The Portland Conservatory of Music will present its third annual Portland Early Music Festival Oct. 24-26 at its Woodford Street Campus. The festival is a kind of counterweight to the popular Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival held each spring, while the International Piano Festival presents the best of both worlds. The early music festival is the first to be supported, at least in part, by crowdfunding on the Internet.

The festivals, along with appearances by students and faculty at the weekly Noonday Concerts at the First Parish Church, beginning Oct. 2 with pianist Frank Glazer, are merely the most visible of many programs affecting the musical life of Portland and its surrounding area, according to executive director Mark Tipton.

Tipton, who teaches trumpet and composition, was surprised when he became executive director at how little the school was known outside of Portland.

“Libraries are a nonprofit’s best friend,” he said, “so I spent two weeks traveling to all the libraries between York and Damariscotta, telling them who we were and asking them to let us post information on their bulletin boards. The only one who had heard of us was the librarian in Kennebunkport.”

The conservatory, founded in 1995 by Carol Eaton Elowe and Hillary Egan, has consistently filled a gap left by the decline of music education in public schools among students within about a 50-mile radius of Portland. The number of students in recent years has held steady at about 150.

“We’d like to reach more of the kids who haven’t been able to take music classes at school,” Tipton said.

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Toward this goal, the conservatory has begun several free community outreach programs.

This year, the conservatory and Long Creek Youth Development Center will offer piano and guitar lessons to at-risk youth in South Portland. The Youth Music Club at Mayo Street Arts offers free music classes for student ages 8 to 18, in singing, playing the guitar, writing music and the history of both classical and pop music. The Portland Conservatory of Music Youth Choir at the Boys and Girls Club of Portland introduces students ages 10 to 16 to ensemble and solo singing in pop, rock, folk and world music genres.

The outreach programs are led by guitarist, composer and music educator Don Pride, who can be reached at don@portlandconservatoryofmusic.org.

Tipton makes no secret of his hope that such programs also will help in his new grant-writing exercises, which last year brought in about $30,000.

One of the most successful of the grant-funded programs has been the Karger College Prep Program, a demanding, auditioned course for students from eighth grade through high school who are considering a career in music. The course, which admits 12 students each year, is paid for by grant money amounting to $3,000 per student. It even includes a class in how to prepare for college admission auditions, graduates of which have a high success rate.

“You should hear some of these kids at the Noonday Concerts,” Tipton said. “It’s always a pleasure for me.”

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A similar program in jazz studies has begun this year under the direction of Titus Abbott.

Tipton’s goal is to add 100 more students, especially in group classes, where there is something for everyone.

Current classes include guitar and music history for seniors, how to read music, improvisation and African music, drumming, song and culture, taught by Jordan Benissan of Togo and Colby College.

One could consider this the year of the organ. Tipton, inspired by the organ at Woodfords Congregational Church, where the conservatory is located, wrote a piece for this year’s Back Cove Festival. It seems like a good candidate for wider exposure on the Kotzschmar Organ this season.

Christopher Hyde is a writer and musician who lives in Pownal, He can be reached at:

classbeat@netscape.net


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