October, 2009
Dear Friends:
Let me tell you why I joined the Musical Fund Society.
The fall brings with it the excitement of a new concert season. Around the area, orchestras large and small
try out new ideas for innovative programs. Wide-eyed schoolchildren nudge for a closer look—a first look—at a piccolo
or a bass trombone. An established ensemble brings in an international group for a one-time collaboration. A music school
commissions a nearby composer for the first time. In restaurants new listeners buzz over the pianist they’ve just heard,
listeners who can hardly believe that classical music could be this beautiful, this heart-stopping, this life-changing…that
it could be this good.
You and I know that anything new is a risk. Commissions, innovations, outreach, education are risks. But they do happen.
They happen because an idea catches hold and is supported. This is where the Musical Fund Society steps in. You and I step in,
and together we turn the risk into reality.
And this is why I joined the Musical Fund Society.
While we’re proud of what the Society has done for 190 years, we know that we can do more. With support from the Musical Fund Society
Foundation, we are helping more groups than ever. New and old, large and small: they all look to us for help, especially in uncertain
economic times. Many of you are already generous, and I thank you. We’re looking for more members than ever to seize this opportunity,
to make it possible for even one more group to take on that special project—that risk—that all of us want to encourage.
Your tax-deductible gift to the Musical Fund Society Foundation can make that difference. It is a growing asset for Philadelphia’s
musical life because of you.
Please join me by sending your contribution to the Musical Fund Society Foundation today, and help to continue funding deserving
organizations. The quickest and easiest way is to go to our website and pay safely online: http://musicalfundsociety.org/gifts.htm.
We also enclose an envelope if you would like to pay by check. But please take the time—now—to contribute to the musical life of
Philadelphia. By sending $35, $50, $100, or any amount you can, you declare to Philadelphia and beyond that an outreach of music is
an important risk to take right now, a declaration we cannot repeat often enough.
With my thanks, and best wishes for the upcoming season,

Kile Smith
President
Musical Fund Society Foundation