Student Outreach Ensembles
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In the spirit of outreach across the state of Kansas, the KU School of Music has partnered with a fine arts patron to create student outreach ensembles. These groups will travel across the state of Kansas, providing master classes and performances.
The outreach programs are a direct result of the vision and funding of the Zakoura Family Fund (a fund of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation-ZFF), Reach Out Kansas, Inc., and James P. Zakoura. Zakoura, who received both his undergraduate and law degrees from KU, has been a generous supporter of the School of Music and fine arts for years. He created these groups in order to better provide youth a chance to experience the fine arts, targeting rural communities, underserved and minority populations. So far five outreach ensembles have been implemented: a jazz combo, saxophone quartet, brass quintet, woodwind quintet, and string quartet. Additionally, KU student Cory Hills has been providing outreach in the area of percussion, and more are in development, including opera/voice and piano ensembles.
Zakoura wanted to achieve two main goals with these outreach programs: to provide music outreach to Kansas, and do it at no cost to the audience. Zakoura, who hails from a small Kansas town himself (Osawatamie), knows many smaller communities love the fine arts but are unfortunately underserved.
Contact info
Dina Pannabecker Evans, Director of Outreach and Career Services at KU's School of Music, has helped Mr. Zakoura coordinate these outreach efforts. Evans urges those who are interested in setting up outreach events with the KU School of Music to contact her at 785-864-4466 or at dpevans@ku.edu.
(Click on the photo to see full image.)
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