Music Institute of Sullivan and Ulster Counties (MISU)
Music Institute of Sullivan and Ulster Counties (MISU)
Back to FinalistsMusic Institute of Sullivan and Ulster Counties (MISU)
Mission Statement
Based on the belief that music within a social environment can enhance interpersonal relationships, self-expression, and personal growth, the Music Institute of Sullivan and Ulster Counties provides opportunities for people of all ages to develop their varying levels of musical experiences in an environment that acknowledges and nurtures the whole person.
Name of Public Space
St. John’s Memorial Episcopal Church
City, State
Ellenville, NY
Website
Organization Overview
For 20 years, the Music Institute of Sullivan and Ulster Counties (MISU) has been providing high-quality voice and instrumental lessons (including piano, violin, cello, guitar, bass and viola) to the community of Ellenville and the surrounding area. MISU offers a need-based scholarship program to ensure that all members of our community can access the benefits of music education. Following incorporation in 2002, MISU has continued to grow and expand its offerings and building a Community Orchestra for youth and adults. These ensembles perform two concerts per year that are free and open to the public.
For 15 years, MISU partnered with the St. John’s Episcopal Church to provide the Chamber Music at St. John’s performance series. In 2013, MISU made the church annex its permanent home and the chamber music series grew into the Music on Market (MOM) project.
Since then, MOM has been providing the opportunity for community members to experience live music with an educational component, one being a more formal chamber music series based out of St. John’s Church. Stemming from a significant lack of live, accessible, popular music performances in the Ellenville area and based on the feedback of local residents, the more casual Coffeehouse Concert Series was born. Coffeehouse concerts take place in the MISU building once a month from September to May. The concerts feature a variety of musical genres performed by local artists in a fun and social setting where audience members are encouraged to sing along, enjoy coffee and refreshments and socialize with one another. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the MOM project responded by taking their offerings into the virtual world.
It takes a community effort to build community interest and enthusiasm. It takes confidence to build community pride. MISU is confident in the strength of our local partnerships and relationships, and in the enthusiasm that is growing around the Levitt AMP Ellenville project, to build something together that will enrich the lives of the community we serve, through teamwork, shared vision and mutual effort.
Proposal Details
How will your town or city benefit from a Levitt AMP [Your City] Music Series and how will the series reflect the three main goals of Levitt AMP: 1) Amplify community pride and the city’s unique character; 2) enrich lives through the power of free, live Music; 3) illustrate the importance of vibrant public Places?
Ellenville is a quiet mountain village, just 100 miles from New York City, nestled between the majestic Shawangunk mountain range and the Catskill Mountains. Once a popular resort town, Ellenville has seen its fair share of economic downturn since the decline of the Catskill resort industry in the 1960’s and the exodus of various industries in the following decades.
The people who populate this small town are long-time locals, deeply proud of their roots, sometimes resistant to change but also optimistic about the future. They are also New York City transplants, idealistic and ambitious, eager to breathe new life into their new home. Many folks have found their way to Ellenville to be close to incarcerated loved ones, imprisoned in the maximum and minimum security prisons just up the road. Many are the families of Department of Corrections employees. In Ellenville, you find farmers and artists. You find staggering wealth and extreme poverty. You find speakers of Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian, German, Yiddish.You find a dozen churches, several synagogues, and at least three ashrams.
How do you build community across so many cultures? Through music, of course! MISU has a long-standing and trusted relationship with the community to do just that.
The Levitt AMP Ellenville concert series will be fun, exciting and engaging for all Ellenville residents with a lineup of dynamic and diverse musical acts so that all members of our community feel seen and represented. So on a hot summer night when windows are open and those magical sounds begin drifting in, our neighbors come out to dance, sing, share space and time, and get to know one another as the stars come out and the music plays.
MISU was founded over 20 years ago, with our mission being rooted in “the belief that music within a social environment can enhance interpersonal relationships, self-expression, and personal growth,” and, in this case, community growth. With that mission as the driving force, and inclusivity and authentic community engagement as the goal, Levitt AMP Ellenville will be our opportunity to grow and build something entirely new and exciting in a space that is familiar, comfortable and easily accessible, generating a new level of pride and Ellenville community spirit.
Explain how the Levitt AMP [Your City] Music Series will play a role in enlivening the selected public space and surrounding areas.
Within the Village of Ellenville, there is not much in the way of easily accessible, open public space off the busier main roads. There are recreational areas and parks and trails just outside of town, but little to speak of in the heart of the Village. Tucked away on a quiet, wooded side street though is St. John’s Memorial Episcopal Church, dedicated in 1874 and the MISU building, formerly St. Paul’s Chapel, whose cornerstone was laid in 1866. Together, these two structures sit on 1.5 acres of land. MISU operations moved into the former chapel in 2013. Prior to this, the building served as the practice space for the Village of Ellenville marching band. These days, the lot is rarely used for anything other than occasional parking for Sunday services and MISU events and the public doesn’t typically consider it in any other light. But two people are working to change that.
The relationship between MISU, a secular organization, and St. John’s church, has flourished in part due to a shared vision between MISU director Anastasia Solberg and Father Jeff Golliher to build a space where all members of the community, regardless of background, race, religion, income, ability or identity can come together to share space and time, experience music and culture, and find common ground through the expression and enjoyment of art.
We believe that Levitt AMP Ellenville will serve as an invitation to the community to get to know the space, to come sit in the garden, to ride bikes or play with chalk on the paved spaces, lay out a blanket, have a picnic, and to see it as a community resource where they can always find themselves welcome and comfortable, furthering the vision of Anastasia and Jeff.