West Sound Academy Announces Robert Burback Memorial Music Scholarship for Students in Grades 8-11

POULSBO, Wash. - Dec. 9, 2015 - PRLog -- West Sound Academy (WSA) is announcing a new scholarship designed to foster interest and engagement with the study, composition and performance of music. This scholarship has been set up by The Charles and Margaret Burback Charitable Foundation to honor the memory of long-time Poulsbo resident Robert Burback.

A welder by trade and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard retiree, Robert Burback had many interests and talents: sailing, woodworking, amateur radio, cooking, gardening, among others.  His friends knew him as "the guy who could fix anything".  He loved helping people, whether it was to do a much-needed welding job or to give away a huge bowl of his favorite zucchini soup.  His lifelong passion was music, and he played the organ every day of his life from when he first learned music as a young child.

Robert Burback was the father of West Sound Academy music teacher Paul Burback, and the son has carried on his father's musical legacy.  Paul Burback has taught music classes at WSA for over eight years and has developed a program that fosters creativity, diversity and collaboration among his students. The new scholarship will make this program more readily available to deserving WSA music students.

The Robert Burback Memorial Music Scholarship will be awarded to two currently enrolled WSA students in grades 8-11 who are nominated for consideration by the school’s scholarship committee. Each scholarship recipient will be awarded a total of $5,000 each to be applied directly to the cost of tuition and divided evenly over the remaining years of enrollment until graduation.  A student must have already been enrolled at WSA for a minimum of one semester and taken at least one Upper School music ensemble elective class at WSA to be eligible.

The first nominations will be made in early January 2016 with the award recipients announced in early February 2016.