The Wynkoop Fellowships
This year marks Rodney Wynkoop’s 35th anniversary as Artistic Director of the Choral Society of Durham. To honor Rodney and celebrate these past remarkable years together, we invite your support as we launch an important new program. Introducing… the Wynkoop Fellowships for the Future!
For more than three decades, Rodney has enriched and inspired us with his amazing musicianship and his gift for fostering close bonds among the musicians under his direction. Rodney’s belief that music transcends differences, and his commitment to cultivating connection within and across communities, have helped diverse listeners and performers alike to savor the joys of choral music. Building on the foundation Rodney has helped to create, in January 2020 CSD adopted this defining strategic goal:
To enable more people, from diverse backgrounds,
to experience together the joy and enrichment
of high-quality choral music.
To continue moving in this direction, we are looking to new repertoire, new venues,
new collaborations—and new singers. That’s where the Wynkoop Fellowships for the Future come in.
This program will go beyond our existing scholarship program to remove financial and other barriers to membership. Such barriers will vary by Fellow and may include routine expenses as well as often overlooked barriers like transportation and childcare costs. We hope this will smooth the path for singers from a variety of circumstances—such as life stages, racial or ethnic communities, economic situations, education—who might have otherwise been hesitant to audition for the group.
Fellowships will be awarded each year to a small number of musically qualified candidates with an interest in actively adding their perspectives concerning our aspirational goals around community-building through music. Considering their perspectives in our planning will be an important part of the process. We hope and expect that participation will enrich their lives, as CSD has enriched ours.
For more details about the Wynkoop Fellowships for the Future, including application information, please visit our website or send an email to office@choral-society.org with any questions.
We hope you will donate today to help us celebrate all that Rodney has envisioned and achieved, with us and through us. Your support of this fellowship will help fund our community-building efforts and sustain Rodney’s legacy for generations of CSD singers to come!
To donate, visit https://choral-society.org/donate-wynkoop-fellowships/ or make checks payable to Choral Society of Durham and note Wynkoop Fellowships and mail to Choral Society of Durham, P.O. Box 72182, Durham, NC 27722. All donations designated for the Wynkoop Fellowships will be restricted to the purposes of the program. Our hope is to raise enough to sustain the program for many years to come!
