Let's make a gala...

Of course we knew this was AVA’s 75th Anniversary, and we knew we knew we were going to throw a party for over 2,000 of our friends, but the rest took lots of work.

We began last spring procuring Verizon Hall for Wednesday, March 31st  for the BrAVA Philadelphia! concert and scheduling the orchestra – so far so good. A gala committee was formed to decide where the dinner would take place, and that also was a very easy decision – The Hyatt at the Bellevue with a lovely two story grand ballroom.

The hardest part of the evening is putting the concert together, and which alums are available to come to Philadelphia to perform. This job falls on Maestro Macatsoris, who chooses the singers and the repertoire. In a perfect world that would be a snap - but if you have read my blog in the past you know our wonderful alums are singing all over the world, all the time, so getting them to Philadelphia on a specific date and time isn’t always possible.

The line-up of singers this year is spectacular (would you have expected anything else?) with sopranos Eglise Gutiérrez, Angela Meade, Latonia Moore, and Indra Thomas, tenors Michael Fabiano and James Valenti, and baritone Luis Ledesma. AVA resident artists that will be featured are Michelle Johnson, Margaret Mezzacappa, Christopher Bolduc and Alex Lawrence.

I’ll be backstage that evening and I promise lots of photos next week.

So what’s left? Come see the concert!