Los Alamos music groups seek donations, long-term support from residents
Los Alamos music groups are asking residents to fund both this season and the years ahead, with the Winds endowment still below its $10,000 threshold.
Los Alamos’ community music groups are asking for more than a quick donation. Leaders want residents to help keep Los Alamos Community Winds and the Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra on stage now, while also building the long-term financial support that can carry concerts, rehearsals and outreach from one season to the next.
The practical route is through the Los Alamos Community Foundation, with donors asked to add a note naming Los Alamos Community Winds, the Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra or both. The foundation says endowment funds are invested and then make annual disbursements to the organizations they are set up to support. Its giving page says the Los Alamos Community Winds Endowment Fund will begin supporting the ensemble once it reaches a minimum balance of $10,000, and notes that Dean Decker established the fund. Public contributions are welcome.
That kind of support matters because Los Alamos’ arts system depends on a mix of private generosity and public partnerships. Los Alamos County says its Community Services Division works toward the Council goal of “Maintaining Quality Essential Routine Services” through contractual relationships with nonprofit organizations that provide cultural services. County materials say five local nonprofit groups sign mutually beneficial annual contracts with the county, helping provide offerings that include environmental education, art, 4-H and senior activities.
The Symphony Orchestra carries a deep local history. It says it was first organized in January 1945 as the Los Alamos Civic Orchestra, later known as the Sinfonietta and now the Symphony Orchestra. The group says it still rehearses weekly and gives a few concerts each year, with William Waag listed as principal conductor on its website.
Los Alamos Community Winds says its concert-band tradition in town goes back nearly as far as Los Alamos itself and has existed in various incarnations for the past 20 to 30 years. Its musicians range from middle and high school students to retirees, a mix that makes the ensemble part youth pipeline, part community anchor. The group promoted a 2025-2026 season-finale concert for May 16 at Crossroads Bible Church, underscoring that this is not a distant preservation project but an immediate operating need.
For Los Alamos, the stakes are bigger than one concert season. If these groups shrink, the county loses more than performances: it loses rehearsal space for teenagers, a musical outlet for retirees and one more piece of the civic fabric that helps a small town feel connected.
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