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Thank you to all past contributors for your many generous gifts.
Contributions are welcome and encouraged at anytime.
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In 1996, the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota created the F. Melius Christiansen (FMC) Endowment Fund to foster Minnesota's reputation for choral excellence by awarding scholarships to undergraduate and graduate choral conducting students from private and public Minnesota colleges and universities.
The Endowment Fund is named after F. Melius Christiansen, founder of the St. Olaf Choir, who believed his contribution to music was not one of instinctive genius, but instead an ethic of hard work used to achieve perfect intonation, seamless blend and crisp diction. Today, choral musicians in Minnesota pride themselves on a tradition of excellence built on the Christiansen foundation; this evolving tradition continues to inspire talented young people throughout Minnesota to pursue their ambitions in the field of choral music. The future of choral music — in classrooms, churches, synagogues and communities — rests squarely in the hands of these promising young and aspiring directors.
Your gift to the F. Melius Christiansen Endowment Fund will assist with:
- Providing active Minnesota choral conductors with professional development opportunities
- Encouraging talented young musicians to pursue choral conducting as a career
- Providing administrative support for ACDA of Minnesota
Please read about the history of our FMC Endowment Fund in an article authored by Mary Kay Geston, past president of ACDA-MN. (Click here to read the article [2]).
In its first fourteen years the FMC Endowment Fund Committee has awarded scholarships to 166 Minnesota choral directors totaling more than $93,000. These scholarships are awarded annually to ACDA-MN members to attend ACDA division and national conferences, the Summer Dialogue conference and graduate school. Every three years an ACDA-MN member is awarded a scholarship to attend the World Symposium on Choral Music. The 2011 symposium will be held from August 3-10 in Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
As we continue to offer more scholarships, your gift can truly make a difference! Contribute now [3].