Herberger Institute receives $60K investment in student artists and designers

To celebrate its 50th anniversary in business, Arizona-based Camelot Homes is donating $50,000 for endowed scholarships for the Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

A $25,000 scholarship is earmarked for students of ASU’s new popular music program, a bachelor’s degree concentration in the School of Music. A second $25,000 scholarship is available to students studying in any of the five schools of the Herberger Institute.

In addition, the School of Music and the family-owned homebuilder have joined forces to establish the Camelot Homes-ASU School of Music Concert Series. The eight-concert series, underwritten by a $10,000 gift from Camelot Homes, will feature four concerts this spring and four concerts in fall 2020 for residents of Camelot Homes’ communities throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. Students selected by the School of Music will perform at each concert.

Since the company’s inception in 1969, Camelot Homes has been guided by three generations of the Hancock family, most of whom are ASU alumni. After graduating from ASU, Trent Hancock, now vice president of operations for Camelot Homes, pursued a career as a musician, toured across the country for seven years and released four studio albums. 

“We have had a hand in building the Valley’s most iconic communities for the past 50 years,” Hancock said. “With this investment, we hope to shape the future of Arizona, to infuse our communities with arts and music, and to establish a company legacy of investing in our youth.”

“Trent and Camelot Homes are celebrating their success and longevity by paying it forward and ensuring that the arts will enrich other lives as well as their own,” said Steven J. Tepper, dean and director of the Herberger Institute. “This is a wonderful opportunity for our students, and we couldn’t be more grateful.”

“We are thrilled that Camelot Homes has chosen to support our students,” added Heather Landes, director of the School of Music in the Herberger Institute. “The Camelot mission of building healthy, long-lasting community aligns well with the ASU School of Music’s vision of preparing our students to engage with community and transform society through music.”

“Bringing music to the community is quite different from bringing the community to the music,” said Richie Brennan, an undergraduate music education major and jazz performance student. “It builds relationships between the students and the audience. We can all see each other less as audience and performer and more as a group of individuals who are all sharing a great musical experience.” 

The concert series opens Jan. 27 with a performance featuring the Richie Brennan Quartet, comprised of four students from the jazz performance program. For the second concert, undergraduate students from the Bachelor of Music in music theatre program will present material from their upcoming Cabaret performance at Studio 54 in New York City. The March 30 concert features three saxophone performance majors and one music composition major in Quartet Helíos, an award-winning saxophone quartet fresh off their competition performance at the Music Teachers National Association conference in Chicago and the North American Saxophone Alliance competition in Tempe, Arizona. The Herberger String Quartet rounds out the spring concert series and features four of the top graduate students in string performance.

The concert series performances are open to members of the Camelot Homes communities and the general public. The events are from 5 to 7 p.m. with the concerts from 6 to 7 p.m.