SR 10-09-2018 13G 13.G
October 9, 2018
Council Meeting: October 9, 2018 Santa Monica, California
1 of 1
CITY CLERK’S OFFICE - MEMORANDUM
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Denise Anderson-Warren, City Clerk, Records & Elections Services
Department
Date: October 9, 2018
13.G Request of Mayor Winterer and Mayor Pro Tem Davis that the Council
allocate $20,000 of Council Discretionary Funds as a matching grant to the
Samohi Wind Ensemble to provide scholarships to low-income students to
participate in the Rome tour from April 6-13, 2019. The funds will be
disbursed to Santa Monica Arts Parents Association, a 501 (c) (3) non-
profit.
We are part of the Santa Monica Arts Parents Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization: Tax ID Number 95-2563339.
Santa Monica High School Bands
601 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90405
samohiband.com
October 1, 2018
Santa Monica City Council
1685 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401
RE: Request for Agenda item – Grant request
To the Santa Monica City Council:
The Santa Monica High School (Samohi) Wind Ensemble is requesting a grant from the City of Santa
Monica, in order to help fund scholarships for students who will attend their Rome tour, April 6 – 13, 2019.
We are requesting that this item be added to the next possible City Council meeting agenda.
The Wind Ensemble is the Samohi Bands' most advanced performing group. This ensemble has performed
at Chicago Symphony Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie Hall in New York. In
2016, the Wind Ensemble was selected to perform at the California All-State Music Education Conference,
an honor for which they were recognized by then-mayor Tony Vazquez, and Senator Ben Allen.
The Wind Ensemble has accepted an invitation to perform in Rome, Italy, at the Basilica of St. Ignatius, a
venue that has hosted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. This will be the first-ever international tour for
the Wind Ensemble.
In Rome, Samohi Wind Ensemble students will participate in a cultural exchange with a local high school
that has offered to host an afternoon concert. The tour also affords our students the opportunity to
perform in chamber groups. There will be an evening chamber concert at the Basilica of Sant'Andrea delle
Fratte, home of the youth arm of the Santa Ceclia Academy of Music, one of the oldest musical institutions
in the world.
Families of touring students have been asked to contribute $3,500 each, but we already know of several
students that cannot afford to contribute towards the cost of the tour, and many other families that can
afford to contribute only a small amount. To pay for all 66 students to attend the tour, along with an
administrator and four fantastic SMMUSD music educators, we expect our scholarship need to be $60,000.
The Samohi Band Parents Association has already begun a direct donation campaign to fund tour
scholarships. We have set a goal to raise $25,000 through direct donation, and to raise $15,000 at our
annual benefit concert, Samohi Bands at the Broad, on February 5th, 2019. We can provide Council with an
accounting of $20,000 in funds raised if Council wishes to consider this gift to be a Matching Funds Grant.
We are asking the City of Santa Monica to support our tour with a grant of $20,000, to meet the rest of our
scholarship needs. The students are very excited about this trip, and we want to make sure that everyone
in the class is able to attend.
It is our understanding that the Samohi Choral Music program will request a grant for their April 2019
concert tour in France. We hope that both requests can be on the same City Council meeting agenda.
We thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Kevin McKeown, Director, Santa Monica High School Bands
Jennifer Raymond & Janie Docter, Samohi Wind Ensemble Tour Coordinators
Alisa F. Stewart, President, Samohi Band Parents Association