Letter from the President, Joe McDaniel.
To Our Loyal Audience:
The end of our 32nd season of Music at Penn Alps programs has arrived, and it has been a successful year. We had a full season with nine concerts for 2024. Our concerts included several repeat performers as well as our first bassoon quartet – The Breaking Winds! We felt that the quality of our performances, while usually excellent, was a step up this year. Attendance was excellent: whether publicity, economy, or programming??? – we appreciate your support!
We have no endowment and survive from generous contributions from our audience as well as government and arts organizations. When we ask for support, it is not like a typical university with a large endowment looking for monies to build an addition – in our case, we need your help simply to survive!
We are an unusual organization with most of our expenses going to musicians, only 10% for programs and promotional materials, and only 19% of our expenses going to non-musical expenses (accountant, office expenses, postage, etc.). Ticket sales account for about a third of our revenue stream, meaning we are dependent on grants and donations to continue presenting you with this unique series of concerts. We doubt that raising ticket prices to, say, $50 would be effective as this would make our concerts prohibitively expensive for many. Your investment is vital to our continuation of Music at Penn Alps offerings!
There are several ways to contribute:
- Go to https://www.musicatpennalps.org/donations/ to make a donation securely on-line.
- Mail a check to Music at Penn Alps, PO Box 668, Grantsville, MD 21536.
- IRA donations are extraordinarily valuable to you and us if you are 70 1/2 or older. [https://www.musicatpennalps.org/donations/gifts-through-your-ira/]
Donations are gratefully accepted by mail or on-line! Your generous investment will supplement the support of the Community Trust Foundation, the Naylor Foundation, Garrett Arts Council, Allegany Arts Council, Somerset Bank, and others. We look forward to seeing you again in 2025!
