Community Outreach Projects

The Milwaukee Alumnae SAI Chapter coordinates a community service project every year. This year we are looking forward to again helping Girl Scouts earn their music badges during a morning of having fun while learning about music. In fact, the Milwaukee SAI Alumnae Chapter won the Annelle Chandler McAdams Alumnae Service Project Award in 2007 for our Junior Girl Scout Music Badge Project.

The Milwaukee SAI Alumnae Chapter is sponsoring a school performance of "Pinocchio" by the Florentine Opera at Mary McLeod Bethune Academy in Spring 2009. This is a production designed for children and presented by one of the local opera companies.

The Chapter sponsors an award for chamber music performance at the Biennial National Piano Arts Competition. This program was founded by Distinguished SAI Susan Medford and is open to pianists ages 15 - 20. They prepare solo piano music as well as a concerto and chamber music from all periods. The finalists perform with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The next competition will be in June 2010.

The Milwaukee Alumnae are beginning a new service initiative called the "CLEFS" Program. (Concert Listening Enrichment for Seniors) SAI members will present three sessions for seniors at a retirement facility in preparation for attending a matinee performance by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The sessions will include material about the composers and the compositions as well as pointers on how to listen and what to listen for and what to watch.

On February 28, 2009, The Milwaukee Alumnae Chapter sponsored a Youth Choral Workshop. Conductors Ella Washington, Wallace Cheatham and Raymond Roberts spent the morning working with more than 80 high school age singers on African-American Spirituals at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. Singers from the Milwaukee Youth Chorale, the High School of the Arts, and churches in Kenosha, West Allis and Pewaukee joined together for this exciting experience. Each conductor worked on a different arrangement of a spiritual, bringing their own insight to the performance of this style.

Milwaukee SAI Alumnae Chapter sponsored a Youth Choral Workshop at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center.