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Gateway Chamber Orchestra Steps Out as Nonprofit with Successful Kickstarter Project

This is your last day to help fund the Gateway Chamber Orchestra’s Kickstarter campaign, you have until tonight at midnight

Clarksville, TN – The Gateway Chamber Orchestra (GCO), conducted by Gregory Wolynec, is establishing itself as an independent nonprofit organization as it moves out from under the umbrella of Austin Peay State University, where it was founded.

With this new direction and the most ambitious season program to date, the GCO is looking to develop new audiences, discover new fans and supporters, and engage hundreds of additional students at local schools.

Gateway Chamber Orchestra
Gateway Chamber Orchestra

On Monday morning, Oct 1, the GCO hosted one of its largest education programs with its first annual Children’s Concerts for 1072 local elementary school students. The performance of HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!!, featuring APSU Music faculty Dr. Thomas King as the chansonnier, required the musicians to play an array of toy instruments (slide whistles, kazoos, car horns, etc.) in addition to their traditional ones. The presentation also involved a multimedia collaboration with visual artists Black & Jones, featuring artwork created by the visiting elementary school students.

Later the same day, the GCO performed its second season concert, “Frankenstein!!” including the full version of HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!! and John Adams’s Chamber Symphony.

One of the GCO’s first activities as a newly minted nonprofit was to launch a Kickstarter project to raise funds in a new and non-traditional way. Kickstarter is a crowd funding platform for creative projects to find a wider audience both within a project’s local community and far beyond. The platform uses an “all-or-nothing” funding model so that projects only receive funding if they reach their funding goal by their chosen deadline.

The GCO reached its goal of $5000 midday Monday, October 1, ensuring that it would receive this funding as well as any additional backing that is pledged before the funding deadline on Tuesday, October 2 at 11:59pm. With 15 hours to go until the deadline, the project has 48 backers (i.e., supporters or donors) and $5151 in pledges. Any funding the GCO receives that exceeds the goal will go toward supporting additional concert and education programs.

One unique aspect to the Kickstarter model are the rewards offered to the backers at various pledge levels, providing added incentive for potential backers. For example, a pledge of $25 for the GCO project includes rewards of the GCO’s GRAMMY© nominated Wind Serenades CD, a GCO car decal, a digital download of a track from the April 2012 concert, and recognition of support on the GCO website. Other reward levels offer exclusive access to special events such as the GCO Family Picnic ($100). At higher pledge levels, the rewards are even greater: for $2500, 3 to 4 members of the GCO will perform a chamber music house concert for the backer and his or her friends at the backer’s own home (within 100 miles of Clarksville).

This spring the new Gateway Chamber Orchestra Foundation was created with a board of directors charged with helping develop the GCO in the months and years ahead. In addition to the Kickstarter project, the Foundation is raising funds in more traditional ways as well, including seeking community and corporate sponsors and selling ads to local businesses in their season concert programs. (If you or your business is interested in advertising in the GCO concert programs, please contact info@gatewaychamberorchestra.com).

Donors who prefer to support the GCO offline may send checks to the Gateway Chamber Orchestra Foundation at 100 Twin Cedars Dr., Clarksville, TN 37043. Please consider helping the GCO reach its funding goal by backing their Kickstarter Project at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gatewayorch/gco-steps-out-2012-13-season

For more information about the Gateway Chamber Orchestra, please visit www.gatewaychamberorchestra.com

Photo Gallery

Photos from the 1st Annual Children’s Concert

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