Message from the President
Elizabeth Heard
“JOIN IN THE CHORUS!”
Dear Guild Members and Friends of the Guild,
Happy New Year! I am looking forward to celebrating and remembering 60 years of the Greensboro Symphony Guild.
We started the celebration at the General Membership Meeting on January 18. We celebrated our national recognition when Bonnie Cordes and Rachel Hull accepted the 1985 President’s Award for volunteer service, particularly for exposing thousands of school children to classical music. We displayed the dresses they wore at the reception and our lovely Mary Ingram modeled Bonnie Cordes’ beautiful dress. I was honored to wear the President’s Medal.
The meeting wasn’t all about the past. We honored Laura and Robert Green with the Barbara Cone Award for Service. They have made a tremendous contribution to the arts in our community for a very long time and it was wonderful to surprise them with this special award.
Several weeks ago, Barbara Key and I sat down with Kitty Robison and Ann Daniel and learned about the early days of the Guild. Kitty told us that she got a call and was asked to invite her neighbors to form the Guild. In the early days, many individual teas were held at people’s homes. The founders traveled to the American Symphony Orchestra League. They realized they were behind the times as other cities had more well-established support for their orchestras. They also realized it was important to get music into the schools.
The original commitment to schools led to the President’s Award just 20 years later and the commitment is at the foundation of our mission today. Thanks to Frances Vinoski and Nancy Bogard for all the work done to establish the tradition of bringing music education to students from our local counties through the GSO school concerts. In March, we will again bring 20,000 students to the Tanger Center to enjoy a very special concert. Thanks to Amy Evans, Renee Anguili, and Kathy Caviness for taking the reins this year. We need many hands for this venture. Watch for the opportunity to sign up to help.
I hope you can make it to Valentine’s at The Art Shop on February 13 from 6 – 8 pm.It will be a fun evening with delicious food, wine and delightful music. If you can make it, sign up here.
Thank you for your continued support of the Guild.
2023-2024 President
Greensboro Symphony Guild
Music Matters!
