The Olympic Music Festival, now in its 20^th year, offers chamber music every summer weekend at a dairy farm on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, an hour and a half from Seattle. Musicians perform in the barn, with the audience seated on folding chairs, benches, and bales of hay. General admission ticket-holders are encouraged to bring blankets or folding chairs and relax on the lawn outside the barn.

Each week the Festival presents a new set of musicians selected from twenty different artists who come and go throughout the summer. The musicians playing on the upcoming weekend arrive on Tuesday for four days of rehearsal before the weekend performances. Cabins on the farm house the artists and a fine chef prepares meals in the cookhouse at the top of the hill.

The Board of Trustees of the Olympic Music Festival consists of twenty advisors. However, the bulk of the work is done by a group of about seven active board members. We meet monthly to plan and review the budget, to plan and execute fundraising functions, and to advise on marketing plans and materials.

All programming decisions and artist selection is done by the Olympic Music Festival’s artistic director, Alan Iglitzin. As board members, our role is to provide input into the season schedule and guidance for the artistic direction. However, there is rarely disagreement since we are all committed to providing concerts that our audience will enjoy. Our mission is not to present new music by contemporary composers, but to introduce our audiences to unfamiliar works by familiar composers. Most of our repertory comes from the classical and romantic literature, with the occasional impressionist thrown in. We want our audiences to trust that they will enjoy the music we present.

Like most arts organizations, ticket sales cover only about 40% of our budget. Concession sales at the festival provide another 10%, but the rest of our income – fully half – must come from donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations. Our primary function as board members is to help raise funds to
keep the festival financially sound.

Early in our fiscal year the Olympic Music Festival contacts our contributors and ticket buyers to solicit donations. For many years this was the primary fundraising effort for the year. As our board has developed however, we have tried new activities and events to increase donations. On two occasions we sold raffle tickets to raise funds, and last year we held our largest event ever: a fundraising breakfast at which we introduced 250  new people to the Olympic Music Festival. This event proved to be extremely successful, raising substantially more money than any previous fundraiser. We hope to repeat that success every year from now on.

Fundraising in the summer takes on a different character. Each board member brings people to the farm to introduce them to the Festival, encourage them to return frequently, and add them to our family of supporters. It is our audience that provides most of the contributions that support the Festival and keep it performing year after year. As long as we provide music they enjoy, they will ensure that the Festival continues. ###
                                                                                            Susan Winokur

Susan Winokur is Chair of the Board of the Olympic Musical Festival.

For more information about the Olympic Music Festival check out the web site: www.olympicmusicfestival.org