Bernardo Concerts Association gives its last musical gifts

The board of the Bernardo Concerts Association, which recently decided to disband, met for one of the last times on Monday to determine what to do with the unused money in its bank account.

After bringing musical performances to the area for nearly 25 years and giving scholarships to students pursuing musical educations, the nonprofit association decided to fold as it saw low attendance at its concerts and President Leon Bloom stepped down.

After giving out one last batch of scholarships last week, the group still had about $30,000 in its coffers. The association was holding on to the money as it sought to find someone to replace Bloom, who did the bulk of the work.

According to Bloom, the group decided that it wanted to give out its money to support music-related causes that served the Inland Corridor.

The largest recipient of the association’s money will be the Poway Unified School District’s Special Education program. The association will give the program $10,000, which will be used for music-related programs.

Melissa Lind, president and founder of the Special Education Foundation, said that while some teachers use music therapy in their classes, the money will help teachers go in new directions.

Lind said teachers will be asked to submit proposals for programs at the start of next year. She added that the size of the donation means that programs will be able to help students in all grades at all PUSD campuses. Special education students account for about 3,700 — or 10 percent — of the school district’s enrollment.

“This is opening a door that probably wouldn’t have opened for us any time soon,” Lind said. “We will do our best to honor this for years to come. It’s the legacy they’re leaving behind.”

The disbanding association also decided to give $5,000 each to the music departments at Poway and Rancho Bernardo high schools.

“I’m saddened to see it fold,” said RB High band director Tom Cole. “They did a lot of good things for the community, and they put on a lot of good concerts.”

Rancho Bernardo High students, along with some special guests, performed at the last concert held by the association last year.

Cole said the school will use the money to repair some instruments and get them “playing in the tip-top condition that is best for the kids so they’re not fighting the instrument.”

He said overhauling an instrument might cost between $600 and $1,000, while regular repairs might cost $100-$200, making it likely that the school will overhaul some instruments and fix the others.

Cole added that the money means that the students won’t have to go out to raise funds for the equipment.

The association gave the Poway High School’s music department another $5,000, which band director Mike Cook said will help pay for recording and playback equipment that should have been included when the school was remodeled.

Cook said the equipment the school needs, which includes speakers, CD and DVD players, recording equipment and microphones, costs $13,000.

“(With the equipment) we could record the students performing and then have them listen to themselves and make adjustments to their playing,” Cook said.

Anyone interested in helping the school can contact Cook at 858-748-0245 ext. 5255 or e-mail mcook@powayusd.com.

Also getting money from the association were the Friends of the Rancho Bernardo Library, which will be getting $7,000 for its mid-week concerts series, Bloom said.

The Rancho Bernardo Community Foundation’s Symphony on the Green fund will get $5,000 from the disbanding association, Bloom said.

Finally, in the only non-music-related donation, the association will give $2,000 to Rancho Bernardo Senior Services, which provides inoculations and other services for seniors.

“Since most of our attendees at our concert were seniors, we thought we would give them something,” Bloom said.

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Posted by unestidstwern on May 20 2010. Filed under Archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry