Dear Swallow Hill Community,

A couple times per year, I like to reach out to the Swallow Hill Music community with an update on our activities and plans. Whether you are a member, patron, donor, volunteer, employee, board member or friend, I want you know that your involvement with and investment in Swallow Hill Music is making a difference in people’s lives. I also want to make you are aware of some of the initiatives that are underway and exciting events that are coming up.

Comfort & Care – Building Improvements
Many thanks to all of you who donated to our Comfort and Care Campaign! Swallow Hill Music’s 60-year-old building has been something of a challenge to maintain, but we want your physical experience at our facility to match your social and musical experience. With your help, we have raised enough to undertake six critical upgrades to our building: the remodel of all seven bathrooms; the installation of a new IT system; the addition of an interior fire sprinkler system; patching and striping of our parking lot; the repair of all sidewalks surrounding the building and parking lot; and an upgrade to our café to enhance the atmosphere and prepare for beer and wine service in the near future. The bathroom remodel is finished and the sprinkler system is underway. Look for the remainder of these projects to be completed by late spring.

Concerts
This will be a busy year for the concert department at Swallow Hill Music. We are adding 15 concerts at Capitol Hill’s L2 Arts & Culture Center; adding a new monthly World Music series in Tuft Theatre, and producing our 3rd season of summer concerts at the Denver Botanic Gardens (DBG). Just a reminder that pre-sale DBG tickets (for SHM members only) starts on April 27 and runs through April 30. Ticket sales will be open to the general public on May 1. If you are not already a member, now is a great time to join! Also coming up: our annual Ukefest May 17 to 19, a special weekend celebrating the Denver Folklore Center’s 50th Anniversary and its founder Harry Tuft May 25 to 27, the 21st year of the Shady Grove Picnic series at Four Mile Historic Park, and our 6th annual Rootsfest concert in the fall (not in the spring this year). Look for more information on these events on our website.

School
Our music school also has great plans for 2012. We are formalizing our scholarship program to help individuals who would otherwise be unable to afford classes or workshops; offering more diverse group class programming; online registration and payment; and continuing our Outreach programs in Colorado schools by providing music education and instruction through assemblies, group lessons and our Traveling Troupe program. Other plans include expanding the number of classes offered to children and youth ages 6 months to 18 years. The school is also looking into the possibility of opening a satellite location north of our current facility in the future.

Our Growth
Swallow Hill Music has experienced extraordinary growth over the past four years. This growth is important only because it has allowed us to expand our reach into the community, connecting more people than ever before with our mission, message and programming. In 2012, we will be serving 40 percent more individuals in the community than we did in 2007. While we have improved our operational efficiency and sustainability through increased program revenue, we will still need significantly more development revenue this year, $300,000 more than four years ago. These funds will help us cover increased general operating costs, building maintenance costs and program specific costs related to the increased number of concerts, classes, workshops and outreach programs that we offer.

Development & Membership
To keep pace with our needs and step up our fundraising efforts, we have hired our first Development Director, Sara Knowles, who has designed a comprehensive fundraising plan for 2012. Part of that plan includes expanding our Volunteer Program. Hanna Ackerman, currently our events manager, has taken on the role of volunteer coordinator in addition to her duties in the concert department. Individual giving remains a critical part of our development plan and current revenue sources, and we are grateful for your continued support! With your help, we met or exceeded our development goals for 2011 in the area of major gifts (Friends of Swallow Hill), general membership and annual giving; however foundation grants and corporate sponsorships were a challenge. However, with Sara’s guidance, we are confident we can make great strides in these and all other areas in 2012.

Our People
We have a wonderful, hardworking, mission-driven staff of 11 full-time employees who are led by our talented team of department directors: In addition to Sara we have: David Weingarden, Director of Concerts; Michael Schenkelberg, Director of the Music School; and Gwen Burak, Director of Marketing. We also have over 60 highly-qualified teachers, a network of solid volunteers and a board of directors who keep us on mission and on budget.

Up Ahead
We are very proud of our accomplishments in recent years and want to share our success with all of you. We also want to hear more about what Swallow Hill Music means to you. To that end, I will be hosting a Town Hall meeting in the very near future to talk about our future plans and to ask all of you one very important question: “What is your Swallow Hill Music?” I hope you will join us for this important dialogue.

While Swallow Hill Music has evolved over the past 33 years, it still retains an essential, almost magical character that seems to endure in the hearts of all who have experienced “the Hill”. I, like so many others across Colorado and the nation, am extremely grateful for this unique institution and community of people who share a passion for listening to music, and learning music. Thank you for being a part of our past success, being a part of our future success, and for helping us to continue connecting people to the power of music!

Sincerely,

Tom Scharf, CEO & Executive Director

Hello members and friends of Swallow Hill,

I am happy to report that we have installed new, comfy chairs and ample air conditioning in Daniels Hall at Swallow Hill. Thanks to our generous (and patient) community, we raised over $50,000 to help make our main performance halls one of the best in the metro area. The seats are wider, deeper, more padded and much better looking than our old ones. And the air conditioning keeps the hall cool, even on a sold out show on a 100 degree day.

I wanted once again to personally thank everyone who helped make this possible, especially Andrew Miller, who gave us a $25,000 challenge grant to start to campaign. We are having a donor recognition feature installed in the hall in the next few days which will forever memorialize the donors.

More than anything, I wanted to invite each and every one of you to come down to Swallow Hill in the near future to enjoy a show in our much upgraded environment. Its a special place, made more special when you are part of it.

Hope to see you soon at Swallow Hill.

Tom Scharf
Executive Director
Swallow Hill Music Association

Welcome to the revamped web world at Swallow Hill Music. We hope that you like the look and feel of our new website. More importantly, we hope it is easier and faster for you to get to the information and programming that really interests you at Swallow Hill. I hope that you feel the site, and much of our new branding, better reflects the essence of who we are – genuine, community oriented, and passionate about music.

I’m excited to once again have a forum to have a conversation with you about the things that are going on at the Hill, about the connections that people are making, about how music is positively transforming people’s lives. I feel so fortunate to witness on a daily basis the things that people do – little and big – to really make this place a special community. Swallow Hill is place where everyone is welcome, everyone is on the same plane, luxuriating in the passion of music. It’s a place where people can take some time for themselves away from the loud and fast-paced world to take it one note at a time. Whether learning, listening or simply loving the musical environment – you are a thread in a very special arts and culture fabric that is unique in the Front Range – and unique in the United States.

Allow me to share an example of the spirit of Swallow Hill:

2009 was one of the toughest economic years since the great depression and the effects were felt all over this country – Denver was no exception. And while Swallow Hill took a number of financial hits, we finished the year in pretty good shape. How could that be? The first thing to get cut in a bad economy is discretionary spending on things like entertainment, travel and recreation. A big part of our success is the Swallow Hill community.

Patrons of Swallow Hill realized that being here was good for the soul. Simple, people affirmed that music – either concerts or classes – was a positive place of escape that was worth the investment. We did our part by keeping our programming affordable, accessible and interesting. The community did its part by participating as patrons, as members, as donors, as volunteers, and as ambassadors for a way of life.

Yes, the teachers and staff at school of music is outstanding. And the Concert department continues to blend the best of the old and the new in roots based music. But it is the connection with you that makes this place come alive. In my continuing conversations with you through this blog, in the halls, and on the streets, we will prove it to each other – standing shoulder to shoulder – smiling at each other when we witness the power of music hit someone else like a freight train.

Until then, thanks for being part of this special community. Chat with you soon.

Tom Scharf
Executive Director