Cypress Performing Arts Association

Cypress Performing Arts Association (Cypress) is one of the region's youngest and brightest string quartets reaching an annual audience of nearly 12,000 people. Founded in 1996 and incorporated in 2003, the quartet already has an enviable musical reputation and a solid financial record. The organization has grown from a $400,000 to $700,000 budget operation in the last three years and presents 100 concerts annually (10-15 in the Bay Area, a further 30-40 in Bay Area schools). The quartet has established a reputation among national and international arts presenters for high caliber performances of new American composers and overlooked compositions of classical giants and has taken on extraordinary special projects pairing contemporary compositions with historical works. These "Call and Response" concerts are critically successful and challenging for the young people who participate in them; tellingly, a 2006 reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, observed: "an audience with a large proportion of school children listened attentively and alertly to a rather daunting program, their comportment shaming that of many a more adult audience that I’ve been a part of." Ongoing general operating support for this class-leader in the Bay Area Chamber Music scene will enable the group to improve their administrative capacity as they perform more concerts and take on more ambitious artistic work that exemplifies how dynamic, creative, chamber ensembles can imagine new ways of making their music relevant to new and broad audiences in the 21st century. (Renewal, $150,000/3; % of organization budget)