EPSMF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and music organization, founded in 2005, working to provide El Pasoans and the border community a variety of classical musical events, youth dedicated programs, and community outreach.
history
The El Paso Society for Musicians of the Future (EPSMF) is a new dba, established in the Spring of 2014 as a way to launch EPSMF in it's 10th anniversary into a clear and identifiable direction with its work in the community.
Originally founded as....
the El Paso Summer Music Festival, EPSMF has its origins in June 2005. The first concert grew out of a similar event the year before, a birthday memorial concert for Michael Salzman, and the inauguration of a piano scholarship in his name for the University of Texas at El Paso Music Department. The aim was to have an annual summer festival series featuring guest artists along with recognizing a prominent El Pasoan integral to the Arts.
Today, the El Paso Society for Musicians of the Future (still EPSMF) is a non-profit organization working to give El Pasoans and the border community a variety of classical musical events and outreach during the summer months. Honorees following Michael Salzman are J.O.,Jr. and Marlene Stewart (2006), Mary Ann Dodson (2007), Wilma Salzman (2008), Ken and Beverly Jinkerson (2009), Carol Johnson (2010), the El Paso Community (2011), Bruce Nehring (2012), Jimmy Olivas (2013), Melissa Colgin-Abeln (2014), Michael Salzman (2015) in a special anniversary tribute, Soccorro Diamonstein (2016), and Fay LaFon (2017).
Summer events have included the Annual Concert and events featuring acclaimed artists, such as international harpist, Grace Cloutier, concert pianist, Christopher O’Riley, and acclaimed local artists, such as the Mesa Street Trio and flutist, Melissa Colgen-Abeln. In June 2009, EPSMF hosted NPR’s radio show From the Top, where El Pasoan, Natanya Washer, received the $10,000 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and the El Paso Choral Society Young Ladies Choir performed before a live El Paso audience. The show aired in October 2009 putting the EPSMF and El Paso on national air waves. La Catrina Quartet wowed the 2010 and 2011 audiences. In the 2012 season, Jeremy Mims returned home to El Paso with Melissa Loehnig for a fabulous four-hands piano performance at the El Paso Museum of Art. EPSMF has been to Carnegie Weill Hall in 2014 with Grace Cloutier and Friends returning to El Paso with a representation of this concert and came "Full Circle" in the Summer 2015 Concert with Natanya Washer singing with Brian Asawa, famed countertenor. The EPSMF hosted From the Top a second time in a live-taping at the Plaza Theatre on June 1, 2013. EPSMF hosted "From the Top" again in 2016 on June 4th at the Plaza Theatre.
Community Outreach has developed new partnerships in the community where music adds insight, education, or comfort to lives. Past activities have reached out to hospice, assisted living facilities, childrens’ homes, and several arms of the El Paso Del Norte YWCA, and ocal schools. EPSMF strives to reach a greater number of people of all ages in the community each year and collaborates with the UTEP Music Department and the El Paso Musuem of Art.
Reaching further….EPSMF continues to support the arts and community through its programs and by offering master classes on general musicianship and workshops to assist students in preparation for auditions, scholarships, performance, and competitions.