Meetings, Ideas, Encouragement

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Yet another exciting day in the life of Project Copernicus. We now have a finished first draft of the business plan including budget estimates, as well as a preliminary logo and press kit. We finished the draft of the business plan this morning and presented the materials as well as a preliminary description of the CAP Young Composers Competition to Dennis Kam and Lansing McLoskey. Both Dennis and Lansing are well-established composers and educators with a wealth of experience in community arts organizations and ensembles. They both agreed that pC is a unique and innovative idea, and that Miami can support a group that reaches out to the audiences that are just not served by other organizations. Both professors had great ideas as far as how we should proceed, in addition to possible ideas regarding future collaborations. Lansing suggested that pC assemble a Board of Advisers consisting of prominent composers, conductors, and administrators. There are many benefits to doing this, and he particularly pointed to the leverage and legitimacy that a Board of Advisers can bring to an organization.

After that meeting we had a short break during which we discussed and designed a logo that we think turned out clean, slick, and simple. We added it to the website and all our promotional materials, and we put together a very nice glossy folder for our meeting with Dean Bill Hipp. In the folder we included a copy of the business plan, printouts of pages of the website, and resumes/bios. It looked great, and we presented that to Dean Hipp this afternoon in a short meeting with him. We introduced the idea, and he familiarized himself with the details of the ensemble by asking us questions about all aspects of the project. He really believes in the idea, and agrees that pC will be on a level of its own integrating young artists, interesting collaborations and programming, and cutting-edge educational outreach. The synergy of all of these aspects makes pC a truly exciting and innovative venture, and Dean Hipp seemed impressed that we were already so far along. He gave us some great leads for local music press and publicity, and will offer us access to Festival Miami’s donor list and the materials that the Festival sends to donors. He also wanted to take some time over the weekend to really look at our site and read the materials, and said he would have even more thoughts at that point. In addition, he offered to write a letter of support for pC which we could send along with pC materials to a number of organizations and individuals. He is a fantastic person to have on board, and it is exciting that he is going to offer his thoughts, advice, and support as we move forward.