Announcing our 2023 Dick and Alice Rapasky Scholarship Winners!
Music on the Strait is awarding scholarships to string students in Clallam County through the Dick and Alice Rapasky Memorial Scholarship Fund. Music on the Strait aims to share chamber music, both its traditions and its emerging voices, through community programming and educational outreach. As part of our community outreach, the Rapasky Scholarship was created in 2022.
Announcing our 2023 Rapasky Scholarship Winners
(each are awarded $500 scholarships to support private lessons)
Deven Acosta, bass - grade 10 (teacher: Judith Hanna)
Desirae Henzler, violin - grade 9 (teacher: Nathan Rodahl)
Camille Bringhurst, violin - grade 9 (teacher: Jory Noble)
Juniper Brown, violin - grade 10 (teacher: Phil Morgan-Ellis)
Avery Cammisa, viola - grade 8 (teacher: Deborah Morgan-Ellis)
Connor Cammisa, cello - grade 6 (teacher Traci Winters-Tyson)
Julianna Getzin, viola - grade 10 (teacher: Phil Morgan-Ellis)
Ruth Hanson, viola - grade 10 (teacher: Phil Morgan-Ellis)
Mya Hartman, bass - grade 11 (teacher: Judith Hanna)
Cheerish Mai, viola - grade 6 (teacher: Phil Morgan-Ellis)
Wyatt Miller, cello - grade 9 (teacher: Traci Winters-Tyson)
Zeke Millon, violin - grade 7 (teacher: Jory Noble)
Jazlyn Shideler, violin - grade 6 (teacher: Deborah Morgan-Ellis)
Brennan Slack, cello - grade 7 (teacher: Traci WInters-Tyson)
Ashe Thomason, cello - grade 11 (teacher: Traci Winters-Tyson)
Diego Waterkotte, cello - grade 8 (teacher: Traci WInters-Tyson)
Danielle Woodhouse, violin - grade 9 (teacher: Jory Noble)
The Rapasky Scholarship Committee
Traci Winters Tyson, Chair
Amanda Lukens, Administrative Coordinator
Shirley Anderson
James Garlick
Jory Noble
Phil Morgan-Ellis
About the Dick and Alice Rapasky Scholarship
The Alice Rapasky Memorial Scholarship is available to pre-college string players in Clallam County who are participating in their school string program or other community string program. A minimum of ten $500 scholarships are awarded each year. This program is intended to assist qualified students to take private instrumental music lessons who otherwise could not afford them. In order to qualify, students need to be active members of their school orchestra or similar organization.
About Music on the Strait
Music on the Strait aims to share chamber music, both its traditions and its emerging voices, through community programming and educational outreach. As part of its community outreach, the Alice Rapasky Memorial Scholarship was created, named in honor of a great friend to the arts and arts education on the Olympic Peninsula.
About Alice Anderson Rapasky
Alice and Dick Rapasky were a great lovers and supporters of the arts on the Olympic Peninsula and friend to Music on the Strait. When she passed away in 2022, we wanted remember her by supporting young musicians in our community. "
-James Garlick and Richard O'Neill, Artistic Directors
From the time she was a child, Alice tried a variety of musical instruments…piano, violin, clarinet and finally saxophone in high school. Early in their marriage, Alice and her husband Dick built a harpsichord to enjoy at home, but primarily for the experience. For several years, before they moved to Washington State, they coordinated the Greenwich Chamber Players in Connecticut."
-Shirley Anderson, Alice's sister
Our 2022 Winners
In partnership with the Port Angeles Symphony, Music on the Strait is proud to name fourteen winners of our first Alice Rapasky Scholarship! Students were chosen through a competitive application process and are awarded $500 scholarships to support private music study.
Cynthia Rocha, bass - 7th grade, Port Angeles
Tiadosa Tom, violin - 4th grade, Port Angeles
Michael Johnson, vioin- 4th grade, Port Angeles
Juniper Brown, violin - 9th grade, Port Angeles
AJ Hamner, bass - 7th grade, Port Angeles
Georgia Bullard, violin - 11th grade, Sequim
Ocean Sains, violin - 4th grade, Port Angeles
Sam Zmuda, cello - 7th grade, Port Angeles
Faith Weiss, cello - 4th grade, Port Angeles
Mason Mai, cello - 6th grade, Port Angeles
Bronte Tauran - 6th grade, Sequim
Allison Woodhouse - 10th grade, Port Angeles
Momoka Bartsch, viola - 6th grade, Port Angeles
Cheerish Mai, viola - Port Angeles
Dick and Alice Rapasky
photo courtesy of Shirley Anderson
Alice's husband Dick Rapasky passed away on December 21, 2023. We are renaming this scholarship to honor both Dick and Alice, two extraordinary champions of the arts on our Olympic Peninsula.
Obituary for Dick Rapasky January 4, 2024
F. Richard Rapasky was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on March 23, 1935 and died in Seattle, Washington on December 21, 2023, in care of Hospice.
Dick graduated from high school in Linden, New Jersey, and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, in 1960. After leaving the Navy, he was employed by IBM in Technical Marketing from 1962 until retirement when he and his wife settled near family in Sequim, Washington.
Dick’s great pleasure in music stems from the experience of learning to play the clarinet in childhood. He enjoyed being part of school bands in the 1950s. He and his wife Alice built a harpsichord for themselves
in the late 1960s. They were responsible for the Greenwich Chamber Players while they lived in Connecticut. Upon relocating to the PNW, they continued to support the Port Angeles Symphony, Music on the Strait, Seattle Symphony, chamber music, and Ballet.
Dick was preceded in death by his wife, Alice Anderson Rapasky, his brother, Robert Rapasky, and his parents, Francis and Charlotte Rapasky (Oltarzewski). He is survived by sisters - in -laws Eugenia Rapasky of
Layton, Utah and Shirley Anderson of Sequim, Washington.
Memorial Gifts will be appreciated for local children and their teachers by the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra (Adventures in Music), and Music on the Strait (Alice Rapasky Scholarships), both at PO Box 2148, Port Angeles, Washington, 98362.
2022 Rapasky Scholarship winner
Ocean Sains, violin
Teacher: Deborah Morgan-Ellis
2022 Rapasky Scholarship winner
Mason Mai, Bass
Teacher: Scott Swanberg
2022 Rapasky Scholarship winner
Cherish Mai, violin
Teacher: Phil Morgan-Ellis
2022 Rapasky Scholarship winner
Brontë Tauran, cello
Teacher: Traci Winters-Tyson