Send TAMUK Music Theatre Workshop to Cleveland

Hello everyone! My name is Melinda Brou, and I am the Director of the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Opera and Musical Theatre Workshop. A few weeks ago I was notified that a scene from one of our productions last year that I submitted to the National Opera Association's Musical Theatre Scenes competition was selected as a national finalist. This means that in January I will be taking nine students (8 singers and 1 graduate student accompanist) to the National Conference in Cleveland where the students will compete in the national finals. For context, only three other schools were selected for the MT Scenes competition.  Our scene is Officer Krupke from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. 

We are CRAZY excited for this opportunity, and I cannot tell you how much this sort of national recognition means to our growing vocal program. In addition to competing, the students will have the opportunity to attend workshop sessions and performances as well as networking with other young professionals and mentors in the field. 

As a really neat aside, this will be the first plane trip for several of the students, and even the first trip out of state for a few of them. I know that there are lots of crowdfunding campaigns out there for many worthy causes -- please know that we are compiling funding from as many sources as possible. But, your contribution will absolutely make a huge difference in providing a once in a lifetime experience for these students. 

We are hopeful to raise $3,000 through this campaign. We are being as economical as possible, but, between plane tickets, hotel rooms (4 to a room), meals, taxis, conference registration fees etc the trip will cost just over $10k.  

Thank you for considering! Please feel free to ask any questions. And seriously, you have never seen a group of guys more excited to go to CLEVELAND in your life! We promise lots of pictures and updates! Especially if there is snow!