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SCHOLARSHIPS

Links to related forms:

Student Application
filled out by student each trimester

2024-2025 Jolidon Organ Lessons Scholarship Application

Instructors' form
filled out by instructor for each student, each trimester, during application period

2024-2025 Jolidon Organ Lessons Scholarship Instructor Form

Instructors' end-of-trimester form

filled out by instructor for each student, end of each trimester

End-of-Trimester Jolidon Organ Lessons Scholarship Instructor Report

 

JOLIDON ORGAN LESSON SCHOLARSHIPS
The purpose of this program is to give persons interested in learning to play the organ the opportunity to undertake formal study of the instrument.

 

NEW PROGRAM: Next Applications due December 15, 2024

Beginning in summer 2024, there is a new application process, requirements, and fee structure for the Jolidon Organ Lessons program. Please read the following information carefully. 

Who is eligible?

 Anyone who has a desire to learn to play the organ, regardless of age. Students must reside in Greater Hartford and have some previous keyboard proficiency. Students of all levels are encouraged to apply, including beginners.

 Applicants are not required to be members of the American Guild of Organists. All scholarship recipients are eligible, upon request, to receive a free one-year membership in the American Guild of Organists.

Who will be my teacher? 
 Instructors must be members of the GHAGO Chapter (regular, special, young, or dual membership). If you require assistance finding a potential organ instructor, please contact us at HartfordAGO@gmail.com.

 Instructors must fill out an Instructors' form at the start of each trimester, one per student.


Where and when are my lessons?
 Location, duration, and frequency of lessons are decided by mutual arrangement between student and instructor. Students should consult with their instructor to arrange access to an organ for practice time.


How does the program work?
 The program runs on a trimester system. Scholarships are granted to fund lessons from September through December, January through April, and May through August.

 Scholarship applications are considered three times a year and are typically due by August 15, December 15, and April 15. The deadline for September 2024 has been extended to September 8, 2024. Scholarship funding for the May-August trimester is typically limited.

 Scholarships are awarded in the amounts of $300, $600, or $900 per trimester, depending on student experience and demonstrated commitment. $300 is recommended for beginning or very young students; $600 or $900 are awarded to more advanced students.

 

  • Scholarship decisions are determined by the executive committee of the GHAGO. Awards are based on a number of factors including demonstrated potential and commitment to musical growth. Consideration is also given with regard to previous Jolidon Scholarships, aiming to encourage awards to first-time recipients.

  • A scholarship award does not guarantee future awards, but repeat applications are encouraged. 


 Applicants and instructors will typically be notified of awards by September 1, January 1, and May 1.


 Payment is made directly to the instructor at the conclusion of each trimester upon receipt of an end-of-trimester report. Lessons are subsidized at a rate of $60 per lesson-hour, not to exceed the total of a trimester’s award. The student is responsible for any cost of lessons beyond the scholarship award, paid directly to the instructor.

Are there any additional costs or requirements?
 If the purchase of sheet music and/or organ shoes is required, those costs are paid by the student.


 Students in their second year or later of receiving a scholarship are typically expected to perform once annually at a chapter event—for example, at PipeScreams, a student or members’ recital, or in an GHAGO sponsored masterclass.


How do I apply?
 Complete online application form, available here.


I have more questions!
 Please contact us at HartfordAGO@gmail.com

Marjorie Jolidon.png

Who was Marjorie Jolidon? 

by Christa Rakich

 

Marjorie Jolidon was the benefactor of what will be a “life changing” (if we can apply that term to an organization) bequest to the Greater Hartford Chapter of the AGO. Since Marge’s active role in the chapter was some years back, we’ve asked chapter members who knew Marge to share their memories. We are grateful to members Nancy Robbins, John Coghill, and Mike Foley for these recollections.

Marge was a lover of good music, the theater, and traveling. She had season tickets every year
to the Hartford Stage, the Goodspeed Opera House, and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. She was also active in the Musical Club of Hartford, of which she was a past president. Nancy Robbins recalls the beginning of her friendship with Marge, enjoying Marge and her husband Charlie’s hospitality on many occasions when the two women met at Marge’s Hartford south
end home to rehearse organ duets for a program of the Musical Club of Hartford.

Mike Foley met Marge in 1981 while she was organist at The Church of the Good Shepherd in Hartford. Mike then learned that Marge had a 6 rank unit organ in her home that needed a lot of work. Mike was invited to come and take a look. While working on the organ over the course of the next months, Mike got to know Marge and Charlie as warm, hospitable people who always looked forward to his visits, which were as much about friendship as they were about organ service.

John Coghill and Marge were colleagues while both were teaching in the Bloomfield Schools. Marge was a music teacher and John in the classroom. He remembers that she was a “big force.” One time, John and Marge together directed a Gilbert & Sullivan performance by the fifth and sixth grades, and he remembers that Marge nearly tore her hair out dealing with the kids. The audience filled the room and the students did a wonderful job. Marge had a short fuse, which meant she got after the kids.

Marge also loved animals, often trapping stray cats in her neighborhood with a humane trap, taking them to her vet, and keeping them for pets. All three contributors to this piece mentioned the cats and excited, yapping dogs present at every visit.

Marge and Charlie owned a very nice beach cottage in Cornfield Point, Old Saybrook. They spent years renovating it with their own sweat equity when they were younger, turning it into a year-round home. In addition to her pipe organ and grand piano in Hartford, she had an electronic organ and an upright piano side by side in Old Saybrook. On one of her many visits to Old Saybrook, Nancy Robbins recalls how Marge told her of the fun times she used to have when the church choir members would go there, many of whom would remain overnight sleeping all over the house. She and Charlie had planned to retire there, but his death changed their plans. Marge did, however, eventually sell their Hartford home and stayed in Old Saybrook until she died.

We have a portrait of a warm, generous, and hospitable woman who was devoted to her husband, her pets, and to good music and the arts. While it was clear she had the means to
meet her needs, she lived a modest life. Her legacy continues, and has been entrusted to us and others. In addition to the Greater Hartford Chapter AGO, the other beneficiaries of her $2.5 million estate were the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, The Goodspeed Opera House, and the Musical Club of Hartford.

For more information, please contact us at:

HartfordAGO@Gmail.com

 

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