{"id":18409,"date":"2025-07-31T20:04:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T02:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-la-plata-county-music-organizations-join-forces\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:04:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:04:35","slug":"two-la-plata-county-music-organizations-join-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-la-plata-county-music-organizations-join-forces\/","title":{"rendered":"Two La Plata County music organizations join forces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jana
Jana Leslie, left, of Stillwater Music, and Lech Usinowicz, right, of the Be Frank Foundation, are combining their music schools. (Courtesy of Stillwater Music).<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Two longtime nonprofits providing music education in La Plata County are combining forces.<\/p>\n

Durango-based Stillwater Music, which specializes in pop music, private lessons, accessible classes for disabled clients, and general music education, and serves around 1,000 students per week, is going to be joining forces with the smaller Be Frank Foundation, which has been serving an average of 250 students per week in Bayfield, largely providing orchestral music education and classical instrument rentals.<\/p>\n

Jana Leslie, executive director of Stillwater Music, calls Stillwater and the Be Frank Foundation \u201cdifferent genres with the same mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of our organizations are very community driven, being nonprofit organizations that provide opportunities and access to music education, and it just made a lot of sense for us to bring the two teams together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lech Usinowicz, formerly executive director of the Be Frank Foundation, who will be taking on the position of Orchestra Department Chair at Stillwater, said he\u2019s excited for the new opportunities the consolidation will provide, both for his career and for the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had kind of a revolving door of volunteers and support staff, and when there isn\u2019t anybody in the office, a lot of that weight is on my shoulders,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s a pleasure to be working with the wealth of experience and knowledge that (the Stillwater) team has, and to be supported in these creative initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usinowicz said the partnership will allow for the more rural communities the Be Frank Foundation has historically served to have better access to comprehensive music education.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, I think there\u2019s a lot of value this partnership has for programs in Bayfield, and for all the programs and communities that we\u2019re already serving,\u201d he said. \u201cThe goal of all of our programs is for them to outlive ourselves, so putting ourselves in a position that makes these organizations and these programs sustainable \u2013 that\u2019s the goal. This will be much better long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

The physical Bayfield Be Frank office has already closed as of late July, and the services Usinowicz offered through Be Frank will now be moving into the Stillwater Music building at 1316 Main Ave. in Durango.<\/p>\n

Eiley Connell, long time music student at Be Frank, who has also taught at the Foundation, said the consolidation will provide valuable resources to the Be Frank Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Be Frank, the more outreach that it has, the better, because it really does have such a positive impact on students,\u201d Connell said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it through teaching, especially \u2013 as many kids can get that access to music at a younger age, the better. It\u2019ll be really cool to see what they can do together, to further what Be Frank has already accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Be Frank and Stillwater Music have both historically prided themselves on making music education accessible to children and adults of all economic standings, and intend to maintain that shared mission through the consolidation. Though, according to Casey Padron, development director at Stillwater Music, inflation has affected the organizations\u2019 financial operations, and may continue to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re operating under the mission that everyone should have access to music, and we\u2019re walking the walk of our missions with this move to combine our forces and consolidate resources,\u201d Padron said. \u201cBut in terms of pricing, we have gradual increases that are following inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this, Leslie and Usinowicz plan to work hard to keep financial aid readily accessible to those who need them.<\/p>\n

Usinowicz has worked with different families\u2019 economic needs through the Be Frank Foundation, and Stillwater Music offers need-based scholarships for at-risk and underserved youths.<\/p>\n

\u201cStillwater scholarship awards have exploded over the last few years,\u201d Leslie said. \u201cFive years ago, we were doing about $20,000 in scholarships. Now, we\u2019re doing $60,000. The scholarship applications are coming in fast and furiously, and we\u2019re never going to cap it and say, \u2018nope, sorry \u2013 we ran out of scholarships.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Bayfield families who have been with the Be Frank Foundation have voiced some concerns about the consolidation, Usinowicz said, but were soothed by his assurances that nothing about Be Frank\u2019s programming or missions will change \u2013 except for the location.<\/p>\n

Overall, Leslie and Usinowicz said the response from the community, their clients and their stakeholders has been positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis collaboration will only open doors,\u201d Leslie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been resounding support and celebration,\u201d Usinowicz said. \u201c(People are) pleased that we collectively have a unified mission and vision for what music education can look like in La Plata County, Archuleta County, Rio Grande County and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

epond@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bayfield\u2019s Be Frank Foundation to consolidate with Durango\u2019s Stillwater Music <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,431,950,28,559],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-18409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-business-general","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-music"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20573,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18409\/revisions\/20573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18409"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=18409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}