Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana and Walter DuMelle.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I, (Diana) am a native San Diegan, attended UCLA with further studies at The Royal College of Music, London. After school, I came back to San Diego to work for the San Diego Opera’s Outreach and Education Department as well as with Lyric Opera San Diego – as both a musician and as a stage manager. I also taught music, theater and band for several years at La Jolla Country Day School.
Walter grew up in the burbs of Chicago and attended North Park College, Chicago & earned his Masters at Eastman School of Music, Rochester NY. After touring the country for two years with National Opera Company, Walter settled in San Diego, working with San Diego Opera and Lyric Opera San Diego. This is how we met!
Looking for a new adventure, we quit our jobs, drove across country and started work and a new life in New York City where we lived for a decade! Career highlights for me include Founding Production Manager for Gotham Chamber Opera, Production Manager at Connecticut Opera plus Stage Manager for Lincoln Center, Caramoor and Bard Music Festivals. Walter spent his NYC years singing principal roles with Connecticut Grand Opera, NY Gilbert and Sullivan Players, and Dicapo Opera, to name a few as well as busy concertizing and like most New Yorkers while holding down a day job.
With the birth of our son is 2007 and our desire to be closer to family (while our lovely rent-controlled Manhattan apartment seemed to grow smaller as our son grew larger) we moved back to San Diego. On return, Diana worked for just a couple years trying to help save/run Lyric Opera San Diego at their new Birch North Park Theater Home.
With the sad and sudden demise of SD Lyric Opera, Walter and I wanted to find a way to carve out our own niche in the arts community while giving back. We are not wealthy, music is what we know and so we started Bodhi Tree Concerts in 2012. Our mission at Bodhi Tree Concerts is to present musical events in diverse styles, hire exclusively local artists and donate 100% of our profits back to charity. So far we have hired hundreds of artists and partnered with over 25 charitable organizations and donated over $20,000 to charity. We call it grassroots philanthropy.
We believe that the common language of music can bring us together, encourage community engagement, empathy and true understanding of one another.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Is it ever a smooth road? Running a very small grassroots non-profit, from our home office in City Heights, while raising a son, caring for family, working day jobs and dealing with life, in general, is truly a labor of love.
We are a two person (volunteer) staff and so covering all the demands of a busy producing organization can be quite overwhelming! We cast plan, budget, schedule, contract, produce and fundraiser, plus all the administration that goes along with it, on our own.
It is a challenging environment for all non-profits these days and even though we have seven successful producing years under our belt, sometimes grantors do not see the power, freedom and creativity that can come from small and efficient.
Still, we have had growing success with grants in the last few years as well as a generous base of individual donors that keep our mission going and growing!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Bodhi Tree Concerts is a grassroots arts organization dedicated to local artists and giving back through music! 100% of our profits are donated back to other 501c3 charities. Our concerts can range from classical, jazz, opera, avant-garde, even Bluegrass and Broadway.
We are known for our unique and ambitious mission of giving back through music. It is hard to make any profit in San Diego presenting concerts – any presenter, large or small, being honest will admit this. We have found an equation that although not perfect, allows us to pay our artists and make donations. We, of course, have growing to do, but we take pride in the success we have been able to achieve and sustain.
We also offer our charitable partners the opportunity to speak to our audiences. This is a unique experience for our audiences to learn about and be inspired by the amazing work by charitable organizations both local and global.
We are also very proud of the level of excellence and variety we are able to achieve as a very small organization. We have won several major local awards: Bravo Award, Critic’s Pick, and Best of Fest to name a few and most recently a San Diego Theater Critic’s Circle Craig Noel Award for our immersive, interactive and thematically relevant SD premiere of 8 SONGS FOR A MAD KING.
We feel that our small size and efficient and frugal use of funds allows us to take risks that larger companies cannot. We have presented several SD premieres with amazing creativity that sometimes only necessity can illicit.
What were you like growing up?
Diana: I was a theater nerd. When I was not in school I was at rehearsal. I studied both piano and organ growing up.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/sdut-state-looks-to-improve-programs-for-english-2012mar19-story.html
Walter: Also theater nerd. Also, Band nerd and started singing early and loved it. Spent a year studying in Denmark and to this day is very close with his Danish family and can speak Danish. (Note; We just came back from a family trip visiting Walter’s ‘Danish Family’!) Walter collected stamps, records, and coins… and still does.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bodhitreeconcerts.org
- Phone: 619.546.7660
- Email: bodhitreeconcerts@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bodhi-Tree-Concerts-457479664262970/
- Twitter: @BTConcerts
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
