Freenotes Harmony Park Media Kit, Fall 2011 ASLA, Booth #3037 NRPA, Booth #1945 Based in Durango, Colorado, Freenotes Harmony Park makes outdoor musical instruments that deliver superior sound quality. Grammy award-winning designer, Richard Cooke, created Freenotes to ensure musical success for all players. For over 15 years, Freenotes instruments have provided gratifying musical experiences in public and private spaces around the world, because each instrument is designed for perpetually perfect pitch. A staple in playgrounds for encouraging creative tactile play, Freenotes instruments are now highly sought for a wide variety of outdoor settings – from the relaxed to the most sophisticated. As engaging pieces of interactive art, they encourage a full sensory experience. Constructed for both flawless tune and durability, Freenotes instruments have earned a respected heritage for their musicality and their longevity. Playing music transcends all boundaries of age, ethnicity, gender and physicality. Because with Freenotes, everyone can play. Please visit our online Press Room for news updates, images, thorough company information and more: http://freenotesharmonypark.com/press-room .
Transcript
Freenotes Harmony Park Media Kit, Fall 2011
ASLA, Booth #3037 NRPA, Booth #1945
Based in Durango, Colorado, Freenotes Harmony Park makes outdoor musical instruments that deliver superior sound quality. Grammy award-winning designer,
Richard Cooke, created Freenotes to ensure musical success for all players. For over 15 years, Freenotes instruments have provided gratifying musical experiences in public
and private spaces around the world, because each instrument is designed for perpetually perfect pitch. A staple in playgrounds for encouraging creative tactile play, Freenotes instruments are now highly sought for a wide variety of outdoor settings –
from the relaxed to the most sophisticated. As engaging pieces of interactive art, they encourage a full sensory experience. Constructed for both flawless tune and durability, Freenotes instruments have earned a respected heritage for their musicality and their
longevity.
Playing music transcends all boundaries of age, ethnicity, gender and physicality.
Because with Freenotes, everyone can play.
Please visit our online Press Room for news updates, images, thorough company information and more: http://freenotesharmonypark.com/press-room.
Media Kit Contents: Freenotes Harmony Park: Company Profile p. 3 Dynamic Local Company Establishes Bold Growth Plan for 2012 p. 4 Freenotes Harmony Park Introduces Three Instruments for 2012 p. 5 Freenotes Harmony Park Launches New Feature-Rich Website New Tools Meet the Needs of Landscape Designers, Architects, Media and More p. 6 Freenotes Harmony Park Project Earns International Honor p. 7 Freenotes Harmony Park At Parker Arts and Cultural Events Center p. 9 Executive Bios: Richard Cooke and Christy Cooke p. 10 Freenotes Grammy Connection Paul Winter Consort and the Crestone Album p. 12 To read more about the foundations of Freenotes Harmony Park and the people behind the brand, please visit: http://freenotesharmonypark.com/press-room. Online Assets: Website: http://freenotesharmonypark.com/ Online Press Room: http://freenotesharmonypark.com/press-room Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Harmony-Park-by-Freenotes YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/FreenotesHarmonyPark
DURANGO, COLO. (November 1, 2011) – Freenotes Harmony Park, Inc., based in Durango, Colorado, is a maker of high quality, outdoor musical instruments. Founded by lead designer and Grammy Award winning musician, Richard Cooke, Freenotes (FHP) has over 15 years of experience manufacturing its perfectly pitched line of instruments. Stepping in with an aggressive growth plan, CEO Christy Cooke set about restructuring the business in 2010 and devising a strategic plan that would allow for a wider reach for the company. Within a year, sales have doubled. Under Christy’s leadership, sales are on-track to double for the second year in a row in 2012. FHP built its reputation in schoolyards and playgrounds, and 2011 saw successful ventures into new markets with broader demographics and more sophisticated applications. Now, landscape designers, urban architects and community art enthusiasts are installing Freenotes instruments. Through the growth and the diversification of its consumer base, FHP and the people who run it, are immutably committed to bringing music to everyone. Business models and marketing collateral aside, Richard and Christy Cooke and their team are passionate in their belief that music is one of the most effective tools to facilitate learning, creativity, cooperation and confidence in people of all ages and backgrounds. These convictions, backed with technical musical theory and 15 years of R&D, result in a product that is perfectly tuned and can be played with beautiful results…by anyone. All Freenotes instruments are tuned with a simplified tonal system, which means they sound harmonious in any combination and with any player – experienced or unskilled. To learn more about Freenotes Harmony Park, the instruments and the creative minds behind the company, please read “The Foundations of Freenotes,” at the FHP press room on the website. In addition to the site, you can find Freenotes Harmony Park on Facebook and YouTube.
Dynamic Local Company Establishes Bold Growth Plan for 2012
DURANGO, COLO. (August 31, 2011) – Freenotes Harmony Park, Inc., maker of high quality outdoor musical instruments for the masses, entered 2011 as a successful, 15-year old business. The company will exit 2011 with 25 national distributors in North America, 100-percent growth in sales over 2010, and plans on track to double sales again by the end of 2012. “The demand for our instruments has consistently grown over our 15 years in business and we’ve managed it primarily through working longer hours,” said Christy Cooke, CEO of Freenotes Harmony Park (FHP). We hit a critical point in 2009. Our success was overwhelming our small team and we were at a decision point: either get out of the business or put the foundations in place to implement a sustainable growth plan. We chose the latter” The first order of business was to solidify the company’s local presence. Cooke, and her husband, Richard Cooke, founder of the original Freenotes company, restructured their organization to: establish profit-sharing programs for key employees, to finance suitable production facilities Durango, Colorado, and to focus on expanding their human resources by creating new jobs in both labor and management. With a solid team in place, FHP moved forward with an aggressive expansion plan. Central to that plan is an entirely new business model of selling wholesale to distributors (wherein FHP previously sold direct to consumer). FHP has attracted over 50 distributors, all representing complementary brands, to effectively serve all of North America. FHP is building training and marketing programs to fully support the distributor base. A stronghold in the parks and municipal open space sectors since 1997, FHP is ramping up marketing efforts to open new markets. FHP will initially focus on the consistently strong sectors of industrial, commercial and private landscape. In addition to launching a new website, revamping marketing collateral and adding targeted value elements, such as 3-D CAD renderings for landscape architects, FHP will exhibit at the annual EXPO for the American Society of Landscape Architects, the largest trade group and trade show of its kind. FHP will also show at the annual Congress of the National Recreation and Park Association. For more information on Freenotes Harmony Park: http://freenotesharmonypark.com/.
Freenotes Harmony Park Introduces Three Instruments for 2012
DURANGO, COLO. (November 1, 2011) – Freenotes Harmony Park, Inc., maker of high quality outdoor musical instruments, is introducing a brand new design for 2012, along with redesigns of two popular instruments. All three deliver the full sound and perfect tone that denote a Freenotes Harmony Park (FHP) outdoor instrument, while mitigating maintenance and vandalism issues.
Pagoda Bells (brand new) As a park or garden ornament, or as an engaging piece of interactive urban art, this instrument rings with soothing blended tones, focusing attention on any outdoor setting. With Freenotes musical integrity applied to each bell, this new design is made to be durable and completely maintenance-free. Reminiscent of the architecture of the Orient, this vertical array of bells provides lush tones of long duration. A calming addition to any outdoor setting. Flying Amadinda: Musical bars
of coated fiberglass hang between a sturdy frame of recycled plastic posts. Our fiberglass bars eliminate maintenance: a major design improvement. Non-resonated bars have less amplification, making them ideal for areas where sound levels are important to maintain. Fun fact: The Amadinda is an ancient xylophone from Uganda.
Saturn’s Chimes: This design is a dramatic, curved array of anodized aluminum chimes featuring warm, long-sustaining tones resonating harmonies from deep space. The chimes are two-inch diameter tubing hung with long-lasting, coated stainless steel cable. A powder-coated steel frame is optional. Standing eight-feet tall and five-feet wide, this instrument makes a stunning visual and auditory addition to any outdoor area.
(An updated price list will be available after the trade shows, with 2012 dealer and MSRP pricing for all instruments. Please note that the prices for the redesigned Flying Amadinda and Pagoda Bells have been lowered.)
Freenotes Harmony Park Launches New Feature-Rich Website New Tools Meet the Needs of Landscape Designers, Architects,
Media and More
DURANGO, COLO. (November 1, 2011) – Freenotes Harmony Park, Inc., maker of high quality outdoor musical instruments, has launched a revamped website with new features that not only create a full sensory experience, but also meet practical needs of a diverse audience. Freenotes Harmony Park (FHP), a 15-year company often associated with the playground and outdoor play sector, has been actively opening new markets in landscape design, architecture, and early childhood learning, among others. The new and improved website features meet the needs of a growing market base. “We designed the new features to inspire, inform and most importantly, add value for our consumers,” said Christy Cooke, CEO of Freenotes Harmony Park. “We work with a large array of markets, each bringing a different nuance of creativity and goals to be accomplished in an outdoor space. With our website redesign, we show the range of our instruments, from youthful play to sophisticated sculptural elements. We’ve added tabs with tools relevant to our key markets. We intend for this site to be a resource to bring everyone’s creative vision to a musical reality.” Most prominent among the new features are:
An “Architects” tab, with downloadable 3D CAD renderings, A blog for the latest FHP news, A “Press Room” tab, providing links to FHP media coverage and resources on
company history, press releases and imagery, and Easy newsletter sign up and Facebook links, Hi-resolution photos of the instruments, as well as galleries of public FHP
installations. The overall aesthetic and navigation of the site has been improved as well. Most notably, the “Instruments” tab has been upgraded with new images, easy to find audio clips and brand new videos of the instruments being played. The website is located at www.freenotesharmonypark.com. In addition to the site, you can find Freenotes Harmony Park on Facebook and YouTube.
Freenotes Harmony Park Musical Playground Project Earns International Honor
DURANGO, COLO. (September 5, 2011) – Freenotes Harmony Park, Inc., maker of high quality outdoor musical instruments for the masses, and the Minneapolis City of Lakes Rotary Club, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, are proud to announce that a recent collaboration has earned the Rotary International Significant Achievement Award. The annual award honors outstanding solutions in addressing significant problems or needs in a community. Only 143 Significant Achievement Awards are given out each year, among nominations from over 33,000 Rotary clubs worldwide. Jackson Square Park, in Minneapolis, is located in an inner city neighborhood and has experienced significant vandalism in the past. The intention of the local Rotary Club in selecting Freenotes Harmony Park instruments was to discourage the destructive behavior in the area and encourage positive, engaged activity. “A year ago, as we prepared to install the Freenotes instruments into the park, there was much nervousness about how these instruments would be accepted into this inner-city neighborhood,” reports Doug Schmitt, local Rotarian and committee member for the Jackson Square Park revival. “I’m happy to say that the instruments remain fully functional after their first year of service, and their sound continues to be beautiful. The neighborhood has embraced them and is protecting them so that they can continue to serve.” The installation includes seven Freenotes Harmony Park instruments arranged in a semi-circle concert style, welcoming young and old to engage and to play. As part of the proposal, the Rotary chapter offered an escrow check to the Minneapolis Park Board for long-term maintenance of the instruments – should they be damaged by community
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members. With the aid of a local resident, deemed “Mayor of the Playground,” the instruments are having an inspiring effect for park-goers. The instruments are enjoying regular use; no damage has been inflicted and not a penny of the precautionary maintenance check has been cashed. A second phase of the project will occur in conjunction with the University of Minnesota Music Department. The plan is to install web cameras at the park, to test the thesis that public music opportunities lead to less vandalism and more healthy play. This phase is slated to last nearly two years, after which research results will be made public.
“Full credit for this compelling and successful project goes to the Minneapolis City of Lakes Rotary Club,” said Christy Cooke, CEO of Freenotes Harmony Park, Inc. “We’re proud that our instruments have been included not only in achieving such an outstanding honor, but also to be regarded as part of a solution to enriching a community.” The Minneapolis City of Lakes Rotary Club will formally accept
the Significant Achievement Award on September 14, 2011.
Freenotes Harmony Park At Parker Arts and Cultural Events Center
DURANGO, COLO. (October 21, 2011) – Freenotes Harmony Park, Inc., maker of high quality outdoor musical instruments for the public, is proud to announce its involvement with the Parker Arts and Cultural Events (PACE) Center in Parker, Colorado. A Freenotes musical installation on the grounds of the new arts center will be unveiled at the Open House and ribbon-cutting celebration on October 22, 2011. Additionally, Grammy Award-winning musician and Freenotes founder, Richard Cooke, will collaborate with local high school students on an outdoor concert for the event. Prior to the opening celebration, Freenotes founder, Richard Cooke will lead a Master class in musical improvisation with students from area high schools. From this class, several students will be selected to perform with Cooke at the PACE Center Open House. The Freenotes musical installation will consist of eight instruments on the East Patio of the PACE Center grounds. For musicians and non-musicians alike, the Freenotes collection is a permanent, interactive art exhibit to celebrate music and the arts outside of the PACE Center, as well as inside. The PACE Center is located at 20000 Pikes Peak Ave., in Parker, Colo. The Open House will be held on October 22, 2011, from 10a.m. – 2p.m. The Freenotes musical instruments are available for all to play, before and after the performance of Cooke and the local students. This will be the first Freenotes installation in the greater Denver Metro area.
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Freenotes Harmony Park: Executive Bios
Richard Cooke - CIA, Chief in Artistry
Conformity was never in the plans for Richard Cooke. Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, he studied music through voice, piano and trumpet, but an organized band was not his calling. He went on to attend Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, where the improvisation of blues and jazz re-ignited his musical fire. The freedom of improvising and teaching himself to play new instruments by ear set Richard on a happily rambling road of adventure, musical expression and creation. Armed with only a 10-speed bicycle, a contrabass clarinet he picked up at a pawnshop, and an unabashed enthusiasm for the vagabond lifestyle, Richard found his way to a retreat by the famed Paul Winter of the Consort jazz ensemble. At Paul's invitation, Richard spent the next two years touring and performing with the Consort, and co-creating the Living Music Village music camp, at Paul's Connecticut retreat. That is where the seed for Freenotes was planted. Richard eventually traded in his 10-speed for an old Volkswagen van and moved to the otherworldly
landscape of Moab, Utah. In Moab, he focused his abundant energy on building instruments that would make music accessible to novices and seasoned musicians alike. Though he was blessed with talent, his mission was to bring an experiential component to music wherein anyone could step up to an instrument and play. Richard continues to play music professionally, including collaborating with Paul Winter on the 2007 Grammy Award-winning Crestone album. His artist’s soul and wandering spirit underscore his dedication to building his instruments. It is out in the wilderness where he finds inspiration. But it is long, focused hours in the shop where he hones each prototype until it balances the appeal, the durability and the perfect pitch that will earn the name Freenotes.
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Christy Cooke – CEO, Chief Executive Officer
Stepping in with an aggressive growth plan, Christy Cooke set about restructuring the business in 2010 and devising a strategic plan that would allow for a wider reach for the company. Within a year, sales have doubled. Under Christy’s leadership, sales are on-track to double for the second year in a row.
Christy is a new brand of CEO: a yoga-practicing, raw-food eating, natural creative force with a resume replete with hard-core accolades from the nation’s big-eight accounting firms to the ski resorts of Breckenridge and Telluride, Colorado. Above all else, Christy is a visionary who knows how to enact a plan.
Cooke began her career in marketing and communications in the nation’s largest public accounting firms. Recruitments brought her from Denver to San Diego and back again. Having managed several major creative campaigns, the work was challenging and thought provoking, yet the lack of nature left a void in her professional fulfillment.
Enter reorganized career goals centered on the Colorado Plateau and the additional life balancing pursuits of skiing, whitewater rafting, sailing, yoga instructing and nutritional consulting came into play. It was through a mutual friend that Christy met Richard Cooke in Moab, Utah in 1998.
Beginning her career building Freenotes instruments, the triumvirate of mind, body and creative spirit was complete. As she learned more about the music, the tools and the vast potential of what she and Richard were creating, her vision for Freenotes came into focus.
The ultimate legacy for Freenotes is much bigger than high sales volume. Inspired by the ease with which everyone can make beautiful music, Christy envisions a simplified way to bring music back to arts education. Under Christy's direction, The Freenotes Company and Freenotes Harmony Park are embarking on the development of a simplified music curriculum centered on improvisation and playing by ear, supported by instruments that everyone can play.
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Freenotes Grammy Connection:
Paul Winter Consort and the Crestone Album
When Paul Winter and Richard Cooke met in 1984 at a weeklong music retreat in New Mexico, their shared passion for music and adventure created an immediate bond that led to much collaboration. While Paul continued on his path of experimental “earth music,” Richard went on to found Freenotes Harmony Park with the goal of giving everyone the opportunity to make beautiful music.
In 2006, the two met up once again, this time drawn together by the allure and great beauty of Southern Colorado. Across the vast reach of this sparsely populated region are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Great Sand Dunes, and the San Luis Valley; names as lyrical as the music they would inspire. Above it all, at 10,000-feet elevation, lays North Crestone Lake. With unfettered ambition, Paul, Richard and a host of others mounted a recording expedition set at the high Alpine lake. Isolated from civilization for two weeks, the resulting album earned them a Grammy Award in 2007.
With the help of pack animals, a 10,000-foot base camp was established at North Crestone Lake. The team of musicians and recording engineers trekked with instruments and sound equipment for the portable “studio,” mixing equal parts nature and traditional jazz that fused into a whole new breed of sound.
The entourage of artists and explorers set out on this musical adventure to capture the relationship between the harmony of music and the natural world – a concept innate to the Freenotes philosophy. Paul originally coined the term “Earth Music” to describe the vital celebration between creatures and cultures of the earth. The Crestone album
Richard Cooke playing the contrabass clarinet at North Crestone Lake.
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honors this call of the wild world. Undertones of hummingbirds, buffalos and Native American chants accompany smooth jazz strolls throughout the recording.
Paul's musical background blossomed in childhood, by studying various jazz instruments and compositions early on. He was signed to Columbia Records after winning first prize in an Intercollegiate Jazz Festival judged by icons Dizzy Gillespie and John Hammond. His musical career quickly took off (literally!) including travel via: raft, mule, dog sled, horse, kayak, sailboat, steamers, tugboat, and Land Rover - always accompanied by a crew of musicians and instruments. Throughout his expeditions to thirty-seven countries and wilderness areas on six continents, the wilderness became the inspiration for his music.
Richard Cooke also got his musical start early in life, singing in the church choir and learning piano. At Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, Richard often found himself immersed in nature learning to play the flute by ear while wondering in the forest. He, like Paul, found himself integrating his love for music with his natural surroundings.
To listen to a sample of the Crestone album, or to purchase a download, please visit: http://paulwinter.bandcamp.com/album/crestone.
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To read more about the foundations of Freenotes Harmony Park and the people behind the brand, please visit: http://freenotesharmonypark.com/press-room.
