The winners and runners-up performed on the winners recital held at the end of the day.

Grades K-1 Winner
Caroline Jia

Grades K-1 Honorable Mention
Audra Jenike

Grades 2-3 Winners
Angelina Wang
Mateo Timm

Grades 2-3 Honorable Mentions
Jordan Powers
Liam Richards
Aditya Senthil

Grades 4-5 Winners
Asha Keck
Colin Mayo
Emily Hauer

Grades 4-5 Honorable Mentions
Leyna Hahnke
Karina Mose
Krithika Senthil
Gabriel Smith
Kaden Van De Loo

Grades 6-7 Winners
Kaylann Adler
Pierce Blohowiak

Grades 6-7 Honorable Mentions
Reagan Blohowiak
Kristina Jeng
Brian Zhou

Grades 8-9 Winners
Marc Padilla
Liam Mayo

Grades 8-9 Honorable Mentions
Evans Chen
Payton Fors
Daria Van De Loo
Charles Wu

Grades 10-11-12 Winners
Frankie Beach
Brandon Li

Grades 10-11-12 Honorable Mentions
Vanessa Beach
Grace Flaherty

The Academy will present four concerts this weekend.  Saturday’s concerts include the Academy String Orchestra (ASTRO) and the LAMP orchestra at 3 p.m., and the Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble, at 7 p.m.  Sunday the Girl Choir program presents their spring concert Here’s to Song at 2 and 7 p.m.

ASTRO, an ensemble of fifth through eighth grade string students directed by Janet Bond Sutter, will perform a variety of pieces from the traditional Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, to Beethoven’s Allegretto from Symphony No. 7. The adult level LAMP orchestra, under the direction of Rachel Richards, will present a variety of folk songs and dances. Both orchestras join in a fiddling finale, Fiddles on Fire by Mark Williams.

The middle school level Symphonic Band directed by David Hamilton performs Tichelli’s Cajun Folk Songs and Copeland’s Down A Country Lane. Michael Ross, director of the Wind Ensemble, will lead the high school level ensemble in a series of dances, including Shostakovich’s Folk Dances, Danzon No. 2 by Marquez, and Part 1 of Alfred Reed’s Armenian Dances. The ensembles join on stage in Harold Walter’s  lively Instant Concert, a compilation of 30 separate well-known melodies from symphonies, operas, folk songs, spirituals, marches…all in the space of three minutes.

Sunday’s final concert of the Girl Choir season features 330 girls in six choirs, grades 3-12, who will perform music celebrating the joys of singing. Conductors of the program include Karrie Been, Karen Bruno, Amber Evey Schmidt, Patty Merrifield, Cheryl Meyer, and Debbie Lind.

Tickets for all weekend concerts are available at the Lawrence box office, 920-832-6749.

A  generous donor has given the Academy an autographed Green Bay Packer Donald Driver football jersey, and we would like to make it available to Academy friends and families.
We will be holding a 5-day e-mail auction, awarding the jersey to the top bidder this Friday, March 1, at noon.  All proceeds will benefit Academy programs and the tutti scholarship fund.

Jersey Details:
Donald Driver, the Packers all-time leading receiver, and 2012 winner of “Dancing with the Stars,” hand signed this Green Bay Packer jersey in black marker, along with #80 and “Go Pack Go.” The unframed jersey is green, size large.

How to win:

• Minimum opening bid is $150.
• If you are interested in bidding on the jersey, send an e-mail to acad_music@lawrence.edu with your opening bid by Wednesday, February 27 at 8 a.m.  Include your name, phone number, e-mail address and bid.
• Anyone who places a bid by Wednesday 8 a.m. will be included in any follow-up e-mail bidding notifications. The only information that will be sent to participating bidders is the current top bid amount. Your name and contact information will not be shared.
• We will send notification of the top opening bid to everyone who placed an opening bid.
• After notification of the top opening bid, you may continue to place bids via e-mail through Friday at noon. We will copy anyone who is in the bidding for the jersey when we receive additional bids.
• Bidding will close at noon on Friday, March 1 at noon.

Winning bidder may purchase the jersey with cash, credit card or check payable to Lawrence Academy of Music.

A frigid February evening had settled in quickly and it was dark around five, but the weather outside the Warch Center at Lawrence was in sharp contrast to the energy and warmth inside. At one end of this complex, overlooking the river, thirty to forty 11-18 year olds were gathered to share their music with each other and their assembled audience. They were united by quiet pride in their ability and a palpable sense of excitement. Among them was my daughter, who had been asked to perform. That evening, she was nervous. She wanted to help teachers she cared about: she wanted to give back to a community that had inspired her and nurtured her. As my husband and I watched, we saw teachers, and students, encourage, guide and support each other. We watched young people glow in a sense of achievement and enjoyment. We saw poise, pride and a sense of self –worth. We were a small family of four but in that room we knew we had a much bigger unit supporting us in values we held dear: a love of the arts, a belief in self –realization, and deep desire to share these possibilities with the rest of the community. The event was Tutti; the purpose, to raise money for scholarships through combined creativity.

The huge irony was we would not have even considered attending if Claire had not been asked to sing.  With this opportunity came the gift of reduced tickets. We didn’t have a lot to give in a monetary sense and we thought that ruled us out.  However, that night, as these young people performed, we realized that we gave by sharing our talents, talents nurtured by the very place that we wanted to support and, in giving, we grew as individuals and a family.

We were not the only ones that had discovered this. The audience was mixed and many of the Academy’s strongest supporters were not there in person; instead they were represented through the beautiful baskets at the opposite end of the room. People had given talents as well as items. There was a baby-sitting basket, from  Bel Canto girls offering time and company; there were music lessons donated by teachers, and there was a beautiful basket of handmade cards for all occasions. That night my family had an important lesson reinforced; we all have something to offer.

This year my husband and I are both volunteering our time. As a family, we have created a bread- making basket. Each of us has helped with the cooking (and sampling!). Already, we have had fun on a limited budget and we’ve had a chance to be creative. On the night, it will be a desire to help, and a sense of what we have to offer that will be most important. We really want to share this evening with as many of you as we can, so please join us.

• Can you volunteer on the night? If so please call on 832 6632 and talk to Cheryl or Sara about possibilities.
•  Donate just a small item to a studio or an ensemble.
• Be creative! Give of your talents and design a basket to represent these.

This is more about the size of your heart and imagination than the size of your donation. When our family came to Appleton, we recognized the Academy offered us a creative and generous home, and that is why we stayed. Please join us so we can share the magic that happens when all voices are working together.

By Anne Powling

If you would like to learn more about this opportunity in person, please join us at one of two parent meetings run by the Regional Director of The Achievement Program:

Saturday, January 5, 1:00 pm

or

Saturday, January 5, 3:30 pm

Both meetings will take place in Shattuck Hall 156 in the Lawrence Conservatory (classroom behind the Chapel).  This will be your opportunity to ask questions about the program.

The Academy has also applied to be an assessment center.  We need approximately 25 assessments this coming May to run the site; existing sites in Wisconsin are in Eau Claire, Hartland, Racine, and Watertown.

If you are interested in learning more about The Achievement Program, please join us on January 5^th.  RSVP if you plan to attend:  920-832-6632.