A NOTE FROM ABS BOARD MEMBER AND DEVELOPMENT CHAIR, D. KERN HOLOMAN
Dear Friends of ABS:
Thirty years ago, and then some, I was delighted to hear my good friend and new colleague Jeffrey Thomas describe his project for what is now the American Bach Soloists. “What a terrific idea,” I thought, having been fortunate enough to study Bach performance practice as a graduate student. Then, after an instant of reflection came the inevitable: “I wonder how long it will last?” The Bay area was already a hotbed of early music: scholarship, performance, instrument building. What kind of niche would ABS find to occupy?
But from the beginning Jeffrey and his mighty band flourished: at the Berkeley Festival, with the annual Grace Cathedral Messiah, the subscription series played to a devoted clientele stretching from Belvedere to Davis, a shelf full of thoughtful and lovingly produced recordings. From 2010, the ABS Festival and Academy have not only enriched our summers but also produced cohort after cohort of young specialists, players and singers, whose work now radiates throughout the profession.
All told, it's a remarkable body of work; second to none. And it needs, of course, to carry on.
We hope you've read about the 30th Season Campaign, #Bach30, or heard the in-person appeal during the recent Brandenburg Concerto set that concluded the 2018-19 subscription series. The campaign goal is to raise $300,000 in new support, meant to:
Stimulate future programs, recordings, and educational initiatives
Strengthen public outreach and communication, particularly through social media
Secure a strong, long-term financial posture, free of debt and endowed in perpetuity
My recurrent thought, as I listen to our ABS in concert, is that it doesn't get better than this, anywhere. You must have thought much the same, over the years.
Won't you, then, join with us to take the campaign over the top? Perhaps you will want to consider an amount beginning with a 30 followed by some number of 0s. And it couldn't be easier: just click HERE to make your celebratory gift to ABS today!
We invite you to act soon. While there are still more than six months left in our anniversary year of 2019, it would be terrific to toast the completion of the campaign during this summer's festival, in the first two weeks of August at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Thanks from the entire ABS community, of which you, as patrons, are such an integral part.
Sincerely,
D. Kern Holoman
Development Committee Chair