Myrna Sislen

Secretary

Myrna Sislen, classical guitarist, writer, educator, entrepreneur, philanthropist.
Myrna's family has been in Washington, DC for more than 100 years.
Her grandfather owned a butcher shop on Morse St, NE, her grandmother owned a toy and notions store on 4th St SW. Her parents attended Eastern High School. Myrna has been the owner of Middle C Music on Wisconsin Ave NW for the past 16 years.

Myrna Sislen attended American University where she was a classical guitar performance major. Her concert career began at AU and spanned the next 30 years. With debut recitals at the Kennedy Center, sponsored by the Washington Performing Arts Society, and in New York City at the Carnegie Recital Hall, her concert career took Myrna to all the countries of Europe, Scandinavia, Central America, and Brazil and Ecuador in South America.

Myrna Sislen was an Associate Professor of Music at George Washington University for 29 years. She established the Myrna Sislen Guitar Scholarship Fund with donations from Cecilia Perez.

Myrna Sislen was part the Washington Performing Arts Society Concerts in Schools program for more than 25 year, performing at virtually all the Elementary Schools in the District of Columbia.

At the same time, Myrna wrote 8 books of guitar arrangements for intermediate players, was the first person to put a recording (cassette) with a printed book, and has a book of renaissance lute music for guitar, An Anthology of Constant Delight, as well as the still popular First Classical Pieces for Guitar. In recent years, Myrna had a regular column in the award winning trade publication, Music Inc Magazine, called "From the Trenches".

In 2002, Myrna bought Middle C Music one week before it was to close and turned a badly failing business into a Washington, DC destination.

Middle C Music has been honored by the DC City Council twice with Resolutions Celebrating its 10th and 15th anniversaries, and proclaiming March 22 as  Middle C Music Day. Middle C  has also been honored with two Mayoral Proclamations. With words such as 
"Where as Middle C Music is the only full-service, independent, woman owned music store in the District of Columbia." 
"Where as, under Ms. Sislen's direction, Middle C Music has flourished into a community hub of the arts, having hosted over 400 free recitals, lectures, and art exhibitions for the general public."
"Where as Middle C Music has committed to providing all District residents with a safe nurturing, and community-centered musical haven"

In 2014, Myrna Sislen was the first person to donate, ship and personally deliver 39 traditional orchestra instruments to the children of the Orquesta Reciclada de Cateura, Landfill Harmonic, in Cateura, Paraguay.

In 2017-18, Myrna Sislen was again honored with a Resolution by the DC City Council for repairing 83 band instruments for the children at Jefferson Academy in SW. This donation was made in memory of Myrna's mother Lindy Mendelsohn Sislen who graduated from Jefferson Jr. High in 1939.

Myrna Sislen is currently working with the Mount Vernon Triangle community to donate the art work that will be the anchor of Cobb Park, a reclaimed public space park located at 2nd and Mass. NW. Just last week, Myrna Sislen stepped in with a donation to save the Beatty Guitar Competition,  Washington's only youth guitar competition, which will now be the MGI Myrna Sislen Guitar Competition.