Alumni Grant Recipients of 2003
The winners of this year’s Berklee alumni grants were announced in September. Sharing in a total of $42,000 in grant monies will be Lenora Zenzalai Helm ’82, Ron Savage ’84, Laura Friedman ’99, Bryant Allard ’84, Laurie Cohen ’75, Fostina Dixon-Kilgoe ’77, Gregg Gelb ’79, and Luis Santiago ’03. Another $8,000 will be awarded to additional recipients for smaller projects between fall 2003 and May 2004 when assessment of grant proposals for 2004 will begin.
Lenora Zenzalai Helm of New York City received $15,000 for a proposal to fund her nonprofit organization HARMONY, which provides lessons and music appreciation classes to children living in the New York City public housing system. The funds will defray the costs of administrative staff and training student teachers.
Ron Savage received $10,000 for his Saturday music enrichment program, Abundant Life Music Instruction in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Savage’s grant will provide for quality music instruction for needy families seeking music lessons.
Laura Friedman received $4,000 for her Women Rock the Road Tour. Funds will underwrite the costs of a monthlong tour by Friedman, Kyler, and Laura Berman as an educational effort in tandem with the American Cancer Society during National Breast Cancer Awareness month.
Bryant Allard was granted $3,490 for his youth music education and youth jazz orchestra programs in Portland, Oregon. He will use the funds to start a program that will pay high- school students to serve as music mentors.
Laurie Cohen received $2,500 to help with costs associated with producing concerts with her community orchestra, the Tennessee Valley Orchestra, in the San Francisco area. Cohen conducts the group in contemporary music concerts.
Fostina Dixon-Kilgoe received $2,500 for her jazz education program in Delaware. She will form an ensemble called Inner-City Youth Jazz Band in Wilmington, Delaware, to instruct and give performing experience to youth in grades 4-12 who are interested in jazz.
Gregg Gelb received $2,500 to support the Heart of Carolina Jazz Society, of which he is the director. Gelb will apply the grant money toward producing concerts featuring contemporary jazz artists for North Carolina audiences.
Luis Santiago received $1,150 to help fund a tour of Puerto Rico by four alumni who are Boston-based Latin jazz musicians. The tour would serve as promotion for the CD Tus Promesas by vocalist composer Patricia Elena Vlieg ’98.
Guidelines for the 2004 awards and what remains of the 2003 fund are posted at http://alumni.berklee.edu. Berklee’s alumni grant program is an initiative of the Berklee Board of Trustees to support the efforts of alumni with funding from Berklee’s endowment income. “We received proposals for funding totaling $226,000,” said Vice President of Institutional Advancement David McKay, chair of the grant committee. “Many good proposals were submitted. Next year’s increase in funding will enable us to grant awards to more of our alumni.”
