With being just $800,000.00 away from reaching a ½ way milestone in its $6,000,000.00 goal for a new Performing Arts Center, Supporters of the Performing Arts (SOPA) announces its first benefit concert featuring the Steinway, class “B” grand piano gifted to the new performing arts center. On Wednesday, June 16th at 7:30 PM at the Stanley Concert Hall, an audience will be treated to the musical gift of students and colleague of local Mia Marletto. Kevin Ahfat will be the featured pianist, along with the talented Stacey Wheeler, Brionne White, soprano Maggie Manire, and clarinetist Ted Homan. The evening will include works of Chopin, Ravel, Poulenc, Gounod, Grieg, Brahms, Haydn, Prokofiev and even stretch to a jazz arrangement by Thelonius Monk. Kevin Ahfat, previous student of Marletto, now studies at UNC with Dr. Lei Weng. Marletto has an active studio in Denver where Stacey Wheeler, 18, has been teaching as well as studying for the last 5 years. This will be an enthralling evening filled with delightful music for piano, voice, and clarinet, as the Steinway makes a debut performance greatly anticipating a new home. It is with great thanks to the generous gift of the piano over 10 years ago by Don and Marty Bender and the late Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Read, the efforts of Nancy Stevens and Mia Marletto, and the generosity of the Stanley hotel that this concert is made possible.

This concert is a the first in a series of “Free-Will” offering concerts that are being presented by SOPA in an effort to create an awareness and “spark” for the new performing arts center. All concerts are open to the public with 100% of the proceeds being used towards the capital campaign. The town eagerly awaits and anticipates a new center offering a host of year-round theatrical and musical offerings, educational programs, and a home for the many local artistic groups that are vibrant within our community.

the upcoming benefit series ranges in diverse programming from jazz to an outstanding acapella quartet, to our local Oratorio Society presenting Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore in concert style.

Mark your calendars for these events, and make a point to come out and join us in support of a Performing Arts Center for Estes Park!

2010 SOPA EVENTS

 

For more information regarding these concerts or SOPA’s capital campaign, please visit us at www.EstesParkTheater.com, or call capital campaign chairman Christopher Wood at 970-481-6630.