By Daniel Jackson, Graduate Music Fellow This inaugural installment launches a five-part series that delves into classical music and its potential to foster social justice and create a more inclusive environment for diverse audiences. Surveys by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) and the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts provide insight on…
By Daniel Jackson, Graduate Music Fellow An unseasonably warm and humid evening air permeated through the windows and doors of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia on this Friday evening. Condensation from the rain glistened from the open windows. But no one seemed to mind the warmth or inclement weather, for in this sanctuary the…
Shanna Echeverry received the 2023-24 Undergraduate Scholar Award from William Paterson University of New Jersey. Here, we share why she was selected to be a Presser Scholar. Shanna was named the first Presser Scholar at William Paterson University of New Jersey, a NASM Accredited Hispanic Serving Institution added to the Scholar Award Program in 2023-24. Shanna graduated…
By Abby Rolland Last spring, we saw a trend within the Capital Support grantmaking area – multiple music organizations of varying sizes and foci were applying for funds to tailor or design a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). In its basic definition, a CRM helps businesses manage their interactions with customers and potential customers. For…
Image: A graphic of choral music singers In the fall of 2023, Bucks County Choral Society’s Artistic Director Thomas Lloyd penned an article for The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians about whether the choral music space has changed since the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Here, we delve into some of his…
Image: A preliminary rendering of Tanda Francis’ Marian Anderson sculpture shows how it would appear. Courtesy of Tanda Francis. In 2020, Philadelphia Inquirer Arts & Culture reporter Peter Dobrin proposed that Philadelphia needed “a sculpture or monument to Marian Anderson, the late singer, civil rights figure, and city daughter, and it should sit smack dab…
A collage of 2023-24 Presser Scholar Award recipients. One year ago, The Presser Foundation implemented several significant changes to the Undergraduate Scholar Award program. These changes included adding 32 Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) to the program, shifting the focus from institution to student recipient with the addition of a…
In a guest blog post written for Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, staff discussed transparency, why it matters in the work of philanthropy, and how it is manifested at The Presser Foundation. Here, we seek to add another concept related to transparency that has been practiced for the past ten years at the Foundation – having…
Wilmington Children’s Chorus Ariel Alvarado during her Fellowship year. By Ariel Alvarado One would imagine a children’s chorus would solely serve children, but this year the Wilmington Children’s Chorus (WCC) expanded its services to include a twenty-four-year-old. Some background: WCC is an organization dedicated to empowering young people to change their world through music. This…
Summer intern Chris Dolich with fellow intern Kayleigh Howard outside the former Presser Home for Retired Music Teachers. By Chris Dolich, The Presser Foundation Summer Intern During my time as a summer intern at The Presser Foundation, I have been exposed to the many ways that the Board and staff strive to achieve their mission…