Dear Friends of The Chappaqua Orchestra,
This year has been extremely difficult for arts organizations around the world, and as you are aware, The Chappaqua Orchestra (TCO) has not been immune. We held our last live concert on March 8th at the Tarrytown Music Hall. Music Director candidate Reuben Blundell lead TCO for a beautiful performance of works by women composers, celebrating International Women’s Day. March 8 was the last weekend before the COVID-19 shutdown in New York, and as a result, our concert attendance was very low. With two more concerts left in our 2019/2020 season, we had to cancel everything due to safety concerns. This included our Together in Music Family Concert, with Music Director candidate Barbara Yahr, celebrating children with special needs. We also had to postpone the final rounds of our 5th Annual Concerto Competition, along with our Concerto Winners Concert, with our final Music Director candidate, Teresa Cheung.
We sorely missed the opportunity to enjoy the sunset together and serenade you from the New Castle gazebo this summer. We used that time to record our first “virtual orchestra” performance, and we are proud to present it to you here: Music Director candidate Barbara Yahr conducts TCO in Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46, “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. All of the TCO musicians volunteered their time to record their parts for this exciting performance, we hope you enjoy!
2020-2021 Season Update
We have continued the hard work of planning for our next season. As of this writing, we will not be able to have in-person concerts this fall. Instead, we will be working on a filmed Chamber Music series. We are hoping to have several chamber concerts, in various venues, without audience. We will film these concerts and distribute them on social media, local television and in email communications. If in-person concerts will be allowed in the new year, we are working on two concerts for spring 2021: the return of our Music is Science Family Concert (tentatively April 2021) and our postponed Concerto Winners Concert (tentatively May 2021).
Virtual Orchestra Giving Campaign
With the stoppage of all live performances in the tri-state area, many of our musicians have had to rely on unemployment just to make ends meet. We would like to offer any help we can to our colleagues, and believe that if we can raise approximately $10,000 in our Virtual Orchestra Giving Campaign, we will be able to compensate our performers for their contributions to these upcoming concerts and recordings.
Virtual Orchestra performances: $6,000
(3 performances at $2,000 each)
Virtual Chamber Music Series: $4,000
(4 performances at $1,000 each)
Donate now with PayPal
We are hoping you will be able to help by contributing what you can to make these virtual events happen. We believe even though live performances have paused, we can continue to offer you the high quality performances you have come to expect from TCO in the comfort and safety of your own home. We are grateful for your continued support of these digital efforts.
Sincerely,
David Restivo
TCO Executive Director
Join the TCO Board!
Are the arts more important to you than ever before during this time of uncertainty? Consider joining the TCO Board! Meetings are approximately once a month (roughly the first Tuesday of the month) in the evenings during our concert season. We are currently conducting all Board meetings via Zoom. Please email chappaquaorchestraexecdirector@gmail.com if you would like more information.
TCO Board
Al Krull, President
Cynthia Peterson, Artistic Director, Chamber Series
David Restivo, Executive Director
Rebecca Quigley, Secretary
Rita Ross
Davis Knobloch
Adam Schommer
David Phelan, Technical Coordinator
Kathleen Feldman, Education Director
Robert Sherman, Artistic Advisor
