Donors support youth music education
By Maura Teynor
April 1, 2024
The Renaissance Performing Arts Association recently established two funds to support youth music education: the Adlyn and Daniel Lichtenstein Youth Orchestra Fund and the Percy Hall Youth Orchestra Fund.
Renaissance Performing Arts Association President Chelsie Thompson said the funds will provide resources for a new program that utilizes Mansfield Symphony Orchestra musicians enrolled at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music or the Cleveland Institute of Music to teach area high school students.
“It is an integrated approach; it will provide students with access to quality teachers. And the teachers will gain instruction knowledge while earning a stipend,” said Thompson.
The new funds will also provide scholarships to the younger musicians for private lessons. The Youth Symphony Orchestra draws students from 12 counties. Locally, Mansfield and Lexington school districts have orchestras.
The Lichtenstein and Hall families were friends and musicians.
Adlyn Lichenstein graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where she majored in concert piano. She performed as a concert pianist until she and Dan began raising a family but continued to work as the Mansfield Symphony rehearsal accompanist and organist until she died in 1978. She served on the Board of Directors of the Mansfield Symphony Society and loved rehearsing piano pieces with the Symphony before the invited soloists arrived in town for their scheduled guest performances. She and Dan especially enjoyed hosting and helping soloists during their stay in Mansfield. Dan never possessed any aptitude for musical performance but appreciated the important role that the arts, and particularly the Symphony, play in strengthening the cultural and social vitality of the community. He was a Trustee of the Symphony and, as Board Chair, signed the contract that moved the Symphony’s home from Malabar High School to the Renaissance Performing Arts Center.
An icon in the Ohio music scene for over 65 years, Percy Hall touched thousands of lives during his time as a public school band, orchestra, and choral director in the greater Mansfield area, first in the Madison School System, and then for 35 years at Mansfield Senior High School. He also served for years as the supervisor of music for Mansfield City Schools. After he retired from public school teaching, he taught for 10 years as an adjunct music professor at Ashland University, helping to prepare the next generation of music educators. He was a composer and a prolific arranger of countless pieces for bands, orchestras, and ensembles - many of which have been published. He was a member of the Mansfield Symphony, a conductor of the Mansfield Youth Strings, and an assistant conductor of the Mansfield Youth Symphony, and he coordinated and directed school outreach programs and summer public concert series across North Central Ohio.
“It is exciting to have youth music education supported this way by passionate donors. This program will add prestige to our symphony and youth symphony,” said Thompson.
Learn more about the Youth Symphony Orchestra at rentickets.org.
Anyone can donate to these funds; click the donate button select the fund from the drop-down box, or write a check payable to the Richland County Foundation and note the fund on the memo line.
