Congratulations to Keilani Bolhuis,
the 2024 Recipient of
The Roman Andrew Borek Endowed Scholarship
The Fine Arts Club of Pasadena and the Pasadena Conservatory
of Music proudly announce that Keilani Bolhuis is this year’s
recipient of the Roman Andrew Borek Endowed Scholarship.
Keilani has been a student at PCM since 2012 and is currently
studying classical violin with Elizabeth Hedman, jazz piano with
Amy Rowe, and jazz violin with Megan Shung, demonstrating
the breadth and diversity of her talents. She also participates in
Jazz Combo with Danny Janklow.
Keilani’s honors and awards are many and varied: she is a recipient of the Music Center’s Spotlight competition, and was one of 16 Jazz Instrumental Semi-Finalists in 2023, and she won the branch and regional levels of the Southern California Junior Bach Festival in piano performance. Keilani was awarded the National Gold Medal by the Royal Conservatory of Music and invited to perform at the Celebration of Excellence Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in January of last year.
Closer to home, Keilani is the Concertmaster of both the Symphonia Orchestra and Philharmonic Orchestra at the California School of the Arts – San Gabriel Valley High School, where she is currently a senior.
The Roman Andrew Borek Endowed Scholarship
In 2021, The Fine Arts Club of Pasadena voted to establish an endowed music scholarship in honor of the late Roman Andrew Borek, a beloved member, officer, and board member of the Club. Each year, the Pasadena Conservatory of Music will select a Junior or Senior High School student to honor with this award, which will cover a portion of the student’s annual tuition.
Ashlee Sung was our 2023 recipient of the Borek
Scholarship. She is now in her senior year at Arcadia
High School, part of the class of 2024. Ashlee continues
as a fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer
Fellowship Program as she continues her studies at PCM
with Sharon Harman.
The inaugural presentation of the scholarship was made
at the June 2022 meeting of The Fine Arts Club of
Pasadena. The first recipient of the Roman Andrew
Borek Endowed Scholarship was Eddie Zhou, then a
senior at South Pasadena High School, and a longtime
student at PCM. Eddie is attending Northwestern
University, where he studies Violin Performance and
Biological Sciences. His connection with PCM continues,
however: last summer, Eddie served as PCM’s 2023 Development and Marketing Intern.
As part of that June 2022 event, the Club was presented with a sculpture created by blacksmith artist Carter Conley, which memorialized the scholarship honor and captures images representing the fine arts which the Club’s mission supports: the visual arts, music, and the theatre arts. Here is a photo of the sculpture.
About Roman Andrew Borek: In addition to Mr. Borek’s indelible contributions to The Fine Arts Club of Pasadena, he made a lasting professional imprint as well. He served as the Business House Manager at Pasadena’s famed Ambassador Auditorium and became known as “Mr. Ambassador.” Throughout his time there, he hosted visits with numerous dignitaries, including Queen Sirikit of Thailand and Mrs. Anwar (Jehan) Sadat, as well as hosting Prince Phillip and Princess Anne of England during their 1984 visit to the Los Angeles Olympics. Roman was also involved with coordinating performances by The London Symphony Orchestra, The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, The Moscow Ballet, Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Hope, Sammy Davis, Jr., Lucille Ball, and many other distinguished performers. In addition, he worked on TV specials with Bing Crosby, Arthur Rubinstein, and Gene Kelly.
Roman was a contributing member of whatever community he joined, and was always incredibly generous with
his time and resources. He was an active member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. He served on
various committees of the Tournament of Roses for over 40 years and was a White Suiter, monitoring the
parade’s grandstand and leading tours for dignitaries. To recognize his years of service, Roman was
named an honorary member of the Tournament in 2005. In addition to our Club, Mr. Borek was a member,
officer, and/or board member for the following organizations: Pasadena Conservatory of Music, The
MacDowell Club of Allied Arts in Los Angeles, The Gamble House, The English Speaking Union - Los Angeles
Branch, and The Tanglewood Music Festival. He was also honored by the Pasadena Arts Council with their
Gold Crown Award.
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About Our Club’s Mission: The mission statement of our Club includes the intention “to enrich the cultural life of our community and to encourage the unique individual expression of each artist. To accomplish our mission, we provide a venue for artists to perform and exhibit their work, and we provide awards to outstanding students in arts programs at local area colleges and universities.”
We believe this Scholarship fulfills and furthers this mission, and we trust that Eddie Zhou is the first of what we hope will be many PCM music students who will benefit from the Roman Andrew Borek Endowed Scholarship.