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For those of us who have been pining for the return of the Academy Ball, The Philadelphia Orchestra’s annual fundraiser which was discontinued because of COVID-19 and a myriad of other reasons, take heart!
With the merger of the Orchestra with the Kimmel Cultural Campus and the Miller Theatre, a brand new tradition has been created.
The Great Stages Gala, which will benefit all of the parties involved.
The evening started out at the Stage Entrance to the Academy of Music, with a lavish cocktail party. Catering by Garces, lots of music and sequined women acrobats, hanging from the ceiling and pouring champagne as they balanced themselves.
The first people I saw when I entered the Academy was Osagie Imasogie and his wife Losenge. As usual, Osagie gave me a warm hug
and welcome and introduced me to his wife, whom I had not met before.
I sat with them throughout the cocktail hour. Osagie is on the board of the new combined Orchestra-Kimmel Campus. He is a big deal at my alma mater Penn, and I have taken his photo dozens of times in past years as he sits on many boards and supports all kinds of cultural events and philanthropies.
Osagie also let me know that the new Penn President Liz Magill and her husband were somewhere in the crowd. I found them and was able to take a photo of them as well.
Ken and Nancy Davis, of Gladwyne, came over to where I was sitting, and Ken explained the rotations of Orchestra board members now that there has been a merger between the Orchestra and the Kimmel Center Campus.
It was really exciting to see so many familiar faces, after three years of COVID and staying home to avoid the virus. Leslie Anne Miller and Richard Worley, as always, were major sponsors of the Gala. Dianne Semingson, a member of the combined board and one of the sponsors of the Great Stages Gala, introduced me to Lisa Hughes, the CEO and publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Lisa Kabnick, the vice-chair of the Inquirer board.
Dianne, in fact, walked me over to the Kimmel Center for the concert as the cocktail party wound down. As we walked past the Miller Theatre, a Snacktime band was playing for us on the sidewalk.
Then into Verizon Hall, where Jim Gardner, the M.C., was greeted by Yannick’s leading the Orchestra in the Channel 6 theme msic for the evening news. Yannick can now answer the proverbial question, ”Do blondes have more fun?”
Yes, the conductor is now a blonde.
The concert featured soprano Renee Fleming, who dazzled the audience with her exquisite voice. Followed by African superstar Angelique Kidjo, a five-time Grammy award-winner, who had the entire Academy audience singing a chorus along with her.
The two incredible vocalists joined together to sing “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love.”
I did not get a chance to take photos of several more people whom I met along the way to the Kimmel Center, like Drexel President John Fry and his wife, and Har Zion Cantor Eliot Vogel and his wife. The co-chairs of the Gala, Jami Wintz McKeon, Lisa Bettinger-Buckingham and Christopher M. Keith, must have been very pleased with the initial Great Stages Gala.
And maybe they will bring back the beautiful concert book with the full-page photos of nonprofits with their patrons.
Bonnie Squires is a communications consultant who writes weekly for Main Line Media News and can be reached at www.bonniesquires.com . She hosts the “Bonnie’s Beat” TV show at MLTV- MAIN LINE NETWORK.
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