ALL CONCERT VIDEO PRESENTATIONS FILMED PRIOR TO COVID 19 OUTBREAK

WE LOVE LCMS MUSIC EDUCATION FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN

February is the month of love, and we love LCMS Music Education! 

Us music teachers and you parents, we love music education at LCMS, but we all know the existence of music education in public schools is dangerously fragile.  And this year it is even more fragile because the funding that supports our instrumental and choir programs is impacted greatly by the loss of our live concerts' revenue.  

LCMS’s music education budget is approximately $22,000 a year.  34% of that budget is funded by LVUSD’s $2,500 contribution (which is restricted to purchasing sheet music and equipment acquisitions/repairs), and a $5,000 grant from the City of Westlake Village (subject to the application and award process).  That is just  $7,500, and the rest is on us – teachers and parents to fund the shortfall. 

How do we usually fund the 66% budget deficit?  We do that through our live concert series.  From March 2020 to the present, there have been no live performances. Consequently, since the spring of 2020 the LCMS music program has been operating at a $14,500 deficit through the pandemic.     

The LCMS Music Education budget funds these essentials for the day in and day out learning experiences:

1. all sheet music and method book purchases
2. school owned instrument purchase, maintenance and repair
3. music specialists and piano accompanist
4. musical equipment including chairs and stands
5. piano tuning
6. auxiliary music ensembles, such as ESQ string quartet and Jazz B
7. choir pianist (daily for choir rehearsals

But the budget also funds so much more – most importantly the “specialists” that offer individual and small group instruction.  Even though we are constrained by distance learning, we could have these specialists working with students, but we do not have the financial means to bring them into the program at this time.  That is a loss for our students that we find truly heartbreaking.

We are reaching out to you to show your love for LCMS Music Education with your financial support.  There is no denying how the pandemic has challenged all of us financially, and we understand that all of us have limited resources at this time.  Our hope is that you can make a small contribution to the LCMS Music Education Program to help us get through this very unprecedented year of distance learning. 

We are suggesting that you contribute just the price of a single concert ticket for every seat you would purchase for a live performance.  Our instrumental and choir live performances, approximately 20 throughout the year, include these concerts for each program:

*2 Beginning Band  * 3 Cougar Band * 3 Concert Band * 4 Jazz A& B Band * 3 Orchestra * 3 Choir  

* Special Jazz Night Concert which raises $10,000 alone.

Concert tickets are $5.00 – a price we have not raised in 30 years.

We invite you to contribute just $5.00 – the cost of one ticket for one concert - or the cost of the many tickets you would buy for each concert.  You can invite siblings, grandparents, extended family and friends to make a contribution too by sharing the link below. For example, if you were going to by two tickets for two Beginning Band concert that would be a $20.00 contribution. 

Even the smallest contribution will help the LCMS Music Education Program meet its budget shortfall since the spring of 2020 through the current school year and into the fall of 2021.  And if you, family and friends want to contribute more, we welcome your generosity.  Livingtree collects 11 cents on every dollar donated so if you want to add 11 cents per dollar to your contribution that will be appreciated greatly.  Our goal is to sustain the program until we can return to our live performances in the future. 

You can show your love for the LCMS’s Music Education Programs by making your contribution here at Livingtree.

https://give.livingtree.com/c/we-love-lcms-music-education-fundraising-campaign

We send you our heartfelt thanks for your contribution to the We Love LCMS Music Education Fundraising Campaign.  We look forward to the time when we will all be together in person to share in the joy of our students, your children, loving their accomplishments in live performances.

Respectfully,

Matt McKagan, Band Director

Greg Fried, Strings/Choir Director