The Auburn Symphony Orchestra has great things in store for this autumn and winter.
Like its autumn Chamber Concert at 7 p.m. Nov. 16 at San Mateo Episcopal Church, advertised as “a lyrical program evocative of poetry, folk music, and a walk through the forest in springtime, in turns dynamic, majestic, and powerful…”
And its grandest show of the year, a special live holiday performance of the live soundtrack to the Oscar-nominated holiday film, “The Snowman!,” allowing the audience to follow James and his snowman as they embark on a wondrous journey one winter’s night. The night will include seasonal favorites such as “Miracle on 34th Street,” “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” with a traditional audience sing-along and more.
In the interest of keeping high-quality events like those above, the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust recently awarded the orchestra a much-prized capacity-building grant.
According to Rachel Perry, executive director of the non-profit ASO, the organization will use the $140,000 grant to hire an individual giving director, the ASO’s third staff member, to lead the organization’s fundraising initiatives.
“In the last few years, we have been able to add more concerts. In fact, we have almost doubled the number since 2021 when we came back from the pandemic. But our administrative staff has not grown in almost 20 years,” Perry explained.
“To support all these new things, we will be doing two full symphony concerts for a total of six, and our link-up education program, which is a free concert for all fourth-graders in the Auburn School District and in Muckleshoot schools,” Perry said.
The grant will cover the salary of the individual giving director for three years, under the assumption that the person’s fundraising successes will pay for the position thereafter.
The M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust has been supporting the growth of Pacific Northwest nonprofits since 1975. To strengthen the region’s educational, social, spiritual and cultural base, the foundation leverages its endowment for grantmaking, enrichment programs and professional development workshops.
In its 40-plus years, the Murdock Foundation has partnered with more than 3,000 nonprofits that are serving the diverse needs in communities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
In 2022, the ASO created a 5-year strategic plan to expand the organization’s services in the South King County community, which describes the following goals:
To diversify artistic voices to present a breadth and depth of orchestral music;
To grow the board, staff, and audiences to better reflect and represent the population of the community;
To continue to pay musicians a competitive wage;
To expand education programs to serve more students and community members throughout South King County.
Learn more at auburnsymphony.org and social media pages Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube.
