Music lovers are just like Mom and Dad to KU fine arts students

The David and Gunda Hiebert Piano Fund has provided scholarship support for students such as Amir Khosrowpour, above. The senior from Irvine, Calif., who majors in piano performance and composition, has won the prestigious Music Teachers' National Association Collegiate Artist Performance Competition.

To the hundreds of University of Kansas music students they have welcomed into their home, Dave and Gunda Hiebert are like Mom and Dad-just closer to campus.

The Hieberts listen when students need someone to talk to. They enthusiastically open their house for recitals and push students to perform their best. They offer home-cooked meals alongside heaping servings of praise and encouragement.

And like other parents, the couple provides financial support for those students. The Hieberts recently pledged $410,000 to the Kansas University Endowment Association for the department of music and dance in the School of Fine Arts and the Spencer Museum of Art, continuing their longtime support of the arts at KU.

Jack Winerock, professor of piano, said the Hieberts had adopted the entire piano program.

"Their financial support has turned a good program into an exceptional one, and that wouldn't be possible without them," he said. "In addition, they are friends, mentors and surrogate parents to students. They are concerned with how faculty members are performing professionally."

Their interaction with students and faculty members has made the couple's philanthropy much more personal, Gunda said.

"It's such an opportunity to be involved," she said. "Sometimes the students will come over and talk about problems with us. It's like we are their parents, but non-judgmental."

The Hieberts are perhaps most well known in Lawrence for the recitals and concerts they host in their home near campus. Since 1996, the couple has provided their living room and the use of their Steinway B grand piano for more than 200 student and faculty recitals. The Hieberts invite up to 25 community members, students and other members of the department to every performance.

The recitals provide an intimate venue for students and professors who don't often get the opportunity to play for the public. They also offer dress rehearsals for students preparing for concerts and competitions, Dave said. As word has spread, the concerts have grown beyond piano to strings, woodwinds, brass and voice, and now include entire ensembles.

Melanie Hadley, a KU junior majoring in piano who has performed several times in the Hiebert home, said their house provided a unique experience for performers and listeners alike.

"The Hieberts know that music isn't meant to be confined to a concert hall," she said. "It can be performed on a Tuesday night in a house in front of 25 people and be just as meaningful and impressive as a performance in Carnegie Hall. There's an attentive audience that wants to hang on every single note - they want to experience it with you."

Toni-Marie Montgomery, a pianist and KU dean of fine arts, also has performed in the Hieberts' home.

"Dave and Gunda are true friends of the Department of Music and Dance," Montgomery said. "Their financial support of the piano division has enabled faculty to recruit and retain many talented and promising students. The School of Fine Arts is greatly appreciative of and indebted to Dave and Gunda."

Dave said it didn't take financial commitments as great as theirs to adopt a program. "I say to other donors that they should find out what they are interested in at KU, then ask, what does the program need? How can you help?"

Gunda added, "You can have an enriching experience with any student you sponsor. It doesn't take a major gift. Even giving them your time can have an impact."

Now retired, Dave, m'61, was a physician for KU Athletics for 17 years and a radiologist at Lawrence Memorial Hospital from 1967 to 1990. He is a member of the Spencer Museum of Art Advisory Board, the Friends of the Lied Board and the Fine Arts Campaign Committee for KU First.

Gunda co-owned the Bay Leaf, a downtown gourmet store, from 1978 until 2002 when she sold her interest in the business and retired. She has attended classes at KU and holds a master's degree in French from Yale and from the University of Virginia.

There are four children in the Hiebert family. Dave has three daughters: Kimberly Hiebert Purvis, p'85; Megan Hiebert, c'91, and Laura Hiebert Carbrey, '87. Gunda has a son, Timothy Freeman, who earned a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia.

The Hieberts' pledge brings the couple's total commitments to more than $1 million, including $770,000 for KU First: Invest in Excellence, the third and largest fund-raising campaign for KU. KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of KU through 2004 to raise funds for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support. KU Endowment is an independent, non-profit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU.

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