Lansing Matinee Musicale expands outreach in wake of pandemic

Like many arts-focused institutions, the Lansing Matinee Musicale has suffered its share of pandemic-related struggles, but that hasn’t halted the organization’s longstanding streak of support for the local arts. In fact, its outreach has only grown.

Founded in 1894 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1951, the musicale hosts monthly performances by a variety of local and regional artists during its September-through-April season. These events also offer performance opportunities for members of the musicale’s Performing Arts Students Club, which is open to local youth. Participants of the student club are able to apply for scholarships to attend private lessons and summer programs at institutions like Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake and Interlochen Center for the Arts.

The pandemic led to a significant drop in membership for the musicale, multiple board members said. In response, the organization decided to move in a new direction, issuing a new mission statement:  “To provide experiences and opportunities in the performing arts to mid-Michigan students and young professionals through education, performances and community service.”

It dove head-on into the community service aspect in 2022 with Project Crescendo, an effort to bring more music education to Lansing School District students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The musicale is largely made up of current and retired teachers, who noticed that the district was struggling in its music programming.

Local youth explore the wonders of the organ at the Lansing Matinee Musicale’s October Pipe Organ Walk.

“They didn’t have enough elementary music teachers, they didn’t have music teachers in every school, and they weren’t doing middle school bands and orchestras, which they used to really thrive in,” Mary Anne Larzelere, the musicale’s program director and co-chair of Project Crescendo, said. Larzelere was a special education teacher at Dwight Rich Junior High School prior to her retirement.

The musicale donated $10,000 to nine elementary school teachers in the district — a little more than $1,100 each.

“They could do whatever they wanted with it. They could bring in a program, they could buy instruments, they could provide lessons, whatever they wanted to do. We met with them, and that was their desire,” Larzelere said.

At the end of the school year, the musicale again met with the teachers, who suggested that a better direction for the program’s second year may be to provide live musical performances for the students. The musicale hosted three performances at each teacher’s school throughout the year.

“We brought in all kinds of performers,” Larzelere said. “We had percussion, we had a couple of bands that came in, we had some strings programs, we had some vocal music, we brought in an opera, and they were all fabulous.”

This year, the musicale has allocated $20,000 for the program, which will offer grants of up to $2,500 to kindergarten through eighth-grade music teachers in the Lansing School District looking to expand their programming.

“Out of all the districts around, Lansing is hurting the most as far as a budget for teaching music. The goal is to get kids interested and let them know what’s out there — let them know what’s possible in music and expose them to different aspects of it that they may not have known about,” musicale President Laura Stebbins said.

Another gap the musicale has noticed is a lack of support for post-graduate students and young professionals. It aims to help this group through its Emerging Artists awards, a talent contest it’s been hosting periodically for decades.

“We’ve done it in voice, piano, strings, dance, woodwinds, brass, all those various disciplines, and we’re continuing that,” Stebbins said.

This year’s contest focuses on musical theater. It’s open to applicants ages 20 through 28 across the country, but preference will be given to those with Michigan connections. Registration is open through Jan. 31 at
lansingmatineemusicale.org. The first two rounds are virtual, and the final round will be held in Lansing. The winner will receive $2,500, the runner-up will receive $1,500, and the third-place finisher will receive $500.

“A lot of these people have already gone to school for it or studied for it, and then they’ve gone off to New York or Los Angeles or someplace, and they’re trying to be young professionals. Our goal is to give them a little boost, especially if they’re from Michigan, because it is a really hard field to succeed in,” musicale Vice President Patrice Van Voorhees said.

Through its efforts to rebuild after the pandemic, Stebbins said things are looking up for the musicale.

“We’re working on attracting great programming, which we already have this year: We’ve had a new piano professor in town, Shannon Sadler, perform. We’ve had the Capital City Ringers. We organized an organ walk for students and adults at the downtown churches in Lansing. We’ve seen the numbers at our monthly performances go up, so it’s going in the right direction, and it’s really exciting.”

However, Van Voorhees emphasized that cultivating new membership is still a priority.

“Some of our membership is aging out, and we need fresh people who want to do something important with their time,” she said. “There’s basically just a few people doing all of this, and we could do so much more if we had more help, we had more members.”

She noted that the $40 annual membership fee is well worth the price.

“We have some amazing professionals come and perform, just extraordinary stuff that you would see at Wharton Center. It’s amazing, but our goal is to get it out to more people,” she said.