Bach Festival Society grant will help group grow

Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation donates $120K gift in support

The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park has been awarded funds to help it get bigger.

The Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation has given the society a $120,500 grant in support of future growth. The new funds will be used for additional staff and efforts to increase community awareness and cultivate new donors, the society says.

“This tremendous grant from The Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation along with our strategic plan lays the foundation for future growth and will help ensure the Society’s continuing success,” says Bach Festival Society executive director Elizabeth Gwinn. “We are so grateful to the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation for this grant and its dedication to a thriving artistic community in Winter Park.”

The foundation has strong ties to Winter Park and Rollins College, where the Bach Festival Society is based.

Jeannette Genius McKean, founder of the Genius Foundation, and her husband, Hugh F. McKean, were lifelong champions of the arts in Winter Park. Hugh McKean served as president of Rollins College and became an early trustee of the Bach Festival Society, serving for 29 years.

Founded in 1935, the Society runs one of the longest continuously operating Bach Festivals in the country. Established in 1959, the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation supports religious, charitable, scientific, educational, literary and educational initiatives.