Some of Our Talented Alums...

Voting has now ended, but I’m still going to plug these amazing EMF Young Artists!  YouTube does an annual, I think, symphony competition and the 2011 competition featured at least four EMF alumni.  We’ve been voting for our alum all week; only time will tell if they’re the winners of their respective instruments.  If they do win, they get to travel to Australia in March 2011 to perform with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House.  What an amazing experience for any young musician – we with our Big Four the best of luck!

•  McKenzie Allen, oboe, 2010
• Cesar Aviles, violin, 2007
• Angelica Hairston, harp, 2010 Concerto Competition Winner
• Rosalind Soltow, viola, 2005

Click on their names to be taken to their audition videos, of simply see the embedded versions below. 

Also, one big announcement for all of our future EMF Young Artists in 2011!  Remember that if you apply by midnight on December 31, 2010 your application fee will be $40.  After that the fee increases to $60.  You do not have to submit your recording, just the online application portion.

If you have any questions concerning your application, please contact Melissa via email: Melissa@EasternMusicFestival.org.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

There's No Better Place

I’ve been slacking in my posting duties lately – my apologies!  I spent most of last week following up with previous advertisers and calling a few potential new advertisers for our 50^th Anniversary playbill.  As a brand new marketing director I was a little nervous about ad sales, but I think I’m improving.  I’ve decided to hold off approaching anyone new until after the New Year…and plus, after the New Year I can announce our season!

So a few things to catch you all up on – First, we have posted a new video to EMFtv (part of our official website) and to YouTube.  The video entitled “There’s No Better Place” features EMF Music Director Gerard Schwarz, Resident Conductor José-Luis Novo, and a select group of Young Artists discussing their experiences at the Eastern Music Festival.  If you haven’t watched it already, I embedded it below.  Enjoy!

Second, Melissa updated the EMF Radio, also found on our website.  The updated music features excerpts from various 2010 performances, including faculty chamber and Eastern Festival Orchestra performances. It plays on a loop, so you can leave it on all day at work if you want to (and of course I know you do!).

And finally, the last thing I need to catch you up on is a website called GoodSearch.com.  I’ll let the good people at GoodSearch.com explain the website in their own words:

Here's a new easy way to raise money for your favorite cause. Just start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine and they'll donate about a penny to your favorite cause every time you do a search!

In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 900 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will go to the charity or school of your choice. You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation goes to your cause!

You can read about GoodSearch in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal.

So there you have it – a great way to search online AND raise a little money for the Eastern Music Festival!  Think of it this way – if you do five searches a day, for 300 days out of the year, at $0.01 per search, you just raised EMF $15!  And you didn’t have to get up from the computer to do it!  So if you’re wondering what the new engagement photo for Prince William and Kate Middleton looks like – well, go to Google Images for it because if you image search through GoodSearch we don’t make any money – but if you want to read the official press release that accompanied the photo, search for it using GoodSearch!

The button below will take you straight to GoodSearch.com, with Eastern Music Festival selected as your Charity of Choice!