Encore: Musical Instrument Lending Program
Working together with area music teachers, Encore!, the name for the Walla Walla Symphony’s Instrument Lending Library, helps foster music literacy and performance skills in young people by providing no-cost access to musical instruments.
The instrument lending library procedure will mirror that of the public library:
- Young people will be required to complete a registration process that includes verifiable identification documents and parental permission forms.
- The estimated value of the instrument will be stated in a loan agreement that encourages responsibility for the instrument's care by the youth who borrows the instrument.
- Students will be asked to send thank-you notes to the instrument donor.
Since maintaining instruments is often a barrier to continued playing of the instrument, a gift certificate for $50 will be included with each borrowed instrument. The gift certificate can only be redeemed and used for instrument repair at previously approved suppliers.
Loan periods will be for one calendar year, with annual renewals encouraged following annual inspection of the instrument by music educator or private teacher.
The community can participate in this program by donating unwanted musical instruments to the Walla Walla Symphony. The symphony will make sure the instrument is in good repair before adding it to the Lending Library. Donors will get a receipt for the fair market value of the instrument and the assurance that their musical instrument donation is going to a worthy musician-in-training.
In addition to community support through instrument donations, this program is also being made possible with generous grants from the Raynier Foundation and the Charlotte Martin Foundation.
For more information about this program or if you have an instrument to donate to Encore!, please call the Walla Walla Symphony office at 509.529.8020. You can also e-mail jd@wwsymphony.org.