Rotary Club of Harrisburg
Monday, October 5, 2020
Meeting Summary:
The Rotary Club of Harrisburg (# 23 in all the world) met virtually on Zoom at noon on Monday, October 5, 2020. President James Good called the meeting to order with the ringing of the virtual bell at 12:01 p.m Invocation was given by Jeff Boswell, and the song was “Eva,”, performed by Angelique Kidjo. This was a song created for the Rotary International “End Polio Now” campaign. The pledge of allegiance was shared, along with Rotary Four Way Test. Curt Stutzman is taking minutes today, and President James also thanked all our corporate sponsors. This week’s lunch money is being donated to Hannah’s Pantry.
October will be a busy month for the club. A service project at the Central PA Food Bank is being held tonight. Wear your Rotary T Shirt if you attend. On October 19, 25 Rotarians will put stickers in dictionaries in a service project at the Hilton. Online registration is required. On October 24, the Rotary Leadership Institute will be held virtually (register online). Also, a fun bike ride will be held on October 24 to raise money to end polio now. Read your Rotary Roundup for details! Rotary umbrellas are now available for swag. Donations to the Harrisburg Rotary Foundation support projects and initiatives in our club. An update on Joy to the Burg--Steve Schwartz reported that this local Christmas album fundraiser to help expand winter walk-in shelters. The importance of this is even greater this year due to COVID-19. Steve will report on locations and volunteer opportunities this winter as details become available. The album, featuring 18 performing groups, will be broadcast on ABC27 at 10 a.m. on December 15. The album itself will be released on November 10. A grant from the Rotary Foundation provides partial funding for the project, and our club is also involved in a number of ways. Consider giving the album as holiday gifts, and share about the album on social media. Places to sell the albums are being sought.
The program was introduced by Program chair Ellen Brown. The program was presented by Stuart Malina, Maestro of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. Stuart has been the guiding genius of the symphony for 20 years. Mr. Malina is a credit to our community, and we are delighted to have him here today. Stuart shared about the challenges this year with the pandemic’s impact on large group gatherings. The major event, “Music in the Key of We” had to be cancelled, which was extremely unfortunate for the symphony and the larger community. There is hope that this can occur in the spring of 2021, depending on the progress of the pandemic. A new executive director has arrived--Matthew Herrin. Figuring out how to handle season ticket holders was difficult. Many patrons donated the cost of the tickets to the symphony, and others transferred the credit to future concerts. A few also received refunds. Addressing the status of employees during the year was also a challenge. Negotiations went very smoothly, and provided ways for payments to the staff to be made through the end of the season. The symphony chose not to offer virtual conferences because of the massive editing needed along with many other challenges. Check out some concerts on YouTube under the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. The summer was spent planning what to do with this season. Many restrictions impacted what could be done, since there are perhaps 75 to 95 players together during performances. Stuart spent his summer listening to and looking at music that could be performed through other means. The Forum was not amenable to meeting during the pandemic. However, the Whitaker Center made their space available for meeting. Archival recordings are being used, and streaming of concerts was under consideration. The biggest challenge for Mr. Malina was how to deal with the Pops series. Arrangements for smaller orchestras are not readily available. Still, the first streaming concert was presented this past weekend. This was a concert of strings only. Everyone gathered at the Whitaker Center for rehearsals and the concert. Musicians needed to be “social distanced” from each other, which added even more challenge. Future concerts will be made up of other sections of the orchestra. Ops Director Sue Klick worked on arranging the seating appropriately. The first streaming concert went very well. These are a magnificent group of musicians! Stuart said how difficult it is not to hug people and thank them for being there. There are two Pops programs in the fall--a big band concert, and then a brass ensemble for the holiday season. He is guardedly optimistic about the rest of the season, because of having the right people involved in all aspects of the orchestra family. The Harrisburg Symphony is doing well amidst the many challenges being faced by the pandemic, and he is very, very encouraged about the future of the symphony.
Stuart then responded to a variety of questions from the club members. He thanked the club for its long time support. For more information on the streaming concerts and other news, pull up the Masterworks link:
https://www.harrisburgsymphony.org/concerts/masterworks/.
President James thanked Stuart, and then reminded the club that there is not a meeting next week because of Columbus Day. We will hear from Karen Collins from the Dauphin County Library System on October 19th. The meeting was adjourned with the ringing of the virtual bell at 12:59 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Curt Stutzman
