Founder | Pitch Pipe Foundation
Jennifer Heemstra, Founder
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Jennifer Heemstra is an American concert pianist and cultural diplomacy leader, and the founder of the Pitch Pipe Foundation, an international nonprofit organization focused on music, education, and social impact. Heemstra earned her Master of Music from The Cleveland Institute of Music and a Bachelor of Music with University Honors from Michigan State University. The creation of the Pitch Pipe Foundation grew out of years of philanthropic work around the world, with an initial focus on sending musicians abroad to support social change. Initially, focusing on Trafficking in Persons in South Asia, the Pitch Pipe Foundation has expanded its work from Michigan to international communities.
Awards:
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Partnerships and Organizations: In December 2014, Jennifer founded a trust (in India) called the Kolkata Classics Club which provides health services for trafficked women, educates children from the slums to the elite and exposes the citizens of Kolkata to high quality, western classical music. Working with a group of locals, Jennifer has created, managed, obtained funding, and has been the spokeswoman for a broad-reaching social outreach program and concert series. Since its inception, Heemstra, along with invited artists from all over the world, has put on 62 concerts and performed for and worked with over 60,000 adults and children in India. She has brought international artists, university professors and Broadway singers to Kolkata to showcase Western classical music, while championing and disseminating public awareness to combat human trafficking and encouraging social integration of Indians of all castes (classes).
Pitch Pipe Foundation was founded in honor of Arthur Holthaus, the founder’s 102-year-old grandpa who was a farmer from Iowa with a passion for music, particularly gospel. Arthur sang in a barber shop quartet for over 80 years of his life and entertained the elderly in nursing homes and church until he passed November 2018.
Arthur Holthaus
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The Ever Ready Four
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Pitch Pipe Foundation is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt public charity, Federal Taxpayer I.D. #81-2890460