A NOTE FROM JANE

Amanda Gorman captured the world's attention with a show-stopping recitation of her poem, "The Hill We Climb", leading former President Obama to write, "young people like her are proof that there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it; if only we're brave enough to be it".

Here at ELM, the potential and power of our young people expressing themselves through the arts has never been more palpable and we are thrilled to ring in 2021 with music, hope, and joy.

While music excellence will always remain at the heart of ELM, through our new strategic plan,we have identified three supporting pillars that will help us to fulfill our revised mission, “to inspire and empower our students to pursue their dreams and to provide the resources necessary to make this possible.” These three pillars include academic achievement, social-emotional well-being, and family engagement. Needless to say, our response to the consequences of the pandemic inspired us to fast-forward each of these three strategic initiatives. You can learn more about these initiatives here.

We are pleased to announce that Viviana Garcia, a violin intern since she was a senior in high school and now a junior at New York University, won the recent Heart of Marin Award for Volunteer of the Year. Selected from among 16 impressive contenders, Viviana won for her role developing, sustaining, and coordinating our new literacy and academic tutoring program, which has grown to include over 30 volunteer tutors who work with our students from ages 9-19 in all subjects from reading to physics. These tutors work with our students from 1-2 hours per week. In addition to the academic support they provide, the relationships they have developed with our students have been invaluable.

Scroll down to watch the interview with Viviana.

We were equally delighted to learn that Leslye DeLeon, ELM clarinetist and pianist and a sophomore at Branson High School, won a Heart of Marin Award for Youth Volunteer of the Year. Leslye was nominated by Next Generation Scholars for developing an innovative curriculum to teach Latinx students about meditation and mindfulness to address the challenges of anxiety and depression. At age 9, Leslye wrote that when she grew up, she wanted to be a surgeon so she could “save the lives of others and make a difference in the world.” She is currently considering pursuing a career in psychology with a focus on social justice. Upon receipt of her award, Leslye, in her characteristically gracious fashion, wrote “thank you for shaping me into who I am; without ELM I wouldn’t be here today”.

For our work on the academic program, ELM was awarded a grant from the Isabel Allende Foundation. We hope to continue and grow this program. To learn more about supporting the program and/or being an academic tutor or reading buddy, please reach out to me jane@elmprogram.org or Viviana viviana@elmprogram.org.

As you can see, ELM has not only survived but thrived during this challenging time – continuing our laser focus on music excellence and extending to support our community. With the end of the pandemic on the horizon and a new administration that, among other things – values the arts, we are excited to begin our winter/spring semester. As always, we look forward to hearing from you.

Warmly,

Jane Kramer, PhD, Founder and Executive Director

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ELM PRESENTS

Viviana Garcia
ELM Tutor & Volunteer

Even before Viviana Garcia was awarded Volunteer of the Year, we wanted to highlight the transformational work she has done for ELM. Her work developing, sustaining, and coordinating our new literacy and academic tutoring program has been instrumental in building the program which has grown to include over 30 volunteer tutors and reading buddies. Kate Fitzsimmons sat down with her to ask her about her inspiration and goals for the program in this installment of ELM Spotlights.

STUDENT CONNECTIONS

High Impact Tutoring and Reading buddies

Large scale national evaluations have touted the benefits of what is being described as high impact tutoring. The combination a meaningful, long term relationship with a caring adult mentor/tutor is shown to produce tremendous academic gains. We are proud that this is the approach we are taking here at ELM.

In addition to coordinating the literacy and tutoring program, Viviana conducts interviews with students and their reading buddy or tutor to learn about their experiences first-hand. This interview with David, a 4th grade violinist and his tutor, Cathy demonstrates the mutual respect and meaningful relationships our tutors and tutees develop. When asked how he felt about Cathy, David said: “On a scale from 1 to 10 – she is 100!”

Music measures well being

This unsolicited note from a gracious and grateful 9 year old violin student brought tears of joy to us here at ELM. In the words of a great songwriter, who could ask for anything more?

This note was on a survey we gave students last fall that will give us insight into the social and emotional development of our students, one of the pillars of our social mission. We have partnered with Hello Insight, a collective based social and emotional development evaluation tool for youth programs across the nation to manage and share our results. We recognize the importance of mental health and are committed to creating a culture of integrating social and emotional well being at every level of ELM – teaching faculty and staff, families, and students.

ELM EVENTS

Our winter concert was a tour de force!

We had over 300 donors, volunteers, and family members tune into our winter celebration and they were filled with joy and reverence for the beautiful music performed by ELM students. If you weren’t able to join us, you can enjoy it anytime on youtube.

Pachelbel’s Canon in D

Our concert ended with an ‘all ELM piece’ which demonstrated how we have overcome the distance imposed upon us by the pandemic – and reveals that nothing stops the music. Truly, in the most dire of times – creativity and community have prevailed here at ELM.

It also reflects the ingenuity of our faculty and students and even parents working together, note by note – to create a whole piece – from a distance, together.

This is the piece by which we will remember our resilience during the pandemic.

VIEW PACHELBEL PERFORMANCE

ELM COMMUNITY

ELM offers meals and fresh produce through the Agricultural Institute of Marin

This fall board member Karen Dunn and her husband Dan gave ELM $25,000 to put towards a food program. Over the weeks that followed, we have provided 2,280 meals to ELM families.

In order to continue the program through the spring the Dunns donated an additional $12,500 but this time they wanted to make it a challenge grant. To date we’ve raised $2,926 towards that goal.

Please donate and help us achieve our goal. A $140 gift provides 5 meals for a family of four. A $28 monthly gift sponsors a family each week.

In addition, we continue to provide over 50 boxes of fresh produce each week to ELM families. Our gratitude to MCF for continuing to support our partner AIM and ExtraFood who delivers the boxes each week directly to our doorstep.

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

As we start our new semester we are introducing lots of exciting new programs for our students.

Introducing elmCATS

Our new elmCATS program, which stands for ELM Citizens, Artists, Teachers, and Scholars was launched with seed funding from Carnegie Hall's PlayUSA program formally nominated 24 inaugural students who will receive weekly private lessons, chamber music opportunities, master classes with professional guest musicians, audition support and scholarships to music festivals and summer camps, as well as mentorship and community service opportunities. Keep your eyes out for feature stories about some of these amazing students and their journeys.

More mariachi music

With a new collaboration with Little Village Foundation and new friends from San Jose State, elmCAT students will be rehearsing and recording a new CD of mariachi music, furthering our vision to include culturally relevant repertoire in our programming.

El Sistema symposium and seminario

In February, ELM students and staff will participate in a national El Sistema symposium and seminario, rehearsing and performing with students from other Sistema programs from across the country. The seminario will focus on will focus on three main areas: racial diversity and cultural understanding, musical excellence during the pandemic, and team and family support pre- and post-pandemic.

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Additional Support Provided By

Maestro Circle
Gifts of $50,000+

Buck Family Fund of MCF
Fullerton Family Foundation
Solli Ball Family Fund
Tiana Wimmer & Warren Leiden

Virtuoso’s Circle
Gifts of $25,000+

Bob M Brown Fund
California Arts Council
California Relief Program
Carnegie Hall Play USA
Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation
JAMBAR Fund
Kimball Foundation
Margot Fraser Fund
Sarane T. Bowen Charitable Fund

Conductor’s Circle
Gifts of $10,000+

Bob M Brown Fund
George Family Foundation
Susan & Dennis Gilardi
Grace Hughes
Kurland Family Foundation
Lori Lerner & Terry Berkemeier
Marin County Community Service Fund
Orchard House Foundation
Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund
Jane Robinson
Sara Sackner & Andy Behar
Scorpio Rising Fund
Sklar Family Fund

Concert Masters
Gifts of $5,000+

Anonymous Donor
Deanne Stone
Drs. Dennie P and Thomas Wolf
Fred Gellert Family Foundation
Giving Marin Community Partnership
Gloria and Saul Feldman
Hank Barner Fund
Jamie Waters & Gordon Danielson
Kramer-Feldman Family Charitable Fund
Meehan Foundation Lynn Olson
Monica Bonny & Michael Perigo
The Lewis Prize for Music
The Mary Hynes and Marc Tessier-Lavigne Gifting Fund
The Patty and Jack Wright Foundation

Section Leaders
Gifts of $1,000+

Debbie Ablin
Amy and Seth Barad Family Fund
Lesley Anderson MD and Paula Zand
Awesome Foundation
Barbara Axelband
Bank of Marin
Sylvia Boorstein
Terry Bright & Tom Wilson
Andrea Bruno & Jonathan Epstein
D'Addario Foundation
Marsha & Tom Dugan
Eli Noyes and Augusta Talbot Charitable Fund
Joan Emery & Eddy Rubin
Liz Etkin-Kramer & Peter Kramer
Robert Goldman
Ruth Greenfield
Griffiths Family Charitable Fund
Hagar Family Foundation
Hein Family Fund for Marin
JAK Fund
Mike & Saori Kappus
Elaine Kramer
Langston Family Fund
Little Village Foundation
Marin Charitable
Jennie Martzloff & Gary Ruff
Ann & Andrew Mathieson
Laura & Barry Miller
Northern Trust
Purple Lady/Barbara J. Meislin Fund
Renee & David Cullinan Fund
Richardson Family Fund
Rotary Club of San Rafael Harbor
Lynn Roy
Nancy Schlegel
Sueli Shaw
Bob and Betsy Stafford
Monica & Scot Stafford
The Klebanoff-Cohen Fund
The Tierney Bindelglass Charitable Fund
Michele & Kwei Ü
Laura vanMunching
David & Suzanne Warner
Nicole Whiting
Whole Foods Market Community Giving Program

Gifts In Kind

Janice Chow & Allen Ng
Crescendo Connect
Dawse Properties
Tim Porter Photography
Mary Fleming & George Khouri
Mary Haber
Richard Holway
Lucile Irwin
Merel Kennedy
Kenn Kovitz
Marla Krause
Make It Better Foundation
Julie Mellon
Miriam Perkoff & Michael Grossman
Jeff Ross
Sheri Tye
Lisa William Zigmund

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ELM provides youth with an immersive music education that empowers them to pursue their dreams and access resources they need to succeed in life.