ANNUAL REPORTS
SHARING OUR PROGRESS AND VISION
Annual reports provide an opportunity for Greater Buffalo Friends of Music to reflect on the year’s accomplishments, share important developments, and outline priorities for the future. They also promote transparency and accountability by showing our members, donors, and community partners how their support strengthens GBFOM and the Western New York choral community.
Below, you can read reports from GBFOM’s President, Kathleen Hartmans, and Artistic Director, Tim Socha, highlighting the organization’s programs, partnerships, member services, and progress toward establishing the Buffalo Choral Center. Each report is also available as a downloadable PDF.
Greater Buffalo Friends of Music
2025-26 President’s Annual Report 2026
My first year as President of Greater Buffalo Friends of Music has been an exciting and productive one. It has been a year of growth, new initiatives, stronger connections within our consortium, and, most importantly, significant progress toward making the Buffalo Choral Center a reality.
Without question, the Buffalo Choral Center has been the highlight of the year. What began as a vision for a permanent home for the choral community of Western New York is now very close to becoming a reality.
We are preparing to finalize the purchase of the Center from Buffalo Hearing & Speech, and after many months of planning, discussion, and preparation, we are nearly there—we just need to sign the documents!
A comprehensive business and marketing plan for the Buffalo Choral Center has been completed and distributed. We have contacted choral organizations regarding the availability of office and storage space, and tours of the facility have been provided to prospective tenants. The interest we have received reinforces our belief that the Center can become an important shared resource and gathering place for the choral community throughout Western New York.
This year we were also pleased to welcome three new members to our Board of Directors: Adair Saviola, Dee Jakel, and Peter Blanford. Their experience, enthusiasm, and commitment to our mission are welcome additions to the Board as GBFOM enters this important new chapter.
Communication and visibility have also been priorities. Under the direction of Sue Almon, and with many helpful suggestions from our members, we updated the GBFOM website to better reflect who we are and the resources we provide to the choral community. Our Instagram account is also up and running, giving us another opportunity to promote our members, their performances, and GBFOM activities. We look forward to making greater use of it in the coming year.
Supporting the next generation of musicians continues to be an important part of our mission. This year, GBFOM awarded three $1,000 scholarships to outstanding individuals who are pursuing music as a career. It is particularly rewarding to be able to encourage young musicians as they begin their professional journeys.
We also entered into a new agreement with Buffalo Toronto Public Media (BTPM) that provides our consortium members with a cost-efficient way to advertise their concerts and events while also creating a source of revenue for GBFOM. This partnership is another example of how we can use the collective strength of the consortium to provide benefits that individual organizations might not otherwise be able to access as economically.
Fundraising was another area of significant success. We received a generous donation toward the purchase of the Buffalo Choral Center, bringing us closer to securing the Center's future. Our Annual Campaign was our most successful to date, and 82% of the Board participated in the Board Challenge. I am grateful to everyone who contributed and demonstrated their confidence in the future of GBFOM.
We also refreshed one of our traditional consortium gatherings. Our annual tea became a Wine and Cheese Event, and the new format was very successful and well attended by consortium members. It provided an informal opportunity for members to meet one another, exchange ideas, and strengthen relationships within our choral community.
Another new initiative was our collaboration with Shakespeare in Delaware Park, which offered GBFOM member groups the opportunity to perform before selected Tuesday and Wednesday evening performances. Eleven consortium members took advantage of this opportunity, introducing their singers to a new audience while adding another musical dimension to a wonderful Buffalo summer tradition. We hope to continue and expand opportunities like this for our members.
Perhaps one of our most encouraging new programs was our first Consortium Chat, hosted at the offices of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus. More than 20 groups participated, coming together to discuss the challenges and opportunities that so many choral organizations share. The conversation demonstrated exactly why the consortium is important. Although our organizations differ in size, repertoire, and structure, we face many of the same issues. By bringing people together to share experiences, ideas, resources, and possible solutions, GBFOM can help strengthen not just individual organizations but the entire choral community.
Looking back over this first year, I am proud of what we have accomplished together. At the same time, it feels very much as though we are at the beginning of something even larger.
The Buffalo Choral Center gives us the opportunity to move GBFOM beyond being simply an organization that supports individual choral groups. It gives us the opportunity to create a true home for choral music in Western New York—a place where organizations can rehearse, work, store their music and equipment, collaborate, learn from one another, and build new programs and partnerships.
None of what we accomplished this year would have been possible without the commitment of our Board, our consortium members, our donors, our volunteers, and the many individuals and organizations who believe in the value of choral music in our community. I am deeply grateful for their time, ideas, generosity, and enthusiasm.
As we enter the coming year, there is much more work ahead of us, but there is also tremendous opportunity. I look forward to completing the purchase of the Buffalo Choral Center, welcoming our first tenants, expanding the services we provide to our consortium members, and continuing to build a stronger and more connected choral community throughout Western New York.
Thank you for allowing me the privilege of serving as President of Greater Buffalo Friends of Music. I look forward to what we will accomplish together in the year ahead.
Kathleen Hartmans
President
Greater Buffalo Friends of Music
Greater Buffalo Friend of Music
2025-26 Artistic Director's Annual Report
Website
With the assistance of Sue Almon-Pesch our website underwent significant changes this year, aiming for streamlining information, eliminating redundancies, adding more visual appeal, and revising content where applicable.
Home Page
The Home page is used to announce upcoming events, or recently completed events, including the offering of GBFOM scholarships for high school senior pursing studies in music. Graphics were updated and less verbiage used to connect users to the various pages of the website.
Choral Events Page
Maintaining a comprehensive online choral events calendar continues to be a main objective of GBFOM’s mission. During the 2025-26 program year, about 150 events were added to the calendar. This calendar was also used for several purposes: to generate periodic email blasts to all contacts; to serve as a reference for future planning; and to select featured concerts for announcements on WNED-FM/BTPM-Classical radio. The page was reformatted with more color, one continuous column of events instead of three, and left justification instead of centered text. Archives of past events were moved to the Resources Page and introductory text was eliminated.
Consortium Page
This page was revamped significantly, beginning with a list of expanded benefits available to dues paying members. Following that there is a list of the 26 dues members who paid dues this year, with links to their choral profiles and/or websites. Next is a list of benefits available to non-dues paying members, followed by a list of 47 potential members in the WNY choral community.
Young Musicians’ Page
This page contains scholarship forms and information, announcements of recent scholarship winners, updates on past winners, opportunities to win prizes for attending area choral concerts, and a general invitation to join community choirs now or in the future. A poster designed to coordinate with this new page was mailed to area high schools in Erie and Niagara counties in the fall of 2025.
Resources
A number of items were consolidated into a new Resources page intended for choral leaders. This page contains the GBFOM Grant Application form, a list of non-church performance venues, the Choral Profile form, the Blog with periodic updates, a list of area choral rehearsal schedules organized by days of the week, an archive of past WNY choral events, and several vendor listings, including a newly established discount for members at Minuteman Press.
About
The chronology of past GBFOM events has been moved to the About page, along with our strategic plan and updated biographies of board members. The Musicians Gallery has been moved to sub-page under this page and biographies added for James Burritt, Paul Moravec and Stephen Price.
Donor/Contact
Donor information was added to each page for emphasis.
Member dues
Member dues were increased to $75 this year, and with the added benefits listed on the website.
Grants
This was the second that we announced that grants would be made to dues paying member organizations in the amount of $500 each. Grants were awarded to Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus for their October 25th concert “Brand New Day”, Sotto Voce for their March production of Mascagni’s Cavalleria, Lutheran Chorale for their December 21 performance of Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit, Fourteen Holy Helpers for a spring collaborative concert, and $500 to the Chopin Singing Society for hosting the International Festival of Carols.
Ads in member organizations’ programs
This was also the second year that we offered to purchase ads promoting GBFOM only to dues paying organizations. Ads were placed in various performances for Sotto Voce, Lewiston Choraleers, Buffalo Philharmonic Chors, Buffalo Choral Arts Society, Red Blazer Mens’ Chorus and Friends of Harmony.
Radio Spots
Gleaning excerpts from our online choral events calendar, we purchased 50 spots (totaling $2,000) on WNED-FM (now called BTPM-Classical) radio for choral groups which contributed dues to GBFOM. BTPM personnel edited and recorded the copy that we submitted. We were pleased with the times of day that these announcements were aired – most often just before 9:00 am and around the dinner hour. A significant development is planned for 2026-27, namely purchasing a block of 300 ads and offering our members discounted rates to purchase BTPM-Classical ads through GBFOM.
GBFOM produced events
In addition to sponsoring individual events through grants or advertisements, GBFOM produced a fall Beer Choir (held on November 14 at The Caz in South Buffalo), a pre-Christmas poinsettia sale, a Coffee and Conversation gathering for area choral leaders (in conjunction with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus at their offices in Babeville on February 28), a direct appeal to Senior High All-County musicians on March 20, and a Spring Wine & Cheese gathering (held at Westminster Presbyterian Church 40 area choral leaders on April 26). GBFOM also coordinated 11 pre-theater choral mini-concerts at Shakespeare in the Park, fully booking all available dates.
Buffalo Choral Center
We are moving closer to purchasing the convent at St. Aloysius Church, Cheektowaga for use as a Buffalo Choral Center. We were hoping that the deal would have been finalized earlier this year to allow us to begin occupying and renting out space in this fall, but the final papers have not been signed as of this writing, although it does appear that closing is imminent. Conversations continue behind the scenes with various area music organizations who are looking for office space, music library space, equipment storage, and rehearsal space. A substantial Master Plan has been formulated and enthusiasm continues to be strong for the realization of this project. A productive meeting with CEO and CFO of Buffalo Hearing & Speech was held on June 17. BH&S will be purchasing the school and convent from St. Aloysius and GBFOM would then in turn purchase the convent from BH&S.
Respectfully submitted,
Tim Socha
Artistic Director
Greater Buffalo Friends of Music