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Cascadia Music

Website: https://www.cascadiamusic.org/

Budget Size: Between 50 and 100k

Region: Central

County: Okanogan

Population Centered: Rural

Mission Statement: Cascadia Music builds community through sharing the joy of music.

Community Accelerator Grant Award: $25,000

Primary Impact Category: Reopening

Cascadia Music has been a constant in the Methow Valley, a region cradled in the foothills of the North Cascades, since 1986. “We were looking through our old minutes the other day, and pretty much everyone we know has served on the board, or volunteered, or been in the choir, or been in the orchestra,” said Executive Director Rebecca Gallivan. To her, that means the organization is doing exactly what it’s meant to be doing: serving as a hub for community-building through music.

Cascadia Music’s year-round programs include the Cascadia Chorale and Pipestone Orchestra, community ensembles of 50-70 musicians each that are open to performers of all experience levels and abilities. For younger musicians, they offer a youth orchestra, private music lessons, and a scholarship foundation providing financial aid for lessons and instrument rental. And, in partnership with other local nonprofits, they frequently produce special concerts and events designed to elevate local musicians and address the specific needs of their area, including a recent three-day event about aging, grief, loss, and the value of creativity at all stages of life – a germane offering in a region where over 40% of the population is over the age of 60.

In the middle of a parade, a line of children sitting in chairs with sunglasses play the violin for the crowd.

In an art gallery, two people are playing the violin. The younger one is in the foreground with long brown hair and a black T-shirt, looking at a sheet of music. The older person has salt and pepper short hair and glasses and is also wearing black.

During the pandemic, Cascadia Music had to cut back extensively – their ensembles stopped meeting, performances ceased, and private lessons became untenable. The last few years have been a slow and painstaking exercise in resource management and virtual event planning, and Board President Elliot Ford credits Community Accelerator Grant funding with arriving at just the right moment in time to allow the organization to return to in-person programming at full force through events like Grief, Grace, and Gratitude, workshops in diverse musical and cultural traditions with visiting artists from all over the world, and partnership projects with Methow Valley schools, all of which have helped restore Cascadia Music’s level of community visibility at a time when it was flagging. Funds also allowed for cost-of-living wage increases for performers, which Rebecca and Elliot hope will allow Cascadia Music to serve as a regional leader in compensating musicians fairly for their time and talent. And – for the first time in its 37-year history – Cascadia Music now has an administrative office, which has proved a game-changer for sole staff member Rebecca (who worked for years from a corner of the orchestra’s rehearsal hall).

“I’d be working and there would be a flute quartet practicing, or piano lessons. Which is so lovely sometimes, but not when you’re trying to run a meeting or do the financials.”

Rebecca Gallivan, Executive Director of Cascadia Music in Methow Valley

If you’re a lover of the arts and aren’t yet familiar with the Methow Valley, Rebecca and Elliot expect it won’t be long before that changes – the town of Twisp was recently accepted into Washington’s Creative District Network, which Cascadia Music hopes will draw more visitors and allow them to share their valley’s rich artistic and cultural legacy far and wide.

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