Fischoff National Chamber Music Association
Fischoff Arts-in-Education ResidencyFischoff National Chamber Music Association
Regional Transformation Through ND’s Mentor-Based Accelerator
The IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame believes that establishing a regional startup pipeline is key to our community’s economic prosperity. The recent successes of several local startups through the Center demonstrated the viability of that concept.
But while the IDEA Center has demonstrated a proven process at the angel investment level ($200k+) where most companies become job creators, growing startups to the angel level has presented two primary challenges- fostering quality business ideas, and sourcing early-stage “friends and family” funding ($25k-$50k). The Center addressed the first challenge through the implementation of one of two mentor-based accelerator models, either recruiting proven mentors to pair with existing startups, or sourcing high-quality student teams to launch ideas brought to the table by proven entrepreneurs. The early-stage funding challenge, which affects the ability of the IDEA Center to scale, is a more difficult problem, as the Center is constrained by the operational costs of supporting each venture before later-stage funding becomes available.
For all its success, the Fischoff continues to distinguish itself from other music competitions by remaining true to its core mission of educating young musicians and encouraging them to study chamber music. They do this in part through their Arts-in-Education Residencies. During these residencies, distinguished alumni musicians provide innovative free workshops, master classes, and interactive concerts over five intense days, reaching up to 2000 students from local Title 1 schools each year.
The Fischoff submitted a grant proposal in December 2020 designed to support their Arts-in-Education residencies in 2021 and 2022. The Foundation approved their request, citing the long, successful history of this educational initiative targeting underserved student populations in our area.
