Library Concert Series

More Dallas History

Collegiate News

Member News

Past Meetings

Chapter News

Meetings

Award for Dallas Alumni

Mu Phi Epsilon Dallas Alumni received a Grace Note Award from the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving. Betty Taylor of the orchestra cited the Dallas Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon “for their significant efforts to build the audience for great music with concerts open to the public since 1937 at the Dallas Public Library.” 

Members of the Grace Note Award-winning groups were honored during the October 4 concert intermission. Receiving the awards were Gae Hatton, executive director of the Fine Arts Chamber Players; Gigi Antoni, president/ executive director of Big Thought, for their "Thriving Minds" program; Pat Hill, member of Friends of WRR; Angela Pendleton, president, Sigma Alpha Iota; and Susan Poelchau, Dallas Public Library concert series chair for Mu Phi Epsilon. 

Susan Poelchau is shown above with Betty Taylor.

   

Meetings Coming Up

The November meeting will be Tuesday, Nov 10th - 7:30 pm
At the home of Sylvia Taylor Lerch
Co-hosts: Susan Poelchau, Sandra McMillen, Frances Estes
We will be celebrating our Founder’s Day. 

Enjoy this exciting program: 

There will be no meeting in December or January. Our next meeting will be with SAI February 15th at Steinway Hall at 7:30. A newsletter will be out just before the meeting. 

There will be a Board meeting sometime in January - date pending.

Chapter News

In your yearbook you received revised by-laws with your year book, with revisions made by Susan Poelchau, with Mary Williams and Pat Hill as the committee to put our by-laws into compliance with International policies. These were printed separately so that you could keep them for the next several years (so don’t throw them away at the end of this year).

Invite your music-minded friends to a meeting or a Saturday concert. They might be unaffiliated members or potential patron members. We need to be more proactive in recruiting to build our chapter membership.

Please greet new member Janice Winchell (janicewinchell@att.net) at our next meeting. Her name was added in your yearbook as a late entry. She is a graduate of Mu Mu chapter at Kansas State is a cellist, and also plays piano and organ.

Please add Gretchen Nichols to your patron list.

Please correct Sylvia Taylor Lerch’s e-mail – it should be sbcglobal.net

Edie Pfautsch was hospitalized again with heart problems, but is home now and okay.

Past Meetings

September

The September meeting met for lunch and program at the Chimneyhill Clubhouse.

Guest artist Jennifer Carpenter holds a Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Masters degree in musicology with an emphasis in early music performance from the University of North Texas. As a recorder player, she performs as a soloist and in ensembles, including the Wireless Consort, Bach Chamber Players, the UNT Baroque Orchestra and has been a guest artist with the Denton Bach Society and Texas Camerata. Jennifer directed the UNT recorder ensembles from 2002-2008. She also serves on faculty of several early music workshops in TX and CA. Jennifer received a Toulouse Graduate Fellowship to complete her Ph.D. studies in musicology and early music performance at UNT where she currently works as a Teaching Fellow. 

The Les Amis trio plays Mendelssohn.

Members enjoyed a potluck luncheon.

October

Pat Suitt hosted the October meeting, with co-hosts Mary Ann Taylor, Karen Glosserman and Cynthia Wadley. The program celebrated Haydn and Mendelssohn. 

Collegiate News

Awards from the Dallas Scholarship Fund at SMU in May were made to Tamara Illif for music therapy and to Melissa Bosma for the undergrad award.

Sarah Tomlin was named by International the South Central Province Senior Achievement winner for this past year. She is immediate Past President of Epsilon Pi Chapter at Texas Tech University. Sarah is a French horn player and is currently teaching elementary music at a Title I school in Plano ISD (TX). Congratulations to these winners!

District Conference

Jenny Smith, co-District Director, has announced that our next conference will be held on Saturday, January 30th at TCU Music School from 9 am - 4 pm. Attending will be collegiates from SMU, UNT, TCU and Tarleton, plus any alumni members able to go. There is no fee and lunch is included.

Let our collegiates know that they are welcome to join an alumni chapter after graduation and that being a Mu Phi is a lifetime joy! Let Jenny or Sandra McMillen know if you can attend.

Library Concert Series

Susan Poelchau reports that the Library Series has been reasonably well attended, despite the move to Saturdays. The concert on October 24th was held upstairs in the Bradshaw Gallery, which proved to be a good venue for chamber music. The two final concerts are scheduled for November 7 – Alicia Wallace, soprano and 14 – Carlo Pezzimenti, guitar. The Series resumes on January 30.

All concerts are free - on Saturdays at 3 PM at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library – 1515 Young St, Dallas. Most are in the Auditorium just to the right inside the main entrance. There is street parking and an underground garage accessed from Wood St. behind the library. 

Check our website (Concert Series tab) which lists the schedule and changes should they occur, biographies of the performers, their programs as they become available, and a history of the series.

Speaking of Series history, Pat Hill found in her president’s material an article written for the Dallas newspaper – dated around 1977 about our Concert Series, then held at the Art Museum at Fair Park:

   Since 1937 when John Rosenfeld, Dallas Music Critic, organized the Sunday Concert Series, there have been outstanding music programs at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts.
   Mu Phi Epsilon alumnae Mary McLarry Bywaters took charge of arranging the concerts in 1939 while her husband artist Jerry Bywaters was the Museum Director. 
   The first programs were presented in the Sculpture Court with a piano of lesser distinction and Mu Phi Epsilon Alumnae then worked hard to raise money for a Concert Piano. Finally through Mary Bywaters efforts a 9 ft. Steinway Grand was given the Museum by the Hoblitzelle Foundation and the concerts were given in the Museum Auditorium.
   The Series dates are sought after by artists from all over the state. We have many more requests than we can honor with programs at 2:00 P.M. and 3:30 P.M. on the first and third Sundays.
   We are one of the eight organizations to receive a plaque and check for $100.00 from the Dallas Times Herald in recognition of area women's groups’ outstanding contributions to the Community at the 22nd Annual Women's Forum at the Fairmont Hotel Monday, Dec. 5th, 1977.
   The beautification award in the past has normally recognized landscaping, architectural or interior design achievements but this year it was given "not for what the eye beholds but what the ear hears."
   Cleo Frost Furr, Frances Stuart and Anne Wolverton are some of the other chairmen who have worked hard on the Museum project.

Member News

Our New Mexico member Karolyn Sailer's father William Klein passed away suddenly Saturday, October 10th. Karolyn's husband Bill Sailer passed away, after a long illness, on Sunday, October 11th. Karolyn came to Dallas for her father's funeral on Tuesday and then back to Clovis. Karolyn has gone through a great deal the past three years, including major surgery the last year she taught and taking care of Bill. She has also been enjoying her grandchildren and horses. Our condolences to Karolyn.

Becky Corley, who was not able to rejoin this year, gave the Chapter a donation of $100. Thanks to Becky!

Phyllis Wilson reports on her Alaska trip this past summer:

My husband and I traveled with his brother and sister and spouses in an RV from Virginia to Alaska leaving May 3 and returning on June 9. The first question everybody asked is whether we really liked each other’s company that well. We got along beautifully, enjoyed each day’s new adventure and yes, we did stay in the RV every night.

On the way northwest we did stop in the Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone and as we arrived in British Columbia, we stayed in Edmonton a couple of days. 

We began our travel on the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, B.C., drove through the Yukon Territory and from there had our first view of the state of Alaska on May 16 - 13 days out. The road was sometimes paved and sometimes not. Our adventures took us to Skagway, Homer, Anchorage, Denali National Park, and Fairbanks. The scenery was spectacular and no words can adequately describe the beauty of the mountains and the lakes. The animals were exciting to see in their native habitat (moose, black bears, grizzlies, beaver, elk, reindeer/caribou, and ptarmigan); we panned for gold, viewed the Alaska pipeline, cut through ice to see a glacier, rode a hundred miles on a gravel road on the “top of the world” highway and drove through a snow shower on many days. With photography as my hobby, the pictures are priceless to me. The trip totaled 11,576 miles not counting the mileage from the SUV we were towing. A trip of a lifetime!!

Susan Poelchau played the viol with a group of Renaissance instrumentalists on October 31 in the chapel of Christ Church, Plano. The program, titled "The Golden Age of the Lute", featured Lutenist Alan Williams and soprano Audrey Brown in a program of Elizabethan music by John Dowland and others.

International News

You should have received by now a letter from Mu Phi Epsilon president Fran Irwin requesting donations to the Harmony Campaign. Individual and chapter donations are very much needed. She writes: 

Since 2005 many of you have contributed to the Harmony Campaign which is now an annual appeal. Prior to this year, Chairman Nancy Zschietschmann has written this letter, and she has succeeded in sustaining a steady flow of support for new fraternity endeavors in our second century of existence. The time has come to relieve her of the burden of writing this letter, although she will continue to oversee the project, and it is my pleasure to write to you today.

Because of past contributions to the Harmony Campaign, Mu Phi Epsilon enjoys the following:

Additionally, the International Executive Board attends professional music functions in an official capacity whenever possible.

Chairman Nancy Zschietzschmann has stated:
For Mu Phi Epsilon to stay competitive and fulfill its mission, we all must do more, share more and give more.

Last year the addition of four new chapters and reactivation of others is proof that the Harmony Campaign is a worthwhile endeavor. Future plans are:

Your support of this campaign is vital, because the fraternity's operating budget does not cover such extra expenses. Will you give thoughtful consideration to making a contribution, or a monthly pledge, in any amount? Your gift will help Mu Phi Epsilon attain these goals. The most important outcome is your participation, which shows your appreciation of the Music, Friendship and Harmony that you have enjoyed in previous years.

Musical Opportunities

Kristie Janczyk, who led off our concert series this fall, will be presenting a one piano-4 hand concert with Charlsie Griffiths in conjunction with the Dallas Festival of Modern Music. Concert is on Friday Nov 6th at 6pm at Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Wynne Chapel – 3821 University Blvd. Admission is FREE!

They will perform:

Debussy Petite Suite
Charles Ives Piano Sonata
Barber Souvenirs Ballet Suite, Op.28
Muczynski Desperate Measures
George Gershwin/Scott Joplin Medley
John Corigliano Gazebo Dances

Janice Winchell plays in a "volunteer" orchestra, New Life Symphony Orchestra, and announces an upcoming concert on Sunday Nov 15 at 6PM at Park Cities Baptist Church (in the Sanctuary) - 3933 Northwest Pkwy. This is an all-volunteer orchestra of outstanding talent (both Gretchen Cabrerra and Gretchen Nichols have played in it). They play quality music and have quality musicians. This free concert is open to the public on Sunday Nov 15. They will be playing the Mahler Symphony No 1.You can see more of the New Life Symphony at:
http://www.newlifesymphony.com/home.cfm

Electronic mail

President/ General Information - Patricia HIll  pattylou915@yahoo.com

Mary Williams: txtravel@flash.net