extend their support of our programs for an additional year. This brings total support of over $150,000 from this foundation We were pleased to report record student growth in enrollment, adding over 600 new students to our roster this school year. Our teacher instruction reached over 250,000 hours, equivalent to over $4 million in scholarship donation. We know that this growth could not have been possible without the added support of this foundation and we thank them for sharing our mission to develop the full potential of promising students in need.

Do you know of a student who may
fit the requirements for a Cooke
Young Artist Award? Contact our
talent coordinator, Jennifer Kitchin
(singoutjen@verizon.net).

Over $4,800 in Camp
Scholarships Awarded

The MusicLink Foundation will be sending 18 students to camp this summer, studying piano, violin, cello, and voice.

Alyssa Spooner (second from left) at the
MTAC Alfred booth in Los Angeles, CA

Alyssa Spooner of Crestline, California is our first recipient of the $1,000 Alfred Camp Scholarship for a MusicLink student who shows high achievement and seeks a summer music program experience at a camp that exceeds our $250 normal camp scholarship. Alyssa, a piano student of Noelle Tinturin will be attending the Idyllwild Arts Academy this summer in Idyllwild, CA.

Other camp scholarship recipients are:
  • MN: Yolando Larson, Mai Moua, Ladaj Steele, Pang Thao, Ying Vang, Imala Witherspoon, Alastair Witherspoon
  • OK: Sarah Duvall, Jared McCoy
  • OR: Kai Talim
  • PA: Katie Chadwick, Alyssa Heim, Daniel Heim, Jonathan Heim, Kyle Karlagave
  • TX: Miguel Espinoza Chavez
  • VA: Kevin Lu

MusicLink Connects with
Verdine White of Earth Wind and Fire

We are pleased to announce an exciting new connection with the Verdine White Foundation, created by the bass guitarist of Earth Wind and Fire and his wife, Mashelle. The Whites share our mission to bring quality training and the comprehensive development of music to underprivileged youth. Executive Director Joanne Haroutounian and Development Coordinator Carroll Hauptle met with the Whites to discuss ways we can work together to develop programs in Los Angeles and Washington DC, specifically targeting inner city youth through lessons with a jazz, pop, rock focus.

www.verdinewhite.org  earthwindandfire.com
Verdine White (center) with Flying Fiddlers from
New York and teacher, Jeanne Dolamore (front left)

MusicLink students enjoyed free tickets and back stage passes to Earth Wind and Fire concerts in several cities. Comments from a New York student: "My name is Stephen Minor and on Monday, the 24th of July, I joined Mrs. Dolamore and a few Flying Fiddler Friends to go to an Earth Wind & Fire concert. I was very excited to go. Their music was phenomenal. I loved and enjoyed it a lot. Most of us were in the front row seats, so it was like you could feel the music that they were playing. Their playing really inspired me. Not only me, but also the other people watching them. At the end we had backstage passes to talk to each one of the members personally. We met B. David Whitworth, Bobby Burns, Vadim Zibershtein, and Verdine White. All of them encouraged us to keep moving forward in our music. I got autographs from most of them. It was very fun and I enjoyed it. We all thank MusicLink and Verdine White for making this experience possible for the Flying Fiddlers."

   -- Stephen Minor, Grade 9,
      Poughkeepsie City Schools, New York
www.musiclinkfoundation.org