OCTOBER 10, 2011

Autumn brings many lovely things into our lives; cooler weather, approaching
holidays, and the return of The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra to Prescott!

The current Board has been working hard all summer to streamline many of our
activities and keep expenses to a minimum. Under the guidance of our
Treasurer, Eileen Grant, and with the assistance of the entire board, we have cut
costs in several areas including the printing of our programs. Last year when
interest rates on CDs were much better than they are currently, Eileen invested
our funds in staggered CDs enabling us to offer generous scholarships in the
spring. We want you to be assured that we are very good stewards of the
donations you so generously make. Your donations help subsidize bringing the
Phoenix Symphony to Prescott.

Our new Office Manager, Pat Forrest, is also budget conscious, and is
purchasing supplies where she can get the very best price. We carefully monitor
every expense. During the past month we replaced our color printer. The old
one seemed to eat ink and very expensive cartridges at that! Our new printer will
pay for itself very quickly in the cheaper cartridges it uses. So as you watch your
budget, YSA is watching our budget.

I encourage you to go to our website occasionally to check out what is new.
Brent Bond has made using the site easy and filled it with interesting and helpful
information. Recently we added new information on our Scholarship Procedure.
Any music major student interested in applying for one of our scholarships can
find everything they need at the site. Our Scholarship Committee recently
finished revisions to the process. We wanted to bring our scholarship procedure
in line with major universities and corporations. I think the committee, under the
direction of Arlon Inman, has done a great job. We are notifying all high schools
in Yavapai County as well as the major colleges and universities in Arizona that
these scholarships are available to residents of Yavapai County (having parents
residing in the County).

We were awarded two grants this year. Thanks go to David Sundberg for writing
for the grants. We received $5,125 from The Arizona Commission on the Arts,
and $1,476 from The City of Prescott and Prescott Area Arts and Humanities Council.
The $1,476 goes into our Scholarship Fund, and the $5,125 can be used to help meet
operating expenses. Our plan is to expand the number of grant applications
for the coming year.

You recently received information regarding a bus trip to Phoenix for a matinee
performance of an all Gershwin concert. This is a pay-your-own-way trip. We
have a block of tickets on hold (at a 20% discount). Of course, if you’d like to go
and prefer to drive, that is possible too. If you’d like to go and have not made a
reservation, please call Pat and let her know your intention as the bus is filling up
fast. We will still have our rehearsal bus trip later in the year at no cost to
members

What do you think of the Performance Hall renovations so far? I think things are
looking very fresh, and it will be interesting to see the end result when all is
complete. Some of you knew that an elevator had been planned during the
renovation. As with most building projects, there were surprises along the way
that resulted in cost overruns. So for now the elevator is on hold. I’m sure those
of you sitting in the balcony appreciate the new lighting. If you see a member of
the college staff, be sure to tell them thank you for a job well done, well, almost
done. They really worked hard all summer so that the Hall would be usable in
September.

As the holiday season approaches, I’d like you to think of giving the gift of music
when selecting gifts for friends and family. We still have many excellent seats
available, and who wouldn’t enjoy a couple of tickets to a Phoenix Symphony
concert?

Also, for your convenience, we will have Phoenix Symphony CDs available for
purchase beginning with our November concert. Three of these CDs feature
Steven Moeckel, our concertmaster. The fourth CD features The Phoenix
Symphony and Chorus under the direction of Michael Christie. This CD is A
Navajo Oratorio. You may stop by the office to purchase these CDs or purchase
them in November at our concert. They cost $18.00, and a portion of the
proceeds come to YSA to help with our expenses. We’ll shortly put a detailed
description of the CDs on our website for your information.

I’ll end by wishing everyone a joyful holiday season!

Carol Sundberg
President
Yavapai Symphony Association