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Testimonials
“RMF is responsive to our cultural needs and enjoys a
healthy long-term view of how our musical assets can
strengthen Berks County as a whole.”
P. Michael Ehlerman, Immediate Past Board Chair, The Reading Hospital
and Medical Center
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"I love playing the flute because it is a way for me to
express myself in a way I did not know was possible. I feel
free and open to anything when I am playing. The flute calms
me down if I am angry and cheers me up when I am sad. I find
it truly mesmerizing when I am playing a famous composer’s
piece. ... I also love going to lessons. Robin [Lilarose]
has taught me so much in such a little amount of time. She
has a unique way of teaching that makes her students never
want to leave their lessons. Playing the flute rewards me in
many different ways. It gives me satisfaction when I play
something right and happiness when I hear myself playing a
beautiful piece of art. My mom tells me that my playing the
flute rewards her too. She says that when she picks me up
from my lessons with Robin she can see in my face how
inspired I am."
Christina Christman, ninth grader at Wilson High School and
recent scholarship winner
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“Rosemary and I are happy to contribute to the Reading
Musical Foundation in order to bring music into the lives of
more of our young students in Berks County.”
David Bestwick, Retired Chairman and CEO, Tray-Pak Corp.
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Dear members of RMF:
.... The week I spent this summer at the Penn State Summer
Music Camp was perfect.... It was my third time attending
PSU’s camp.... My week wasn’t measured by success in music.
Nor was it weighed solely in fond memories of frisbee games,
dorm pranks, or fun conversations at mealtimes. The scales
were filled with new knowledge, precious memories,
meaningful friendships, and an experience that helped to
make my summer and my musical journey invaluable! As close
as a week is able to get to it, Penn State Summer Music Camp
’09 was vying for perfection! I am very grateful to the
Reading Musical Foundation for their generosity and
kindness. Without RMF this would not have been possible.
RMF, you made my summer happen!!
Seth Ebersole, Governor Mifflin High School
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"Thank you for the great experience of attending
Elizabethtown College Music Camp.... It was a great
opportunity to meet new friends where we each accepted each
other for the musician and the person we are ... without the
peer pressure of the school environment....It was very
special to hear RMF be mentioned in the "thank you's" at the
closing concert on Saturday for providing camp scholarships.
I realized how much I had benefited from the kindness of
RMF.... Thank you so much for this amazing experience."
Erik Peterson Smith, 2009 Summer Music Camper, Governor
Mifflin High School
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“Of particular concern to us are children at risk and
children in middle school who don’t have the financial means
to participate in music programs…. Our support of RMF
reflects our faith in an organization that evolves and
anticipates our county’s cultural needs.”
DeLight E. Breidegam, Chairman, East Penn Manufacturing
Co.
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"I began studying the clarinet at age 43, with Gerry
Hasbrouck. Gerry often encouraged me to join a band, but I
never did. Then four years ago, at age 69, I asked Ken
Kemmerer if he could use a septuagenarian clarinetist who
hadn't played for 16 years. Sitting with accomplished
student musicians 50 years younger than me was a sobering
experience. I enjoyed the rehearsals. And the final concert
was the only public performance I’ve ever had.
The Berks Summer Band Institute affords hundreds of students
and older folks throughout Berks County an opportunity to
play band music in the summer. It also provides conducting
experience for a few college music major interns. RMF is
wise to support this summer activity.
What do I do in real life? I am a professor of chemistry at
Philadelphia Community College who lives in Berks."
Jerry Price,
2009 Adult Participant, Berks Summer Band Institute
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“I
strongly support RMF, not because of what it did in 1927,
but because it has evolved…. During the last five years, RMF
has opened doors. It has developed new programs that provide
a creative musical experience for children at risk and in
need. No longer is it a single portal for classical music
alone. RMF advocates that families and communities benefit
from children’s participation in music. I believe that....
If I had to identify a single change of largest scope since
RMF and I were born in 1927, it would be the vast increase
in the need for continuing, innovative education. Like RMF,
I believe that education is our wisest investment of
intellectual and financial capital....
The
proven correlation between children’s music study and their
later achievement and happiness convinces me that RMF, kept
on course and nourished by you and by me, will flourish for
another 80 years.”
Paul R. Roedel, Retired Chairman and CEO, Carpenter
Technology Corporation
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RMF
beckons children to music's magic through a wealth of
innovative programs that build life skills and serve to
replenish concert audiences with engaged participants. We
hope that you, too, will join us supporting RMF, a vibrant
organization that fulfills a vital role so efficiently,
creatively, and effectively.
Drs. Dan and Eve Kimball, 2009 Honorary Campaign Chairs
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Music is
a communication of emotions. During my 15 years as a
composer for film and television, I have often been asked to
convey a specified emotion as the viewer witnesses a picture
or film. While music composition is a solitary process, it
requires a team to draw emotions from the audience. After
creating a piece, I write it down for an orchestra. The
orchestra then performs the music so the viewer can
experience it. Requiring extensive, efficient teamwork, the
process is essentially communication from me to the
musicians and then from the musicians to the viewers. The
emotion of the music would be lost if it were not for each
member of the team.
David Robidoux, composer
for NFL Films and NASCAR, a former student of Al Leader and
a graduate of Muhlenberg High School
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I chose music as a profession
because it always moved me emotionally and offered me a way
to express things I couldn’t find words for. When my father
died, I had a hard time coming to grips with the trauma, and
music proved very therapeutic.
I started playing the bass guitar
at age 12 and learned from in-home jam sessions with friends
of my musically inclined parents. A full academic
scholarship enabled me to attend the University of
Pennsylvania. When my father died during my junior year, I
focused upon music and spent countless nights teaching
myself how to improvise, how to transcribe solos, and chord
progressions. I took up classical guitar to expand my range
as a musician.
I have been a teacher of bass
guitar, artist in residence at several schools and member of
several bands, including my own. Five of my own CDs and
thousands of gigs later, I remain guided by the words of
saxophonist Odean Pope, “Be patient, it will happen.”
Discipline, persistence and
teamwork - These are
the essential qualities I have cultivated by participating
in hockey and other sports, and in music. Moreover, these
are necessary attributes for attaining any goals in life,
whether personal or professional.
Gerald Veasley, recording and
performing jazz musician
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“I
am a firm believer in the benefits every individual student
receives from learning about the beautiful art of vocal and
instrumental music. The magic of tying notes together to
create a product that is a delicious dessert for the senses
and the soul can be learned by every child, whether as a
participant or a listener. Appreciation of all types of
music must begin at a young age. Exposing each Berks County
student to this exciting harmony may help them to grow up
understanding better the key role every person gives to a
peaceful world — just like a well-tuned orchestra. Let the
music begin, and let there be peace on earth.”
Sheila Miller
Former State Representative,
129th Legislative District
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"One of my fondest childhood
memories, while growing up in Ecuador at a time when sound
systems consisted of a turntable and speaker, is waking up
every morning to music. My father had wired speakers to our
bedroom from his old “Voice of Music” stackable turntable
system, and every morning we awoke to the sounds of
Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann – he loved the Romantics! –
and also Rachmaninoff, Corelli, Bach, and the Beatles.
Although music at home was by and
large classical, my father loved to keep up with the “new”
sounds. The first time
the Beatles’ sound was
heard in my hometown of Cuenca was
a “45” record played on my
father’s turntable – I think it was “I Want
to Hold Your Hand.” Later
on, my siblings and I would sit together with our father on
the floor and listen to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.
Needless to say, we all developed a great love of music.
Today, I am an avid opera lover who enjoys classic Rock,
and married to a French Canadian folk singer. At family
gatherings to this day, my brothers and I pick up our
guitars and sing songs in at least three different
languages.
Music is always present in my
life. It provides that secret, sacred space where I can go
when I need to listen to my own thoughts. My father made
that space available for me. I hope to be able to do the
same for our children. RMF makes that special space
available to many.”
F. Javier Cevallos, Ph.D.
President, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
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“Do you
remember in the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy finally gets
back, the whole point of the movie was that she realized
everything she wanted was in her own back yard, and she just
had to go away to realize that? You have a wonderful,
beautiful community here. You have a great symphony
orchestra and you have one of the finest bands in the world.
I’ve been all over the world and there are very few bands
like the Ringgold Band. It’s been a great privilege making
music and celebrating this band’s 154th concert
and Jim Seidel’s 25th year as the leader. All I
can say is that I wish him a thousand years more.”
Remarks
of Loras J. Schissel, conductor of the Virginia Grand
Military Band,
as guest conductor at the Ringgold Band’s concert on April
9, 2006
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I wonder
if you, too, have sometimes wondered about music. Have you
wondered about its meaning or wondered at its power? As we
begin to hear again the music of this season, do you begin
to ask again these fundamental questions about the kinds of
magic which the sound of music contributes to our lives?
For music
can play many roles. Like all the arts, it helps man to
communicate and to express ideas and emotions not
translatable into a visual or a printed form. Music has been
called an international language, and this in part is true.
Fine music moves us without regard to the era or nationality
of its composer. But it also communicates something of the
culture and the nation which gave it birth, and without this
flavor, it would be far less moving.
Music,
again like its sister arts, brings both its composer and its
listeners rewards commensurate with the qualities of heart
and mind we bring to it. If we seek stimulation, either
intellectual or emotional, we will find it. If we seek peace
and opportunity to use fine music as a catalyst to help us
bring more purpose and more order to our lives, it will not
fail us. And if, through music, as performer or composer, we
seek to bring more joy and understanding to our fellow men,
we know it will be done, if only we (as well as our medium)
prove sufficient to the task.
And that
perhaps is why many of us who have not the talent to compose
or to perform have banded together (along with those who
have these talents) to bring to our friends and neighbors
greater opportunities to hear, to understand, and to perform
fine music. That, it seems to me, is why our Foundation and
the organizations we support have come so far and why we are
committed to still further effort in the coming years.
William
K. Runyeon, M.D.
Past President of RMF
Excerpt, RMF Newsletter, Volume 1, No. 2
December 1967
Note: Bill, the president of
RMF from 1966-1986, died on June 8, 2005 at 78 years of age.
A visionary who lived the value of the arts in education and
the quality of our community, Bill was a capable, tenacious
leader who saw in the foundation he adored the seeds and
structure for studied improvement in the lives of our youth.
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I
remember going to the RSO with my Grandmother Edith Taylor
Ahrens when I was a child. Because she was a well-known
vocalist with many ties to the music community, attending
anything musical with her was a treat! Sitting in the
Rajah, enveloped in the belly of a great musical whale, I
would try to sit still and enjoy the show. These moments are
forever imprinted in my mind.
As an
adult now with growing children, I appreciate my
grandmother’s gift to me even more. As my husband and I
watch our children perform on the same stage, I find myself
in the belly of the musical whale once again. All of the
same feelings welling up inside me, I watch and listen,
knowing that Grandmother Edith is there, too.
In part
because of RMF, both of our children have been able to
experience with great joy the music that is our lives. RMF’s
dedication to the children in this community is outstanding.
Through RMF scholarship programs, our children have received
funds for musical instrument upgrades, summer music camp,
and gas for the long trips to music lessons. “Thank you” is
never enough. What RMF provides is everything to our
children, and their future.
Lisa Sarig Cylinder, a Parent
Jeweler & Metalsmith
Chickenscratch Jewelry Company |
