From the Director

Mimi Zweig

From Mimi Zweig, Executive Director

Welcome to our second season at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. This promises to be another exciting year. Highlights will include solo and honors recitals, group and faculty concerts, Joshua Bell Benefit Concert, Grandparents’ Day Spring Concert, and our Spring Benefit concert which will close our Fall/Spring season on May 13, 1992.

Your efforts and generous support last year are very much appreciated; they enabled us to begin our second year in sound financial condition. The Parents Organization Flower Sale yielded a profit of $6,500 for the String Academy, and the Spring Benefit Concert netted $4,500.  With the help of private sponsors and foundations, we were able to reach our goal of $20,000 by the end of May 1991.

We are starting this year with money from the Milwaukee Foundation and the City of Milwaukee (via the Milwaukee Arts Board) totaling $22,000.  This support is being used for our scholarship fund which is reaching talented and deserving children.

Our fund-raising goal for this year is $100,000. This ambitious goal is due in large part to our decision to start an Endowment Fund to help secure our future. In addition, the cost of our operations has increased this year with Jim Olsen on a well-deserved, fulltime salary. Finally, we have several special projects planned for this year. We would like to use some of our funds for our Washington, D.C./Baltimore concert tour this spring.  Also “in planning” are special events such as master classes, expansion of the Festive Week of Strings (this summer we will have three Festive Weeks), an adult summer camp for the serious amateur, and a teacher training course. Our growth and development is limited only by our imagination, energy, and resources. Our future looks bright, and I look forward to our new year. —Mimi