Family and friends of Howard Berkman, who died last October, have established a music scholarship in his memory.

The Howard Berkman Music Scholarship Fund has raised $4,300 following a memorial concert at the Blue Sage Center in Paonia, a silent auction and generous donations.

Proceeds from his recording contracts will contribute to the scholarship fund as well. The scholarship committee will probably have more special concert events locally and in the Carbondale area where Howard spent a great deal of his time and also in Chicago where he is from.

The music scholarship is the joint endeavor by Berkman's family and friends who make up the scholarship committee and the Mountain Harvest Festival. The committee will decide who receives the scholarships. Mountain Harvest Festival, a 501 (C)(3) charity, will manage the distribution of the funds.

Bill and Sarah Bishop explained that rather than form a new charity the scholarship committee wanted Mountain Harvest Festival to handle the finances. This is because Berkman never missed performing a Saturday night concert during the festival.

"We are really proud to do this for Howard's memory," Bill said.

"The scholarship committee is determining how many scholarships and at what value they will be given this year," Sarah said. "Those scholarships will go to music students whether they are young people or older people in the North Fork Valley and Roaring Fork Valley."

As soon as Mountain Harvest Festival receives instructions from the scholarship committee which is managed by Howard's brother-in-law, Darrell Sage, the festival will help them with publicity.

The scholarship committee is writing up application guidelines. Mountain Harvest Festival will do everything it can to spread the word and encourage applicants.

"I think it is really exciting to have the Mountain Harvest Festival working with another group like this. We can handle the financial end and they can do the creative decision making," Sarah said.

The scholarships are for people wanting to take music lessons, needing help in purchasing an instrument or wanting to attend a music camp.

"I think these scholarships will tend to be modest in a few tens of dollars to a few hundreds of dollars each. It won't be big scholarships. The idea is to encourage promising musicians," Sarah said.

"It's all about improving a person's ability to play music," Bill added.

Mike Gwinn, leader of the North Fork Flyers, helped organized the benefit concert in Paonia. He, the Blue Sage and the family and friends of Howard Berkman have expressed their sincere thanks for all the support, contributions, performances and testimonials for the memorial, silent auction and concert.

For more details about the Howard Berkman Scholarship Fund, contact Mike Gwinn at paoniamike@gmail.com.