February 6 Newsletter
- Mackenzie Spears
- Feb 7
- 3 min read
February 6, 2026
Newsletter
Dear Friends of Salt City Orchestra,
While you may or may not have observed a flurry of activity, I can assure you the board has been very busy behind the scenes forming this new organization. Lots of fairly boring but necessary things have occurred, such as becoming a 501(c)(3) organization, setting up a bank account, a Venmo account, and a PayPal account. We have all that nitty-gritty configured.
Many of you enjoyed our first public appearance at Sandhills Brewing on January 27th in collaboration with Classical Revolution ICT's monthly Beethoven and Beer series. If you have a subscription to The Hutchinson Tribune, you can read about it here.
Eagle Media interviewed us, and you can read about it here.
We were also on Radio Kansas, which can be heard but not seen here.
It can be seen if you have Facebook, see the video here.
If you like good old-fashioned paper, The Hutchinson Tribune has our article on page B5 this week. It can be purchased at Walgreens, Sandhills Brewing, Scuttlebutts, Holly’s Sweet Treats, Sage River Market, and Dollar General. Thanks to reporter Charissa Graves for reporting our genesis story.
While the press has been very good at telling our story,
we also have a website https://www.saltcityorchestra.org/
a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SaltCityOrchestra
and an Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/saltcityorchestra/
Many thanks to the board members who created those. And be sure to follow us on Facebook!
The orchestra offered three sets at the brewery: a brass quintet, a string quartet, and a harpist. If you enjoyed the harpist, Camden will be playing at the Cosmosphere for a Valentine's movie event at 6:00. See more about that here. Our next performance will be with the HCC Concert Choir. They will perform "Illuminare" by Elaine Hagenberg. We will be providing the string section on March 9th.
All the while, we are firming up our roster for our full inaugural concert. It will be in June at the Dillon Nature Center. This will be a free performance, and we would love a large audience to let us know that Hutch supports an orchestra. As soon as the details are confirmed, you will be the first to know. Our general plan is to have a three-concert season with a Winter and Spring concert, as well as the June concert.
Our next major hurdle is to identify our music director. We feel that person needs to be in place as soon as possible to guide the vision. Let us know if you have a suggestion.
Any capable musician is welcome to inquire about joining our roster by filling out the form on our home page. You can also sign up to be included in the mailing list however.
Please note we have received a thousand-dollar donation from Shirley Brandyberry Donor Advised Fund of Hutchinson Community Foundation, for which we are most grateful. The website lists other sponsors as well.
Sponsor levels:
Allegro: $2,500+
Moderat:o $1,000 - $2,499
Adagio: $500 - $999
Largo: $100 - $499
Fermata: up to $99
If you desire to be a founding sponsor, complete the form.
Sponsors will be acknowledged on our website & programs.
Thanks in advance for supporting this new organization. As they say in the music business: Stay Tuned!!
Bob Kenyon
Director of Outreach