August 2023

As the summer begins to wind down, I hope that you have had the chance to participate in activities for recreation and re-creation - whether it was attending an AGO Regional Convention, denominational or professional conferences, making a trip and experiencing other musicians performing their craft, or reading or studying something that you don’t normally have time for. I also hope that you are ready to reengage with renewed passion and enthusiasm for your work and our profession.

As you are probably aware, our profession is experiencing a diminishing number of persons studying the organ and joining our ranks, necessitating a re-creation of the work of the AGO. The Baltimore Chapter is contributing to that re-creation by sponsoring two scholarships for beginning organ students. The Executive Committee has committed to supporting the scholarships from our reserve funds. To minimize the impact on our finances, however, we are hoping to encourage donations to cover the cost. Each scholarship is in the amount of $600 and will cover 1⁄2 the cost of 16 lessons provided over the course of 8 months. The student is responsible for the other half of the cost. I hope that you will join me in donating to the J. Spencer Hammond Memorial Scholarship Fund of Baltimore AGO to support this important work. You may donate online (www.agohq.org – note: you need to log in to find the donate button and fund name) or you may send a check to our treasurer (135 Hollow Brook Road, Timonium, MD, 21093) marking scholarship program in the memo line. You can also donate to the scholarship fund when you renew your membership online. We thank Wendy Johnston and Diane Luchese for their work in getting this scholarship program up and running and to the Executive Committee for their visionary support.

We have a number of exciting programs planned for this year, and we hope that you will be able to attend many of them. The Program and Executive committees are keen to provide opportunities not only for quality programs to inspire our members, but also many opportunities for social interactions. The first event will be at Wayne Wold’s (our Regional Councillor for the Mid-Atlantic region) church - First Evangelical Lutheran, Ellicott City, on September 10 at 4:00. We will have a program on the upcoming OHS Convention, given by David Storey, music exchange, and a potluck supper. I hope to see you there.

Peace,
Bert

The August 2023 issue of the Pipe & Pedal is now available.