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NGPA Commences Pride Month by Giving Back: 2022 Scholarship Cycle Opens

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. -- Today, the NGPA is proud to announce the opening of its most comprehensive scholarship offering in the organization's history. NGPA is excited to announce that this year the organization is providing over $300,000 in scholarship dollars, which is doubled from 2021. This is possible due to the generosity of NGPA's members and sponsors. This year NGPA will surpass $1.2 million donated since 1998, furthering NGPA's mission to build, support, and unite the LGBTQ+ aviation community worldwide.

Offerings for the 2022 scholarship cycle are funded through industry partners and membership donations. There are a variety of scholarships available for all levels of flight training and other aviation-related higher educational training. Removing financial barriers to becoming an aviation professional is essential in crafting a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive industry.

Miriam Williams, Chair of the NGPA Scholarship Committee, says: "If you aspire to work as an aviation professional, please apply. Our scholarship program is one of the most substantive means NGPA can give back to its membership and meet the 'build and support' portions of our mission. The scholarship program means a great deal personally because it is a way for me to plant something good for the future."

The NGPA looks to highlight a new partnership with the United Airlines AVIATE Academy as part of this year's scholarship program. "NGPA is starting off Pride Month by opening our scholarship program. Over $200,000 of this year's scholarship offerings are extended to students participating in the United Aviate Academy through our partnership with United Airlines. We've helped many young people achieve their aviation goals, and we are excited to continue doing that through like partnerships," says NGPA Vice President, Troy Merritt.

Industry Partners offering scholarships through NGPA in the 2022 program include: Alaska Air Group, American Airlines, American Flight Schools, Coradine, Delta Air Lines, Envoy, Epic Flight Academy, FedEx, Flex Air, Netflix, Piedmont, PSA, Republic Airways, Solairus Aviation, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines.

NGPA scholarships are awarded regardless of an individual's gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, but all applicants are asked to provide evidence of their contributions to the LGBTQ community. To apply, all applicants must be members of the organization; membership can be purchased or renewed at ngpa.org. The application window is open today through July 31, 2022.

ABOUT NGPA:

The NGPA is a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis. Founded in 1990, NGPA is an international organization of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) aviation professionals and enthusiasts. Our organization aims to encourage individuals to begin aviation careers, foster an environment of equality for LGBTQ+ aviators, promote safety, and establish personal and professional networks. The NGPA makes this a reality through education, outreach, and social events. Our organization is run by a board of directors, executive leadership, and volunteers! For more information, visit https://www.ngpa.org/.

Related link: https://www.ngpa.org/

This news story was published by the Neotrope® News Network - all rights reserved. ID:NEO2022

Entertainment, Free News Articles

The Lowell Chamber Orchestra is proud to present ‘LCO Pride: A Rainbow of Repertoire’

LOWELL, Mass. -- The Lowell Chamber Orchestra is proud to present "LCO Pride: A Rainbow of Repertoire" on Sunday, June 5, 2022 at Middlesex Community College in Lowell, Massachusetts. This chamber concert will celebrate Pride Month by showcasing LGBTQ+ composers from the Lowell area and around the world.

Creative director of LCO, Em Russell, states that putting on this concert has been a dream of the theirs since the orchestra's very first season! As well as works by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Benjamin Britten, this concert will showcase a World Premiere by composer Julia Moss, featuring soloist mezzo-soprano Julianna Smith, as well as exciting works by four other living composers.

Queer people have made many significant contributions to the classical music community, yet their identities are often concealed. This concert is meant to embrace and celebrate these identities, which we hope can one day become the norm in classical music culture.

Stylistically, this concert really has something for everyone, from poetry lovers to rock metal-heads. While Kevin Lubin's string quartet "The Flower Shop" includes a spoken narration with words by Virginia Woolf; Hannah Rice has written a Heavy Metal string quartet called "SQ666," which has been composed using techniques from heavy metal rock music.

This concert also features a variety of ensemble sizes, varying from string quartets all the way up to large ensemble works conducted by LCO's music director Orlando Cela. Steven Sérpa's "An Invocation," for solo oboe and strings, is a tone poem inspired by his long-time collaborator, queer poet Jeffery Beam, about the small beauties of nature. Sérpa has also written about more difficult topics, including an oratorio on HIV stigma with Inversion Ensemble and an opera responding to the Pulse nightclub shooting with companies in Chicago, Montréal, Hartford, and Austin.

Ethan Soledad's "Why Wait," for a 9-person ensemble, is about his own journey of self-discovery and defeating self-doubt. Ethan's music has been described as "bold, dramatic, and unapologetically expressive."

The largest work of the afternoon will be a World Premiere by composer Julia Moss: "The World is Too Much for Us". Written for mezzo-soprano soloist Julianna Smith and a 10-person chamber ensemble, the work is based on conversations between the composer-performer pair about the feeling of being overwhelmed by the ever-growing clutter of life. Inspired by these ideas, she chose to set the piece to a poem by William Wordsworth about how we have become so obsessed with possessing material items and controlling nature.

"By drowning out nature," Moss says, "we are really drowning out ourselves. The piece is meant to be an optimistic and empowering reminder of what we should really be paying attention to." In the fall of 2022, Moss will enroll at the University of Southern California's (USC) Thornton School of Music to earn a Masters in Music Composition.

"We also wanted to show through our programming that queer composers have stood the test of time. There are so many composers whose music we play all the time and whose names most anyone would recognize, but nobody knows they were queer. Tchaikovsky, for instance. He was queer. Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, just to name a few more of the "classics." And of course this doesn't even start to scratch the surface of the loads of queer composers living today, nor accurately represent the diversity that exists among them. But this is why we wanted to program someone as old as Baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, who was born in 1632, to show that we really have been here all along, only now can we start to proudly assert our identities."

TICKETING / DONATION INFO:

The Lowell Chamber Orchestra is Lowell's first and only professional orchestra, demolishing the socio-economic barriers to classical music by always providing the area with music at a very high level, of all styles and eras. Consequently, this event is free of charge, but donations are kindly requested.

If you believe this concert to be a worthy cause and are able to contribute to the event funds, please donate at the link below. Thank you! https://glcf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?funit_id=2326

"LCO: Pride: A Rainbow of Repertoire"

Sunday, June 5, 3 p.m.

Richard and Nancy Donahue Academic Arts Center

Recital Hall

240 Central Street, Lowell, MA

Free to attend, no tickets, just show up - Mask required

For more information, visit: https://lowellchamberorchestra.org/events

VIDEO (YouTube): https://youtu.be/Mua2UoBBld0

Related link: https://lowellchamberorchestra.org/

This news story was published by the Neotrope® News Network - all rights reserved.