Arts Commission honors CWU violin professor with Arts Treasure Award 

The Ellensburg Arts Commission has selected longtime Central Washington University music Professor Carrie Rehkopf as the recipient of the 2023 Arts Treasure Award.

The award is presented annually to a local artist in recognition for their contributions and/or service to the community. It started as a way for the Arts Commission to recognize and educate the community about individuals who have chosen to make their art and lives in Ellensburg.

Arts Commission Chair Alex Eyre said the award celebrates Rehkopf's "contributions to the arts and to the cultural and creative life of Ellensburg for the past 33 years."

Rehkopf is a professor of violin at CWU, where she has taught since 1990. She is the founder/director of the Kairos Chamber Music Lyceum, the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute, and Classics in Ellensburg. Along with her husband, cellist John Michel, Rehkopf has a long history of organizing and presenting chamber music performances, children's concerts, and interdisciplinary mentoring workshops, collaborating with local and professional musicians, dancers, poets, and community members across the Northwest.

In years past, she has received an American String Teacher's Association Outstanding College String Teacher Award (2004) and the Laughing Horse Arts Foundation McGiffin Award (2018). Referred to a "first-class musician" by Sir Georg Solti, she has a particular interest in building new audiences and cultivating artistry in violinists of all levels.

The Arts Commission will recognize Rehkopf's Arts Treasure status at the June 2 First Friday Art Walk at 6 p.m. at Hotel Windrow, 502 N. Main St.

Previous Arts Treasure recipients include Lenny Price (2017), Rob Fraser (2018), Therese A. Young (2019), Don O'Connor (2021), and Richard Denner (2022).