For centuries, the mission of an orchestra such as the Grand Rapids Symphony was to make music.
In recent times, the job of a performing arts organization also has been to inspire, motivate, educate and nurture its audience. Today, it’s the duty of an orchestra to connect not only with its usual audience, but with its entire community.
“A symphony orchestra in the 21st century has become a service organization,” said Grand Rapids Symphony Music Director Marcelo Lehninger. “We’re here not only to entertain our audience but also to serve our community.”
It’s a big job for the Grand Rapids Symphony, now made easier with a $1 million grant from the Wege Foundation.
The Grand Rapids-based foundation has awarded the Grand Rapids Symphony a grant of more than $1 million to share live orchestral music with a broader audience through initiatives that build diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives into all of the orchestra’s activities.
The four-year grant totaling $1.1 million will add new positions, create new concerts and events, and develop new music educational opportunities alongside the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Gateway to Music, a matrix of 17 education and access programs that already reach 86,000 children, students and adults across 13 counties in West Michigan.
“The Wege Foundation is pleased to support the Symphony in enhancing the diversity of its programming, musicians and staff, as well as the inclusivity of its outreach,” said Wege Foundation President Mark Van Putten. “By transforming itself the Symphony can help transform West Michigan in enduring ways that reach beyond the performing arts.”
President Peter M. Perez called the Wege Foundation grant “truly transformational.”
“In the past, a symphony orchestra’s goal was to perform great works of classical music. Today, the Grand Rapids Symphony aspires, not just to play music for the community, but to make music together with its community,” Perez said. “Truly serving our entire community means we have to genuinely and faithfully be a reflection of everyone in the community.”
Past successes in collaborating with community partners include the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Symphony with Soul concert, launched in 2002, and Celebration of Soul dinner and awards ceremony, which has fostered connections between the orchestra and West Michigan’s African-American community for more than a dozen years.
Though the Grand Rapids Symphony touches the lives of 200,000 attendees per year, many more in West Michigan have never experienced a symphony orchestra live and in person.
Paul Doyle, who grew up in Brooklyn, was introduced to classical music by his grandmother who originally was from Trinidad. Doyle was in third grade when he attended his first concert in New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Doyle later played French horn through high school.
Today, Doyle is founder and CEO of Inclusive Performance Strategies in Grand Rapids, which develops and implements progressive organizational transformation and is working with the Grand Rapids Symphony on this project.
“Our community in Grand Rapids is growing. It’s exploding. But how do we make sure that everyone feels a part of it?” Doyle said. “We know the ‘why.’ This is working on the ‘how.’
Three years ago, the Grand Rapids Symphony launched Symphony Scorecard to open its concert hall doors to a wider audience by providing free tickets to those with financial challenges or economic barriers. Since 2016, the program launched with funding from the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation has supplied more than 8,000 free tickets to members of the community who receive financial assistance from the state or to the families of men and women serving in the U.S. Military on active, reserve or guard duty.
Everyone is welcome, according to Lehninger.
“Sometime people feel they don’t belong,” Lehninger said. “But I have a passion and a mission to reach the hearts and souls of everyone in this community. We’re trying to show them that, yes, they do belong. Hopefully, they’ll understand that it’s their orchestra, too.”
The Grand Rapids Symphony’s next steps will be to take the orchestra out of the concert hall and into the neighborhood.
Community concerts begin in July with a free, outdoor concert in John Ball Park. Associate conductor John Varineau will lead a program of light classical music, featuring guest vocalist Edye Evans Hyde, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 21 in the park on the West Side of downtown Grand Rapids near John Ball Zoo. Future concerts will be held in familiar venues in other neighborhoods in the city.
“A symphony orchestra in the 21st century has become a service organization. We’re here not only to entertain our audience but also to serve our community.”
Marcelo Lehninger, Grand Rapids Symphony Music Director
But the Wege grant also will transform the orchestra from within through new positions in the organization. Funds will establish:
A Community Engagement position on staff to develop, manage and coordinate all Grand Rapids Symphony activities to serve an audience that’s growing more diverse every day.
A Musician Fellow who will perform with the Grand Rapids Symphony. During the two-year fellowship, the musician will be mentored by GRS musicians and gain practical experience toward launching a career as a professional musician.
The Wege Grant also will fund the expansion of the Grand Rapids Symphony’s successful Mosaic Scholarship program, a mentoring program for African-American and Latino music students. Created with funding by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, teens ages 13 to 18 are provided with musical instruments and private lessons with GRS musicians along with opportunities to perform and to attend concerts.
A new component, Mosaic Music Majors, will collaborate with music students of color in local universities and colleges to mentor, advise and develop the skills and talents of collegiate musicians seeking to become professionals.
Over the next four years, the Wege grant will be a game changer for the Grand Rapids Symphony, according to Associate Conductor John Varineau, who just completed his 33rd season on staff with the Grand Rapids Symphony.
“It’s going to change the way we 'do business' and the way we approach all of our already outstanding artistic products. Without compromising our lofty artistic vision, and without sacrificing our dedication to the best in our symphonic heritage, I am confident that, with the help of the Wege Foundation, the Grand Rapids Symphony is going to look and sound differently,” Varineau said. “In just a few short years, how and what we present will be even more representative of the entire Grand Rapids community so that everyone will be able to truthfully call us ‘our Grand Rapids Symphony.’”
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