After seeing an article in the local paper, the Sun Star-Courier, our Ohio State Representative (18th House district) Michael D. Dovilla sent a letter to SOHP’s president and founder, Mary Lou Lydecker.  In the letter Mr. Dovilla offered his praise for enriching the lives of our friends and neighbors in assisted living facilities, hospitals, and hospices.  He also thanked SOHP for its commitment to being actively engaged in the lives of residents in our community.

Thank you, Representative Dovilla, for your support!

I think we have made great strides – producing 3 new CDs, having a newspaper article on SOHP, distributing 50+ CDs in the last month, completing a business plan for the next couple of years, creating a website that looks professional and yet is user friendly, adding 3 new, enthusiastic board members, finding money from Key Bank through Damien, having a successful donation sale at St. Albert the Great craft show, finding a Red Hat group to take us under their wings for the holidays, – to name a few. I’m anxiously looking ahead and hoping that we can both provide CD players and sets of our CDs for area hospices and nursing homes and give a workshop or two through the libraries as well.

I recently came upon a couple of quotes that I think fit SOHP’s mission:

• “From what we get, we can make a living. What we give, however, makes a life.”  Arthur Ashe
• “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Our greatest hope, to be loved, is ours when we’ve made that hope a reality for someone else.”  K. Casey

Join us at the St. Albert the Great annual craft show all day on December 3 to hear and receive our three new CDs featuring Oberlin College alumni.  All of Sounds of Hope Projects’ CDs will also be available.

For a donation of $10, you will receive a CD of your choice, and another CD will be donated to an organization or person of your choice.  Or, if the you choose, SOHP will donate the second CD to a person or organization who will benefit from our music.

St. Albert the Great is on Wallings Road in North Royalton, Ohio.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped to make this project a reality:

• My classmates, Greer Ellison and Betty Hunter Shultz, who showed their support from the start.

• Oberlin Conservatory’s Dean David Stull who encouraged me immediately to pursue this venture and who gave this quote: “I am very pleased to participate in such a thoughtful and important project. The work of these great alumni is emblematic of the great spirit of the Oberlin Conservatory.”

• SOHP’s lawyer, Christina Moser of Baker & Hostetler LLP, Cleveland, Ohio for providing countless hours of legal advice and the contracts for all involved.

• Oberlin’s Alumni Office for helping with contact information, and with providing help with the trombone reunion choir concert program and attendee information.

• Bill Hartzell, Hartzell Media Group, and Paul Eachus, Oberlin Media Specialist, for the transfer of reels to CDs.

• Many Oberlin classmates/alum who were willing to provide reels or tapes or information readily, even if their own reels were not available for this project.

• Marty Lydecker, Kathy and John Musat, Al Menfi, and Mr. Bosoti, Elizabeth Lydecker, Rita Dura, Katy Spinner, Laura Nary, Susan Grimm, and Matt Ginter for critiquing the pieces and giving their musical opinions for this project.

• Megan Poletti, www.heypoletti.com who has been a HUGE help with the final and most important stages of the production of these CDs – the mastering and the uploading of all information unto our production site.

• The Sounds of Hope Project Board, especially Laura Nary and Susan Grimm. Laura helped me with the project outline and presentation to Dean Stull, and accompanied me to Oberlin on several occasions. Susan, our writing specialist and website blogger, has edited all blogs, letters, correspondence, and been extremely supportive throughout this project.

• My husband, Marty, for standing by me, listening to my frustrations, whining, and anxieties and always supporting me with a smile and patient encouragement.

• And to all the performers involved. Please see bio and listings that will soon be added to our website.

Twenty-seven months have gone by since the inception of the Oberlin College Alumni CD project! The idea came in 2009, and I started actually working on this project 17 months ago. I must admit that I was quite naive when I began. I actually thought that pulling pieces from Oberlin classmates’ prerecorded student and senior recitals and putting together a CD would take a couple of months – WRONG!!

Here are the steps I went through:

May 2009 – I attended an Oberlin 1973-1976 cluster alumni reunion at Oberlin College. The idea to use pieces from Oberlin performances in exchange for the transfer of classmates’ reel-to-reel tapes to CDs was born from discussions with classmates, Greer Ellison and Betty Hunter Shultz. I mulled over the idea and possible project for a year.

June 2010 — The Sounds of Hope Project Board approved pursuing the idea of making a CD from pieces “donated” to us from my Oberlin cluster alumni group, 1973-1976. I e-mailed Greer Ellison and Betty Hunter Shultz to see if they were still interested and presented the CD and “Musicians Who Care” idea to Dean David Stull at Oberlin. SOHP wanted to make sure we had permission to use performances recorded at Oberlin.

July 2010 — Dean Stull gave his support and blessing for SOHP to go ahead with SOHP’s Musicians Who Care project. He instructed us about what SOHP could and could not use. Oberlin’s alumni association provided addresses and communication information.

August 2010 – I contacted more classmates about the project and asked for their reel-to-reel tapes. Many no longer had these reels or felt there were no pieces that were appropriate.

September 2010 — Our pro bono lawyer drew up performer and “author” contracts. Greer Ellison, ’74, and Betty Hunter Shultz, ’74, sent their tapes to SOHP. Betty Hunter Shultz and Paul S. Reed, ’74, had performed a joint recital and he also agreed to be part of this project.

October, November 2010 – After contacting more classmates to request their recorded recitals in exchange for SOHP transferring their recitals tapes for reels to CDs, SOHP received senior recital reels from Deborah DeWolf Emery, ’74, and a trombone reunion choir concert cassette recorded in May 1991. I added my senior recital reels, ’74, and a found a beautiful performance by Andrew Trechak’s on one of my student recital reels and added these to the group.

December 2010 – When I asked about searching for more reel-to-reels, Paul Eachus, Oberlin Media Specialist, told me that Oberlin no longer held anything older than 1986. But I determined that enough music could still be gathered from what I had already acquired to produce a CD and gave Paul Eachus the recital reels and trombone cassette to be transferred to CDs.

April 2011 — I picked up CDs from Paul Eachus.

May, 2011 — I listened to the CDs and held a “listening” party with friends to help choose programs. We found enough for 3 different CDs and genres.

June 2011 — As listening, revising, typing sample programs continued, I started receiving signed contracts. I asked for bios from all performers. I took a sample CD, Sounds of Solace, to a funeral home for an opinion. The owner liked the CD.

July, 2011 — All contracts, bios, programs, etc. were ready to be mastered, typed up and sent to Kunaki to produce.

August 2011 — Peggy Crousman gave SOHP permission to use her photography for the CD covers. Megan Poletti, our media specialist, produced the first set of mastered CDs by end of the month.

September 2011 — Megan volunteered to help with the uploading to Kunaki of the cover, inside cover and back cover, and music. Dean Stull provided a quote for the inside cover of the CDs. I sent an email to the Oberlin Alumni Magazine with information for a possible article about the CDs.

Megan gave me the 2nd set of mastered CDs to edit.  I listened, listened, listened to CDs, made lots of notes, and listened again before sending Megan a final edit list. All the performances were recorded before different live audiences. The performances were recorded on different days, by different technicians, and on different instruments which made it difficult for me when listening and editing.

October, 2011 – As of October 6, 2011 all three CDs have gone to final production at Kunaki.com.  Megan delivered the final mastered CDs. She and I uploaded all the information for the CDs to the Kunaki site. A sample copy of each CD will arrive for my final “ok” before final production begins.

I am now both anxious and excited about the 3 CDs. I think I have “dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s.”

Much progress is being made with the “Musicians Who Care” CDs featuring classmates from Oberlin Conservatory, ’73-’75. I am hoping that SOHP will produce 3 CDs from this one project:
1) a general soothing CD for hospice, nursing homes, hospitals, those in need and their families
2) a more somber CD for a possible partnership with funeral homes
3) an all trombone ensemble CD in honor of Mr. Thomas Cramer, former trombone professor at Oberlin, who passed away last year.
This CD will also fit the first category of comforting and uplifting music for those in need. Many emails have been sent back and forth to the performers, Greer Ellison, Deborah DeWolf Emery, Betty Hunter Shultz, Paul S. Reed, Andrew Trechak, Jean Hansen Hein, Karen (Paul) Utgoff, Martha Rohrbaugh Vivona, and many trombone players, the alumni association, our pro bono lawyer, Christina Moser of Baker Hostetler LLP, Oberlin Conservatory Dean, David Stull, and Mrs. Cramer concerning contracts, bio info, general questions, etc. I am keeping a daily log of activities and time spent on what has turned out to be a massive project. It’s so exciting that the Oberlin classmates involved in this project were so willing to donate their performances to this worthwhile project.

Sound of Hope Project continues to work with other musicians who have agreed to allow us to use their recordings. SOHP president Mary Lou Lydecker, a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, attended a cluster reunion.  She and other graduates came up with the idea of using their senior recitals to further SOHP’s mission. Several of the alumni at the reunion volunteered on the spot.  Those Oberlin Conservatory alumni sent tapes of their performances to Mary Lou.  SOHP is reviewing the pieces to decide the best way to use them.   The music is beautiful, and we are excited about this new way to further our mission.

In December, 2010, Mark McLellan replaced the outgoing Treasurer of The Sounds of Hope Project.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Cleveland State University and has over twenty-five years of experience in the accounting profession.

Damien Hand-Cannane joined the Sounds of Hope project board on May 9, 2011.  He is a 2010 graduate of Kent State University with a B.A. in music and an M.S. in Accounting and works as an accountant for KeyBank in Cleveland.

In other board actions, Bill Hartzell, the board’s vice president, is taking a temporary leave of absence to focus on his job responsibilities.

The book, This Is Your Brain on Music, by Daniel J. Levitin reaffirms Sound of Hope Project’s goal of using music to soothe those in need of any kind of healing.  The book uses science to show the effect of music on the human brain.  The author states that music coordinates the different parts of the brain and addresses the role of music in so much of human existence.