By: Jeffrey D. Stauffer, Executive Director – Elville Center for the Creative Arts, Inc.
Do you have an instrument taking up space in a closet or attic not being used anymore? Perhaps your son or daughter has moved on to other activities and their instrument could use a good home!
As the fall semester in schools is underway, the Elville Center has developed many new school partnerships that have many, many needs for instruments for students that want to participate in band or orchestra but don’t have the means to do so on their own. And, that’s where the Elville Center and you come in.
The Elville Center for the Creative Arts depends on people like you to donate musical instruments we then refurbish so they’re like new before we get them in the hands of student musicians in music programs we support in local schools. We also fund other educational initiatives in schools as well as in organizations such as the Columbia Orchestra and The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, to name just a couple. Virtually all instruments are gladly accepted – clarinets, trumpets, saxophones, violins, bassoons, flutes, guitars, cellos, baritones – and everything in between (no pianos or recorders, though – sorry!)
The Elville Center is a small charity and we work hard to make a difference in the communities we serve. Typically, an instrument can cost anywhere between $75 and $200 to refurbish. And, as a small charity, we ask anyone looking to donate an instrument to consider making a monetary donation of $50 or more to help with the cost to refurbish the instrument and/or purchase necessary items such as a new case, new mouthpieces, reeds and other supplies. If this is something you’re willing and able to do, it would be most appreciated and make a tremendous difference; however, if it is not, you’re still welcome to donate the instrument and it will find a good home with one
of our school music partners.
If you’re willing and able to donate, you can do so by visiting here — https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=TPBET4HBSGC6W —
which is the donation page on our website.
The one instrument we are not accepting at this time are pianos, and this is for many reasons. To learn how you can donate your piano, please view our suggestions on our website here.
Lastly, if you’d like the Elville Center to furnish a tax receipt for your instrument and/or monetary
donation, as a 501(c)(3) non-profit we’re very happy to do so. The two pieces of
information we need to furnish this receipt are your full name and home address (to be used solely for this letter).
You’re welcome to drop off the instrument at our office, which is located within the office of Elville and Associates, P.C., an estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning firm based in Columbia. The charity was founded by the firm’s Managing Principal and Lead Attorney, Stephen Elville. I, Executive Director Jeffrey Stauffer, also work for the firm as its Community Relations Director.
To donate or for more information, please contact me at jeff@elvillecenter.org, or at 443-676-9691. You can also fill out a contact form on our website home page by clicking here.
Thank you again for your interest in the Elville Center for the Creative Arts and have a wonderful day! We value your support!
With appreciation,
Jeffrey D. Stauffer
Executive Director
Elville Center for the Creative Arts, Inc.
7100 Columbia Gateway Drive, Suite 190 Columbia, Maryland 21046
P: 443-393-7696 (Main)
The Elville Center for the Creative Arts – Helping Music Education Be a Part of Every Child’s World of Possibility
By: Jeffrey D. Stauffer – Executive Director – Elville Center for the Creative Arts, Inc.
“Music enhances the education of our children by helping them to make connections and broadening the depth with which they think and feel. If we are to hope for a society of culturally literate people, music must be a vital part of our children’s education.” – Yo-Yo Ma
As the Elville Center for the Creative Arts approaches its six-year anniversary in June, the foundation of its mission remains the same as we work to “Make a Musical Difference in the Lives of Children” each day by providing them the opportunity to learn music theory and application, experience cultural events related to the musical and creative arts, and to use music and the promotion of music-related activities to transcend social and economic divisions. The Elville Center partners with school music programs and local businesses to give the gift of music to children of all ages who want to participate in music but don’t have the means to do so on their own. The Elville Center refurbishes donated musical instruments, purchases new instruments for programs, provides rental instruments, offers support to develop music programs, partners with professional symphonies and other organizations to fund music education initiatives, and much more.
Due to COVID, now more than ever the support of interested clients and community members like you is critical to the Elville Center’s continued ability to keep music alive, and in many cases, help restore music to schools and the thousands of student musicians in Maryland that aren’t afforded the opportunities they desire to participate in music. School music programs are being defunded, and countless programs in existence don’t have the necessities to function properly to give student musicians the experiences they deserve. Teachers do not have their own money to pour into their programs to pay for needed equipment, supplies, and instruments. With COVID having affected schools since early 2020, music programs have been deemphasized even more with music teachers having to find creative ways to offer music remotely and in person. As schools prepare for full-time in person learning in the fall, the Elville Center is being counted on to support our school music partners so they are fully prepared for a successful fall semester.
Since our last update, the Elville Center has been busy strengthening current relationships and building new ones as we work to assist as many music programs and student musicians as possible. Some of our stories are below. And to reiterate – these stories would not be possible without donations from people like you who support organizations like the Elville Center!
The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra Sponsorship and Educational Initiatives
For a fifth consecutive season, the Elville Center is continuing its support as a major sponsor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, a professional orchestra in Annapolis based in the historic Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. In 2019, the Center’s sponsorship paid for the bus transportation and tickets for 625 children, all from Title 1 schools, to attend the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Concerts for School- 22 children. The Symphony performs annual education concerts for more than 2,600 elementary schoolchildren from Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Taking place during the school day, these educational performances expose students to symphonic music in a theater setting, regardless of their socio-economic status. The Symphony strives to introduce elementary schoolchildren to live music performed by a professional orchestra; to teach students about the four instrument families; to engage young listeners with multi-media elements, such as theater, dance, magic or puppetry; and to reinforce that music is fun and accessible. Continuing our funding for this ASO’s educational initiative is our largest and arguably most important venture of the year, as it positively affects so many underprivileged students and directly fulfills our mission to give children the opportunity to experience cultural events related to music they never would have experienced otherwise.
The Annapolis Symphony Academy
As an offshoot to our relationship with the ASO, the Elville Center was recently introduced to the Annapolis Symphony Academy. Led by Founder and Director Netanel Draiblate, the
Academy’s mission is to provide high-level music education to students of all cultural and economic backgrounds, while addressing the under-representation of minority musicians in the classical music field.
According to the Academy’s “Model for Diversity” on its website, “Half of the Annapolis Symphony Academy student body is comprised of underrepresented minorities (in today’s U.S. orchestras) in a model that emphasizes interaction and mutual respect. Regardless of a student’s cultural background, and through the incredible generosity of our donors, the Academy awards up to fifty percent of its annual tuition revenue in need-based scholarships. We believe this model provides a truly diverse student body, as it merges two overlapping, yet nonidentical, concepts of equality onto one program. Students are selected for the program strictly based on merit as well as their drive to learn and become better musicians.”
Beginning in June, the Elville Center will be providing high-level donated refurbished musical instruments of all kinds to support the Academy’s mission and student musicians as they pursue their musical dreams through this groundbreaking educational opportunity.
Wiley H. Bates Middle School
The Elville Center continues to partner with its good friends at Bates Middle School, led by Director of Bands Dr. Maximus Vanderbeek and Orchestral Program Director Ms. Kirsten Taylor. This longstanding partnership is important as the instruments we provide Dr. Vanderbeek are divided among Bates Middle’s feeder elementary schools, expanding our reach to hundreds of additional student musicians in Anne Arundel County. Along with our continuing monthly financial support of its guest artist/student teacher program, over the past several months the Elville Center has provided Bates with over 20 instruments for the school’s large band program and Performing Visual Arts Program, and has begun to offer instruments to its orchestral program as well. A beautiful cello, a long-sought euphonium, tuba, violins, trumpets, flutes, and a rare cornet with a remarkable sound are now in the hands of Bates’ student musicians as music resonates through its halls in preparation for its next performance in the fall.
The Elville Center also orchestrated the delivery of a fine Roland KR-7 digital piano to Bates in May, which was donated to the charity by a former music instructor at Loyola University. While pianos are not typically something we delve into at the charity, when there is a need from one of our partners and an opportunity presents itself, the Elville Center will make it happen! “
At Wiley H. Bates Middle School here in Annapolis, we have benefitted greatly from the Elville Center for the Creative Arts donations,” noted Dr. Vanderbeek. “They generously have donated over 100 (!) various instruments to our Music Department (and we have a great need for these). Anne Arundel County Public Schools and our Bates community are extremely grateful for these. In addition, they professionally refurbish each instrument before they deliver it to us, and that is a key difference from other donated instruments. Please picture a 6th grade trumpet or violin student here being handed a nice trumpet in excellent working condition; because of the Elville Creative Center for the Creative Arts, this happens for all our music students here at Bates. We are so appreciative of this partnership for these reasons and many, many more.”
REACH! Partnership
In one of our most important endeavors to date, this April the Elville Center reconnected with the REACH! Partnership, a Baltimore City charter school whose band program is in its relative infancy; however, this does not mean the dreams and desire to enhance its students’ lives with music is not there – because it is with wholehearted enthusiasm! Hard work has been poured into the school’s band and choral programs over the past three years as they continue to grow scope and sound each year. The Elville Center recognizes this and wants to be part of the movement that is REACH! Partnership Music! With the assistance of the school’s remarkable Community Engagement Coordinator, Ms. Rhonda McKinney, the Elville Center delivered a large donation of instruments and supplies to the school, which included a five-piece Tama swingstar and ride drum set with high hat and crash
symbols; a Peavy amp; three Fender guitars with attachments for the amp; two trumpets; two clarinets and a flute.
In May, the Elville Center received information regarding how it can support the school’s choral program as well, so our donation to the school as the fall semester begins will include support for not only the band but the choral program as well. Mr. Dick Clark, band director at the school, remarked, “Music is the soundtrack of Life! When music programs were removed from schools as part of the curriculum or even as an extracurricular activity, we lost that soundtrack from our students. We missed that sound of creativity of art through various instruments and even in voice. It has always been the dream and desire of my principal, Dr. James Gresham, to have a music program at our school where we can bring that sound back to life!”
“Thanks to Mr. Stephen Elville, Mr. Jeff Stauffer and to the support of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts, this dream has now become a reality! We have a brand new 21st-century building with a music room, where we can now not only teach our students how to play various instruments but to learn how to appreciate music as an art. We have a choir that made their debut at our Christmas program in 2019! They have been going strong ever since! We appreciate the generous donations and are excited about hearing that soundtrack of life throughout our building.” Ms. McKinney continued with her thoughts about the importance of partnerships such as that of the Elville Center to REACH! Partnership’s growth and success, saying, “It is with sincere appreciation and a grateful heart that we say thank you for supporting the mission of the REACH Partnership School. We are excited about your contribution to support our students and staff. Your contribution of the musical instruments and other musical supplies has allowed us to better serve our school community. Having supportive partnerships is essential to the success of our Community School model. Our partnership remains 24 a promising vehicle in our collective efforts to servethe needs of our students and their families.”
The Columbia Orchestra
The Elville Center is proud to support the Columbia Orchestra’s Young People’s Concert for a fifth consecutive year. This year’s Concert took place on May 22nd at the Chrysalis amphitheater in downtown Columbia and was a hit with the kids and their families as it has been for years. A wonderful way to introduce children of all ages to music and the Orchestra, an ensemble, dancers from Dance Connections, and narrator Greg Jukes performed Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf! In addition, music from Moana, The Wizard of Oz, and more was enjoyed by all.
Germantown, West Annapolis, and Annapolis Elementary Schools
Not only is Dr. Vanderbeek at Bates Middle a valued partner of the Elville Center, he is a great referral partner as well, having suggested we reach out to Mr. Andrew Ritenour, Band Director at the three above-mentioned schools. In speaking with Mr. Ritenour, he shared with me some information about his programs, including the challenges COVID has presented over the past year. His schools serve high-poverty neighborhoods, and this year he had half the number of band students he would have in a typical year. Instruments are always needed at his schools, as students’ families typically don’t have the resources available to rent them. As we receive our next batch of donated refurbished instruments from our valued partner, Music & Arts Center of Severna Park, as he’s asked, we’ve assured Mr. Ritenour to expect a delivery of trumpets and saxophones for his bands, as well as violins for the orchestral program at his schools.
“My students and I are grateful for the instruments you send our way!” noted Mr. Ritenour. “Thank you so much for all you’re doing to put instruments in the hands of students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to play – sometimes their participation in these groups is the primary reason they want to come to school!”
The Elville Center needs your support to further its important work and help develop new relationships that are depending on the charity. Every one of the refurbished instruments and equipment the Elville Center provides music programs along with educational initiatives we support are not possible without donor support. We need those instruments that you don’t use anymore and are taking up space. And, most importantly, we need your monetary support to help refurbish those instruments, purchase supplies, and facilitate cultural learning experiences for student musicians in need. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, all donations made to the Elville Center are tax-deductible. To donate or learn more about the Elville Center for the Creative Arts, please visit www. elvillecenter.org, contact Jeff Stauffer at jeff@elvillecenter.org, or call 443-676-9691. We value and appreciate your support!
“Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.” Plato
The Elville Center for the Creative Arts – On the Road This Week Supporting Music in Schools
By: Jeffrey D. Stauffer – Executive Director, Elville Center for the Creative Arts, Inc.
Wednesday was a great day for the Elville Center for the Creative Arts, and most importantly the school music programs and student musicians we support!
Executive Director Jeff Stauffer and Audio-Visual Specialist Lucille Elville began their travels 
early in the morning, and their first stop was Germantown Elementary, a new partnership we’ve developed over the past few months. We met Band and Orchestral Director Andrew Ritenour and delivered several trumpets, a beautiful cornet, a baritone, and a couple saxophones to benefit the student musicians in his programs.
Our next stop was around the corner to longtime partner and friend of the Elville Center Ms. Christine Brimhall, Instrumental Music Director at Monarch Academy Annapolis. This was my fifth visit to Monarch over the years but Ms. Brimhall’s and my paths never have crossed until today! She is a busy, busy teacher taking care of her young, budding student musicians. Lucy and I delivered flutes, saxophones, and trumpets to her program today. She couldn’t have been happier, and the same could be said for Lucy and me!
Our final stop took us up the road to Pasadena for a reunion with Ms. Carol Cox, who I hadn’t seen in a couple years as she’d transitioned to a new school, Bodkin Elementary, home of the Bulldogs. As she always does, Ms. Cox invited us into her classroom where she had every type of instrument laid out on the floor where students have been busy trying them out as they decide which instrument they’d like to begin playing this year. She mentioned the students were extremely excited to be back in the classrooms in person and to get started playing their instruments over the next week. It was wonderful to see her as she is a bundle of positive energy. It’s no wonder her students adore her so very much. We dropped off five clarinets, a saxophone, and a couple trumpets to benefit her program.
Having Lucy there to document the day with some great pictures of me with these hardworking, dedicated teachers was extra special. I will never, ever go on another visit to drop off instruments without Lucy by my side!
Earlier in the week, our good friend Dr. Max Vanderbeek of Wiley H. Bates Middle stopped by our office on his way to work – around 6:30 in the morning – to pick up several instruments we had waiting for him. He left with a cello, a violin, a beautiful silver Bach trumpet, a few silver Geimenhardt flutes, and a saxophone for his very successful and growing Performing Visual Arts and Orchestral Programs.
On November 1st Elville Center founder Stephen Elville and I will be visiting the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and its educational program, the Annapolis Symphony Academy, to discuss our partnership with them and learn more about their plans for this fiscal year.
I wish every day could be like Wednesday – but that is why we put the hard work in – to have days like that. And, we simply cannot do it without your instrument donations and monetary support to refurbish those instruments so they’re like new when we deliver them to our school music partners. We also regularly need to purchase new cases, mouthpieces, bows, and other equipment to supplement these instruments. Please consider supporting the Elville Center today by donating here to help make more days like Wednesday a reality! We have many, many instruments being refurbished right now and need your support to continue to “Make a Musical Difference in the Lives of Children” each day.
Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t say I was so fortunate to meet and spend a little bit of time with four hardworking, dedicated teachers this week. These teachers spend their own money to make a difference in their students’ lives, work long hours, and care deeply about their students and the work they do. Next time you have the opportunity, be sure to thank a teacher for the work they do!
Until next time, thank you for your continued support and interest in the Elville Center for the Creative Arts!
#keepmusicalive #makingadifference #schoolmusic
A $1 Million Charitable Endowment? A Message from the Elville Center for the Creative Arts
By: Stephen R. Elville – President and Founder of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts, Inc.
Good news is rare these days, but not at the Elville Center for the Creative Arts. The Elville Center is boldly continuing its work in 2021 to provide much needed musical instruments, music lessons, art- and dance-related activities, and cultural experiences to children and schools throughout Maryland. How big is the need? Huge.
How many teachers, schools, and children need help? Hundreds and thousands. How much work is there to do? A lifetime’s worth. How are these projects being funded? Through generous individual donations of instruments and funds to refurbish those instruments, monthly donations, and annual charitable contributions. What is needed now? A $1 million charitable endowment to permanently fund the Elville Center that will turbo charge an expansion effort to affect many more children’s lives and reconstitute the music programs of many schools whose programs have been decimated or eliminated.
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, the Elville Center needs your support to achieve its goal of an initial $1 charitable million endowment so that its mission and vision may be perpetuated, expanded throughout Maryland, and nationally. if you would like to contribute to or discuss a charitable endowment the Elville Center, or if you would like to volunteer your services, please contact Executive Director Jeffrey Stauffer at 443-393-7696 x117, or at jeff@elvilleassociates.com. If you would like to speak with the Elville Center’s founder, Stephen Elville, please contact his Legal Administrator, Mary Guay Kramer, at mary@elvilleassociates.com.
By: Jeffrey Stauffer – Executive Director
The Elville Center was privileged to deliver some donated refurbished instruments to our fine longtime partners at Wiley H. Bates Middle School in Annapolis in November and December! These instruments will help support the student musician’s in the performing visual arts school’s band and orchestral programs. The first picture shows new Assistant Principal Mike Ballard, Band Director Maximus Vanderbeek, and the Elville Center’s Executive Director Jeff Stauffer, with the second picture showing Dr. Vanderbeek.
During the pandemic, the Elville Center has seen an unprecedented number of instrument donations as many people have taken time to clean out closets, attics, and declutter their homes. While this has significantly increased our inventory and afforded the Elville Center the opportunity to donate to various schools and programs in the area, the reality is it is also very expensive to refurbish so many instruments. If you donate an instrument, please consider further supporting the Elville Center by donating monetarily to help offset some of the cost to refurbish your instrument donation. It will go a long way towards helping the charity continue our mission of “Making a Musical Difference in the Lives of Children” each day!
By: Stephen R. Elville, J.D., LL.M. – President and Founder – Elville Center for the Creative Arts, Inc.
It’s casual virtual Friday at Elville and Associates and here’s what’s on my mind. This morning I noticed how green and beautiful my yard is after all the April showers. And oh, during this sad and challenging time I find myself once again absorbed in music, Johann Sebastian Bach‘s music for piano that is. Yes, once again I am fascinated and awestruck by Bach. How could this “ordinary” church organist have been so very extraordinary? While I am not a music historian or expert like Jonathan Palevsky and our other friends at WBJC, to me this is one of the great mysteries that leaves me speechless, especially after listening to a master like Murray Perahia play Bach, or after sitting down at my piano to practice one of the (easier) French Suites. What does my simple morning diatribe here mean? Maybe this: even while we persevere, adapt, withstand long suffering difficulties, endure tragedy, laugh, cry, and overcome during the COVID-19 disaster, let us remember that greatness, beauty, and wonder still surround us and can be explored and appreciated by us – even now. Along these lines, the Elville Center for the Creative Arts is introducing a new program for children and adults during the COVID-19 disaster and beyond. It’s called Access To Music (ATM) – a virtual online program where Elville Center music instructors will provide music theory and application lessons to people of all ages at no cost. Stand by for more information in the coming days and weeks about this important new program.
The purpose of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts is to improve the quality of life of children of all ages by providing them the opportunity to learn music theory and application, experience cultural events related to the musical and creative arts, and to use music and the promotion of music-related activities to transcend social and economic divisions.
We are working with local and regional businesses and private donors to partner with schools’ music programs to provide musical instruments, rentals, music lessons and participation in music-related activities for children of all ages. We’re actively seeking monetary pledges and donations of used instruments of any kind, which will be refurbished (Donations may be tax-deductible. Please consult with your tax advisor).
For more information or to get involved, please contact President and Founder Stephen Elville at steve@elvilleassociates.com or Executive Director Jeffrey Stauffer at jeff@elvilleassociates.com, or call us at 443-393-7696. Please also visit www.elvillecenter.org to learn more about the Elville Center and how you can donate and support our initiatives!
Help Restore Music to Schools and to the Lives of Children – Support the Elville Center for the Creative Arts
William and Jasmine are middle school-age children who live in central Maryland. They are brother and sister and each has a strong interest in music and the arts. Their school had a music program in years past but now that program has been largely defunded and is barely functional – it has all but stopped. There are available teachers willing to teach, and these teachers are so dedicated that they are willing to stay after school. Why? Because there are hundreds of children at the same school who, like William and Jasmine, want to participate in music and learn to play instruments. Yet there are few instruments available to the children at the school, and most of those instruments are either broken, are in a state of disrepair, or are otherwise unplayable.
At the same time, William and Jasmine, like nearly all these children, have no instrument of their own and no ability to obtain music lessons, with their parents unable to afford the $2,000-plus per-year expenditure necessary for instrument rental and lessons. Without access to music, music experience, and music-related cultural events, William and Jasmine, like thousands of children in Maryland, are languishing culturally and in their personal development. This is a Maryland (and American) tragedy that has unfolded slowly over the past 25 years and must be stopped. The Elville Center for The Creative Arts Is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is proactively addressing this problem head-on. The mission of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts is to provide children like William and Jasmine the opportunity to learn music theory and application, experience cultural events related to the musical and creative arts, and to use music and the promotion of music-related activities to transcend social and economic divisions. The Elville Center partners with local and regional businesses and school music programs to give the gift of music to children of all ages who want to participate in music but don’t have the means to do so on their own.
You can do something to help children and restore music to schools and to the lives of children across Maryland by supporting the Elville Center for The Creative Arts. The Elville Center needs monetary donations, pledges, volunteers to assist with fundraising and event planning, music instruments that can be refurbished, and more. If you have a strong desire to help children and an interest in music, the Elville Center needs your support. Help the Elville Center help children like WIlliam and Jasmine. For more information or to donate, visit www.elvillecenter.org, or please contact Stephen Elville or Jeffrey Stauffer at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com or jeff@elvillecenter.org.
By: Jeffrey Stauffer – Executive Director
Since our last Elville Center for the Creative Arts update, the charity was blessed to celebrate its five-year anniversary! Founded in 2014 by Stephen Elville, the mission of the Elville Center is to improve the quality of life of children of all ages by providing them the opportunity to learn music theory and application, experience cultural events related to the musical and creative arts, and to use music and the promotion of music-related activities to transcend social and economic divisions. The Elville Center partners with local and regional businesses and school music programs to give the gift of music to children of all ages who want to participate in music but don’t have the means to do so on their own. The Elville Center refurbishes donated musical instruments, purchases new instruments for programs, provides rental instruments and music lessons for students, funds field trips, helps organizations develop music programs, partners with professional organizations to fund music education initiatives, and much more.
Looking back over the past five years, it is humbling to see how far the Elville Center has come in its own journey to “Make a Musical Difference in the Lives of Children” and how time flows at an “allegro” pace. As many of you know, the Elville Center’s first project started with a phone call from a then 7th-grader at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie named Daniel Coleman, who heard about the charity on his (and our) favorite radio station, 91.5 WBJC and contacted us to ask for instruments to benefit his school’s band and orchestra. Fast forward five years, and the Elville Center is now helping schools and organizations around the state with a whole host of needs, and that young man has grown into an Eagle Scout who is off to college this fall with a list of accomplishments that could practically fill this entire newsletter!
The organizations and programs the Elville Center has partnered with over the past five years are all unique and based throughout Maryland – Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, Howard County – but the one common thread between them is their leaders’ intentions to improve their programs for the benefit of their students, and to give them the best environment possible to learn, grow and be fulfilled in their musical journeys. Over the Elville Center’s five-year musical journey, we have been fortunate to collaborate with some amazing teachers, school administrators, and business leaders, and we’ve been blessed to be in a position to offer musical opportunities to thousands of underprivileged students along the way! In this ever-changing, sometimes difficult world in which we live, the Elville Center remains steadfast in its mission of partnering with our communities to help those less fortunate rise above their challenges through the gift and bond of music.
That bond of music brought the Elville Center and Monarch Annapolis together last December, when, through a friend, Instrumental Music Teacher Christine Brimhall heard about the Elville Center and inquired about support for this new charter school. While the staff and students are enthusiastic about music, developing its program has proved challenging, as most of its families do not have the capacity to rent instruments or purchase supplies, and the school has an abundance of neither.
However, the Elville Center was able to step in and, at Ms. Brimhall’s request, provide the school’s music program with a host of reeds and valve oils and other supplies students need for their instruments, as well as a number of percussion instruments to develop that section of the program’s band. And, this fall, the Elville Center visited Monarch again with brass and woodwind instruments to boost the school’s inventory for incoming students who cannot afford to rent their own instruments, as well as a bevy of reeds, strings, and new instructional books to strengthen the program’s supplies as it enters the new school year. While all of our endeavors at the Elville Center are worthwhile and special in their own way, it is always gratifying to help a school begin its program from the ground up and watch it grow over the years, as is the case with Monarch Annapolis.
“Monarch Annapolis is a Title I charter school in Annapolis, Maryland. There is a lot of interest in instrumental music, but not enough instruments to loan to students, or supplies to support our program,” noted Ms. Brimhall. “Most of our instruments and supplies are made through donations. Instrumental music provides a hands-on arts experience. It is the bridge between many other subject areas, such as math and reading. In instrumental music, students learn to create sound and music while finding other connections to the world and their own lives. For some, it is a creative gap that is filled for thirty minutes. For all, it is the unique experience of working as both an individual participant and a team player. I am extremely thankful for the support provided by the Elville Center for the Creative Arts. Your donations of supplies and instruments is truly appreciated!”
Some of our donated guitars being put to very good use by children in the “guitars for change” initiative.
In an important new initiative this past spring, the Elville Center became a Supporter of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, an organization that brings the world’s most-renowned classical guitarists to Baltimore for concerts on a recurring basis. In 2018, The Society began offering a “Guitars for Change” program for immigrant children who have encountered adverse experiences. The Society collaborates with Center of Help to offer free guitar lessons to youth at risk for gang induction in an after-school program. The Elville Center has provided 15 guitars to the “Guitars for Change” program thus far, and due to the growth and needs of the program we are continually working to provide guitar donations to this worthwhile endeavor. If you or anyone you know has a guitar in good condition to donate to the Elville Center, please contact me and know it will go to one of many good causes we support in need of guitars, including “Guitars for Change.”
As Elville and Associates’ reach has extended into Montgomery County on a continuing basis, so too has the Elville Center’s, as donors learn about the charity and refer Montgomery County School music teachers to us that would benefit from a partnership. One such school is Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring. This school’s instrumental music teacher, Mr. Daniel Puckett, is also a professional musician who has played in world-famous venues, and brings a contagious energy to his classroom and student musicians. However, as is the case with most music programs we visit, due to a lack of funds, instruments and equipment are lacking for many of his students. Over two visits, the Elville Center was able to outfit Mr. Puckett’s program with five violins, two cellos, another cello case, a terrific Kay bass (a first-of-its-kind donated stringed instrument to the charity), along with a much-needed Peavey Keyboard Amplifier the program has needed for many months. And, as we write this article we are preparing to deliver two more violins, a cello, and some brass instruments to Mr. Puckett for the new school year!
“Over the past two years the Elville Center for the Creative Arts has been a blessing to me and my students at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring,” noted Mr. Puckett. “Many of my students can’t afford an instrument to use and to be able to give a student an instrument and see their face light up with excitement is priceless! The Elville Center has also been able to purchase an amp for my keyboard and I use this every day! I am so grateful to Steve Elville, Jeff Stauffer and the entire Elville Center for the Creative Arts program! Thank you so much!”
A young boy gets up close with a viola at the ASO’s Concerts for Schoolchildren.
For a third consecutive season, the Elville Center will be continuing its support as a major sponsor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, a professional orchestra in Annapolis based in the historic Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. Last year, the Center’s sponsorship paid for the bus transportation and tickets for 625 children, all from Title 1 schools, to attend the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Concerts for Schoolchildren. Continuing our funding for this ASO’s educational initiative is our largest and arguably most important venture of the year, as it positively affects so many underprivileged students and directly fulfills our mission to give children the opportunity to experience cultural events related to music they never would have experienced otherwise. The Elville Center is also proud to note it will also be recognized as an in-kind donor to the ASO for the upcoming season as well an organization that provides opportunities to those less fortunate in the communities we serve and shares in our commitment to education. To learn more about the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, visit annapolissymphony.org
“Once again it is my privilege to offer the sincerest thanks of the Annapolis Symphony for the Elville Center’s continuing commitment to our School Concert Access program,” remarked Dr. Patrick Nugent, Executive Director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. “Music Director Jose-Luis Novo and our board chair, Jane Casey, join me and all the musicians of the Annapolis Symphony in expressing our deep gratitude for your gift to help make these concerts a reality. The concerts took place in May, but they were all sold out by New Year’s! There is clearly a demand for these concerts on the part of schools and teachers, and your contribution makes it possible for us to include schools and families that don’t have the resources to afford these concerts. THANK YOU for being such thoughtful philanthropic and cultural leaders!”
On infrequent occasions, the Elville Center will send an instrument out for refurbishment, and it will come back 1) unable to be repaired due to the instrument’s condition or 2) the cost of the repair far exceeds the cost of purchasing a new instrument. In these cases, what does the Elville Center do with such instruments? We would not simply discard them! Rather, with the donor’s permission, they are donated to art teachers and transformed into art projects! And, the Elville Center is pleased that all instruments from our thoughtful donors find good homes and are put to very good use! The Elville Center works to put the “creative” in “creative arts”! One of those schools that is benefitting from the instruments set aside for still-life art design is Charles Carroll Middle School in Prince George’s County.
“Thank you so much to the Elville Center for its generosity and support for my students,” said, Ms. Rachel Held, art teacher at Charles Carroll. “Students in art class will use these instruments to practice observation, choice-making, drawing, shading, imagination, and design. Now that we have a variety of complex and engaging objects to choose from, we will start by setting up a large, multi-sided still-life. Students will makes choices about how to draw the subjects in composition, media, and style. Thank you for making a difference in my classroom this school year!”
Dr. Richard Berg stopped in the office to donate his French 1950s Buffet Crampon clarinet to the Elville Center – a gem!
Lastly, in a new endeavor that is expanding our reach to adults with disabilities, this September the Elville Center established a partnership with CALMRA, Inc., a community-based residential service provider in Laurel which provides homes and services to adults with cognitive disabilities. One of the many programs CALMRA offers is a Day Program through its Mary Solko Senior Center. The Day Program services include on-site nursing, hot lunches, art therapy, sensory stimulation, physical therapy, and music therapy to its seniors. The Elville Center was approached by its Day Program Director, Ms. Susan Thompson, about providing gently-used instruments to the Senior Center to benefit the music-related activities taking place there, and its first donation included two saxophones, two clarinets, two banjos and a guitar to supplement its music therapy program.
While adults with disabilities are not a population the Elville Center have assisted in the past, we have actively been considering expanding to “Make a Musical Difference in the Lives of ALL” those less fortunate that are interested in partnering with us, including veterans’ organizations, first responder groups, and special needs organizations. Knowing the depth of services and how important CALMRA is to the disabled senior community, the Elville Center is very pleased to be supporting its music therapy program and making it its first non-child centric partner.
The Elville Center needs your support and to further its important work and help make these projects successful and ongoing. Every one of the instruments provided to the schools above were instruments the Elville Center received from donors that were then paid for by the Center to be refurbished. We need those instruments that you don’t use anymore and are taking up space. We need your monetary support to help refurbish those instruments, obtain supplies and new instruments, and facilitate cultural learning experiences such as the ASO Concerts for Schoolchildren Series. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, all donations made to the Elville Center are tax-deductible. To donate or learn more about the Elville Center for the Creative Arts, please visit www.elvillecenter.org or, contact Jeffrey Stauffer at jeff@elvillecenter.org or 443-676-9691. The Elville Center depends on donors like you to fulfill our mission and make our vision of “Making a Musical Difference in the Lives of Children” a reality. We appreciate and value your support!
By: Jeffrey D. Stauffer, Executive Director of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts
In June 2018, the Elville Center for the Creative Arts celebrated its four-year anniversary. Founded in 2014 by Stephen Elville, the mission of The Elville Center is to improve the quality of life of children of all ages by providing them the opportunity to learn music theory and application, experience cultural events related to the musical and creative arts, and to use music and the promotion of music-related activities to transcend social and economic divisions. The Elville Center partners with local and regional businesses and school music programs to give the gift of music to children of all ages who want to participate in music but don’t have the means to do so on their own. The Elville Center refurbishes donated musical instruments, purchases new instruments for programs, provides rental instruments and music lessons for students, funds field trips, helps organizations develop music programs, partners with professional organizations to fund music education initiatives, and much more.
The projects and programs the Elville Center for the Creative Arts have partnered with over the past four years are all very unique and based all over the state – Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Prince George’s County, Howard County – but the one common thread between all of them is their leaders’ desire to improve their programs for the benefit of their students, to give them the best environment possible to learn, grow and be fulfilled in their musical journeys. And, that is where the Elville Center comes in, as our vision is to “Make a Musical Difference in the Lives of Children” every day. Over the Elville Center’s four-year musical journey, we have been fortunate to collaborate with some amazing teachers, schools, and businesses, and we’ve given musical opportunities to thousands of students along the way!
Since our winter update, the Elville Center forged a new partnership with Instrumental Music Teacher Lauren Ward and her programs at Carole Highlands Elementary and Mary Harris Mother Jones Elementary in Prince George’s County. Ms. Ward, who serves as the band and orchestra leader for grades four to six at both schools, approached the Elville Center after hearing about the charity from a teacher at Benjamin Tasker Middle School, the Elville Center’s first school partner over four years ago.
During our initial meeting with Ms. Ward, we were shocked to learn she had to turn away more than 40 students from her music programs last year due to a scarcity of instruments, with violin being the direst need. This, unfortunately, is an all too common theme the Elville Center hears when meeting with music teachers to learn about their programs. And, for every school the Elville Center meets, there are 25 others we don’t meet that have the same challenges.
Hearing this situation was simply unacceptable to the Elville Center, and we immediately offered our support to Ms. Ward and her music programs. In May, the Elville Center delivered six violins with new bows and cases to benefit the programs, along with much-needed supplies in rosin and valve oils. In August, with the assistance of our fine business partner, the Music & Arts Center in Severna Park, the Elville Center was able to deliver an additional six violins with new bows and cases, to the schools. The Elville Center will continue to provide support to Ms. Ward’s programs, providing as many violins as possible on an ongoing basis.
QUOTE FROM LAUREN WARD
QUOTE FROM LAUREN WARD
The need for support in Baltimore City’s school music programs proves to be an ongoing challenge that as a whole may not change anytime soon; however, this is all the more reason the Elville Center has continued to reach out to our partner schools in the city to help them with their needs so their students can develop their talents in positive environments they seek. The Elville Center has found music teachers in the city to be incredibly hard working and passionate about their programs, and no program exemplifies this more than Coppin Academy High School and its leader, Master Teacher of Music Education Jesse Williamson. Since our winter update, our partnership with the program has continued to expand and thrive, as Mr. Williamson has gratefully accepted our offers to provide support for his program. Over the winter and spring semesters and summer months, the Elville Center repaired 15 of the program’s musical instruments and donated two keyboards, a guitar, an alto saxophone, a flute, a ukulele, a euphonium and numerous music books. Additional instrument repairs are ongoing with our terrific small business partner, The Band Shoppe in Catonsville, for the fall semester.
Another challenge Coppin Academy faced was, due to the high cost of new sheet music and music books, the program was forced to recycle the same music year after year and did not have enough music books for all of its students. With the help of the Elville Center that will not be the case this year, as 50 new Sound Innovations for Concert Band music books were purchased for the program in time for the fall semester. Enough books were purchased for all 20 unique instruments in the band, which will allow for plenty of new instruction, practice and performance opportunities for all of the band’s students.
Lastly at Coppin Academy, Mr. Williamson initiated a Donors Choose project to garner donations for the purchase of a “big bottom tuba” for his program. Having a tuba in a band allows for a deep, rich sound, and the Academy is also interested in starting a marching band, which a tuba would add a great deal to as well. In August, the Elville Center donated $250 towards the project’s goal in hopes of “adding some bottom” to the band. If you would like to learn more or donate to “The Big Bottom Tuba Project,” please visit https://www.donorschoose.org/project/the-big-bottom-tuba-project/3352226/
“This year, 2018, we had 100% of our senior graduates go on to college, careers, or the military. We strive to teach our students that regardless of what zip code they hail from, they can go on do to great things,” said Mr. Williamson. “Many of my students have not had the opportunity to participate in a quality band program before high school, but they are making the most of the opportunity they now have with me. It is my hope that they will develop teamwork skills, self-confidence, and discipline by learning to be part of an ensemble. Thank you so much to Stephen Elville and the Elville Center for the Creative Arts. You have done so much to support the Coppin Academy music program. We can’t thank you enough!”
Another Baltimore City school music program the Elville Center continues to provide assistance to for a second consecutive year is Franklin Square Middle. Under the direction of Instrumental Music Teacher Marcus Neal, due to a lack of financial support this program’s primary challenges are a severe lack of the basic music supplies and one instrument to go around for every two students. The Elville Center stepped in during the spring semester to provide much-needed reeds for its instruments, valve and slide oils, six new sturdy music stands along with two trumpets and two trombones.
As we discussed in our winter update, in what remains the Elville Center’s most significant project thus far, the Center will be continuing its status as a major sponsor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, a professional orchestra next to the state’s capitol based in the historic Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, this coming season. The Center will continue to pay for the bus transportation and tickets for hundreds of children, many from Title 1 schools, to attend the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Concerts for Schoolchildren series. It is the Elville Center’s goal this upcoming season to increase its funding to the ASO’s Concerts for Schoolchildren series so we may positively affect more students and continue to fulfill our mission to give children the opportunity to experience cultural events related to music they never would have experienced without some outside support. We can think of no finer partner to help us fulfill our mission than the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, an organization that provides opportunities to those less fortunate in the communities we serve and shares in our commitment to education. To learn more about the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, visit annapolissymphony.org
“For twenty years, the Annapolis Symphony’s Concerts for Schoolchildren were accessible only to schools that had sufficient funding for tickets and transportation. The concerts were out of reach for many schools in lower-income communities. This past season, the Elville Center led the way in changing this,” remarked Dr. Patrick Nugent, Executive Director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. “Their generosity enabled over 600 second-graders from Title I schools to enjoy these concerts and have their first exposure to classical music, in a setting designed specifically for them. The Elville Center funded transportation as well as the cost of admission. As a result, and with the joyful collaboration of other donors, 25% of students at this year’s Peter and the Wolf concerts with the Magic Circle Mime Company were from schools in low-income communities that could not otherwise afford the concerts.”
In an exciting new development with the Elville Center’s longtime school music partner, Dr. Maximus VanDerbeek and Wiley H. Bates Middle School in Annapolis, Dr. VanDerbeek visited the Elville Creative Studio in March for an interview with the Elville Center’s Executive Director, Jeffrey Stauffer. The interview highlighted the relationship between the Elville Center and Bates Middle, and also showcased Dr. VanDerbeek’s broad knowledge of music education and his thoughts about the current challenges schools are facing with music education. The discussion was also a platform to show all of the positive initiatives taking place at Bates Middle along with some of Dr. VanDerbeek’s background that has helped him change Bates Middle into the transformational Performing Visual Arts music program it is today. The interview is available to view on both the Elville Center’s YouTube page and website, and this is the first of many such projects the Elville Center will be developing in the months to come.
After March’s interview, Dr. Vanderbeek approached the Elville Center and the Studio’s Manager, Audiovisual Specialist Lucille Elville, about a special project he wished to embark on to recognize the band’s 8th-graders who were moving on to play music in high school. The project, titled the “Wiley H. Bates Middle School Capstone Videos,” captured clips of the 8th-graders in outdoor settings playing improvisational music with their instruments along with the students sharing their thoughts about what it meant to be members of the Bates Middle music program, as well as what their future plans were for music in their lives. The final piece was a moving video montage that showed what talented, special students “Dr. V” has at Bates and how much they care about their school, teachers and families that helped them grow into the fine young men and women they are today.
Needless to say, the Elville Center’s support of the Bates music program continues in earnest. Over the past several months, the Center has continued its monthly monetary student teacher support for the program and provided Bates with a number of instruments and music supply deliveries, including two trumpets, a snare drum, a keyboard, four clarinets, a flute, a beautiful soprano saxophone, as well as numerous reed packages, valve and slide oils.
The Elville Center needs your support and to further its important work and help make these projects successful and ongoing. Every one of the instruments provided to the schools above were instruments the Elville Center received from donors that were then paid for to be refurbished by the Center. We need those instruments that you don’t use anymore and are taking up space. We need your monetary support to help refurbish those instruments, obtain supplies and new instruments, and facilitate cultural learning experiences such as the ASO SchoolChildren Series. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, all donations made to the Elville Center are tax-deductible.
After the Elville Center’s most recent Board Meeting, planning and preparation has begun for the charity’s first annual fundraiser, scheduled for Saturday, April 20th, 2019, from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at Oakland Manor in Columbia. Set in the over 200-year old historic mansion, the fundraiser will be highlighted by delicious food, live entertainment, a silent auction, and guests whose lives have been impacted by the Elville Center. If you or your business are interested in donating an item for the silent auction or becoming a sponsor for the fundraiser, please contact Jeffrey Stauffer, Executive Director, at 443-393-7696, orjeff@elvilleassociates.com. More information about the fundraiser will be forthcoming soon!
To donate or learn more about the Elville Center for the Creative Arts, please visit www.elvillecenter.org, or contact Jeffrey Stauffer. The Elville Center depends on donors like you to fulfill our mission and make our vision of “Making a Musical Difference in the Lives of Children” a reality. We appreciate your support!
Authored by: Jeffrey D. Stauffer, Executive Director –jeff@elvilleassociates.com, 443-393-7696
Your support is needed!
The Elville Center for the Creative Arts is working to make a musical difference in the lives of children throughout Maryland by partnering with school music programs and other organizations throughout Maryland. The Elville Center is helping music programs fill needs they have in their programs by providing donated refurbished musical instruments, much-needed supplies such as instruments cases, reeds and oils, fixing instruments in their inventories that need attention, and getting them the instruments they need to help their programs and students be successful. We are also working with organizations to begin music programs to bring music to students who want to play that otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to participate in music. We have many programs and initiatives we are working on right now.
1. Howard County Autism Society – we are partnering with the Howard County Autism Society to bring music to the children of this important community organization.
— We are working with Howard Community College and The Music Institute to develop group classes and individual lessons beginning in the fall to children with autism.
— Research has shown that music and music therapy can be very therapeutic to children with special needs, and we are working to make a different in these young people’lives by bringing the joy of music to them.
2. A new relationship the Elville Center has recently established is with Coppin Academy High School – this is a public charter high school on the campus of Coppin State University in Baltimore City. We are working with the school’s new music teacher, Jesse Williamson to:
— bring more instruments to the school
— are currently refurbishing many of the school’s instruments that are in need of repair
— have purchased trombone and flute cases along with a strap for the school’s bass clarinet
— in August we moved a piano to the school where it is now being tuned.
— we are working diligently to help Mr. Williamson get his new program where he wants it to be for the start of the school year in early September.
3. The Elville Center continues to partner with Dr. Max VanDerbeek at Wiley H. Bates Middle School in Annapolis to support his music program. Over our three-year partnership, we’ve provided 40 donated refurbished instruments to the music program, and continue to support the school with:
— additional instruments, some of which support Bates Middle and others which Dr. VanderBeek offers to his middle school feeder school music programs.
— we provide critical support by helping with the purchase of needed supplies such as reeds for woodwind instruments
— have funded buses for field trips
— on a monthly basis we support the program monetarily by helping support the cost of a student teacher that help Dr. VanDerbeek in his daily work with his students.
4. We have developed a partnership with the Empowerment Academy, which is a K-8 school in Baltimore City. The new music teacher at the school, Mr. Marcus Neal, is a teacher we’ve worked with before at another inner-city school, Franklin Square Middle. The Empowerment Academy encourages arts enrichment for all of its students, which is a unique philosophy for a city school.
–we are working to bring recorders, xylophones, and boomwhackers to the younger students, and as Mr. Neal is working to develop a band for grades 5-8 we are working to provide more standard brass and woodwind instruments to the older students at this school.
5. Another new partnership for the Elville Center is the Maya Angelou French Immersion School in Temple Hills in Prince George’s County. While the school has a very successful band and orchestral program for its older students, the school’s new teacher for its younger students and general music program, Edmond Saint-Jean, is starting from scratch for its youth program. The Elville Center is working to fulfill this program’s needs for the new school year to get the program and Mr. Saint-Jean off to the good start they deserve:
— Glockenspiel – 6
— Xylophone – 6
— Metallophone -3
— Bells/handbells 12
— rhythm Sticks -12
— Tambourines -6
— Autoharps – 4
— Bongos – 4
— Regular recorders for 3rd grades 20
— smaller recorders for 2nd graders – 20
— About 12 Half, 3/4, and regular guitars to start
6. The Elville Center also continues to work with its first-ever school partner, Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie. You may recall a student at this school, a fine young man named Daniel Coleman, was listening to WBJC a few year ago and heard about the Elville Center and its mission. He contacted us to ask for help for Benjamin Tasker and the work has continued ever since. Currently we are working with Tasker to continue to develop its new orchestral program is began last year by providing it string instruments and supplies.
7. The Elville Center will be a major sponsor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, a professional orchestra, this coming season and year. We will be paying for the bus transportation and tickets for hundreds of children to attend concerts in Annapolis – these children are from schools that cannot afford to pay for cultural events. This partnership with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra will help us fulfill our mission to give children the opportunity to experience cultural events related to music they never would have experienced without some outside support.
As you can see, the projects The Elville Center are fortunate to be involved in right now are all very unique in scope. We are helping schools and organizations all over the state – Prince George’s County, Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Howard County – begin and enrich music programs. And, the participants in these programs come from a wide variety of backgrounds – many from disadvantaged situations that need support to participate in music, some with a special needs background where music therapy can provide them so much in their lives.
But regardless of their backgrounds, the one thing that brings them together is their desire to participate in music and the profound difference it will make in their lives.
The Elville Center needs your donations to help make these projects successful and realities. We need those instruments that you don’t have a use for anymore. We need your monetary support to help us get the supplies and instruments these programs needed to be successful.
Please consider supporting the Elville Center for the Creative Arts with a donation today. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, your donation is tax-deductible, and the Elville Center will provide you a tax receipt for your records upon receipt of your donation. To donate, visit us at www.elvillecenter.org, or contact Jeff Stauffer at 443-393-7696.
Thank you for your support of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts!
Sincerely,
Jeffrey D. Stauffer
Executive Director
Elville Center for the Creative Arts, Inc.
9192 Red Branch Road, Suite 300
Columbia, MD 21045
443-393-7696
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