The Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck has enjoyed the artistic leadership of Joan Conway for more than ten years. Over that time, Joan has devoted countless hours and untold effort to strengthening and improving the festival in every conceivable way.

One of her many contributions was the establishment of the intern program – an effort on her part to offer student musicians the opportunity to work, for a small remuneration, with the festival in a variety of ways. In the process, they learn many real-world aspects of concert mounting and production that add immeasurably to the understanding of what a career in music can mean. During Joan’s tenure, many interns have passed through this program, including one of our newly-named Artistic Directors, Jennifer Walvoord.

When Joan informed the festival Board of Directors of her intention to resign her Artistic Directorship, we pondered the best possible way to honor her years of service to the festival. We believe we have found it! We have decided to name the intern program in Joan’s honor – The Joan Conway Young Artists Program – and to establish an endowment that will provide self-sustaining funds to carry the program into the future. This will be a permanent legacy celebrating Joan’s lifelong dedication to the nurturing of young musicians.

We invite your participation. We hope that you will become a Founding Contributor to The Joan Conway Young Artists Program. Contributions can be sent to The Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck, P.O. Box 1073, Saugatuck, Michigan 49453.

What better way to celebrate a great artist and her great contributions to us?