Music festival board appoints new director
Hot Springs District 1 Director Suzanne Davidson has been named executive director of the Hot Springs Music Festival.
The music festival’s board of directors announced her appointment at a festive fundraising event hosted by Dorothy Morris on Thursday evening at Gallery Central, to help kick off a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the music festival in 2015.
“The Hot Springs Music Festival board is delighted to welcome Suzanne Davidson as the new executive director and she will be taking over the duties of overseeing the preparation for the festival,” Lynn Payette, chorus director of the HSMF, told The Sentinel-Record.
Davidson will serve in the position Marcy Mermel held.
“Marcy is pursuing other interests and we are thrilled that Suzanne is willing to collaborate with us,” Payette said.
As the representative for District 1 on the Hot Springs Board of Directors, Davidson is one of the major supporters of the recent efforts to revitalize the downtown and encourage its economic development, a news release said.
She has also just been appointed to a second four-year volunteer term on the Arkansas Arts Council by Gov. Mike Beebe, it said.
She is a working artist and is a board member of the Hot Springs Cultural Alliance, which organized a tour of artist studios in Hot Springs, and is now working toward the 2015 Arts & the Park Festival, including the Hot Springs Music Festival and Chorus.
She is a member of Park Avenue Community Association, the Gateway Community Association and the Whittington Valley Neighborhood Association.
She began her professional career as an art teacher.
At her first music festival board meeting held Wednesday evening, Davidson thanked the board members for their confidence in her.
“We had Laura ( Rosenberg, founder) on the phone and another board member who is in Michigan. I had no idea of the breadth of support here in Hot Springs for the music festival. Everybody loves it and wants to see it continue and would like to see it grow. I am very excited in being involved in a music organization again and being around musicians,” Davidson said.
“I have already hit the ground running working with Laura Rosenberg via phone and email and everything is moving forward. I will have my head down for quite some time doing some grant writing and proposals and see if we can get some more funding.”
During Thursday’s gala, the members of the festival’s board of directors were recognized, along with Morris and her Circle of Diplomats who will be reaching out and encouraging others to become involved, including Don Munro, Don and Dana Gooch, Rex Nelson, Bill Sample, Les Warren, Marty Koehn, Steve Trusty, John Vines, Tanya and Jason Spavins, David and Ashley Twiggs, and Sunny Evans.
“Dorothy graciously has agreed to serve as the ambassador for the 20th anniversary, so she will be in the forefront inviting people to get involved in various ways,” Payette said.
At the end of November and again in March, two concerts are planned as offseason, ticketed events, but at a modest price. All proceeds will go to the festival’s scholarship fund.
The scholarship fund pays for student musicians to take part in the music festival during the summer.
“It makes it possible for us to get all the apprentices we need to perform the magical music that Maestro Peter Bay has picked out for next summer,” Payette said.
“Suzanne will be a key figure in this, encouraging people to keep in touch with the music festival office throughout the year and find out various way that they can help. We can always use another set of hands or volunteers. We are trying to schedule regular events to help promote the festival’s vision and purpose and mission, like these two concerts I mentioned, and so we would always welcome anyone’s help to promote, support, and provide assistance,” she said.
“With this 20th anniversary coming up, this is a key time for the people of Hot Springs to say, ‘I’ll bet there is something I could do and I would like to help.’”