Friday, September 9, 2016

San Francisco Performances will Honor Founder Ruth A. Felt with a “Heartfelt” Gala

When I began to write about San Francisco Performances (SFP) events on this site this past July, I had to apologize for the disappearance of the articles I had written about the 2016–2017 season with the termination of Examiner.com. To help readers catch up on what they may have missed, I provided a hyperlink to the SFP Web page for A Heartfelt Gala. SFP holds a gala at the beginning of each season; but, as they say, this gala is different from all other galas.

Last season Ruth A Felt, Founder and President of SFP announced that, after 37 years of service, she would retire. As a result this season’s gala has been organized to honor Felt and to recognize at least a few of the many fruits of her efforts to provide San Francisco with a world-class performing arts organization. This will include both tributes and performances of leading artists with whom she has worked over the course of her tenure. Those artists include two composers who have also performed as pianists at SFP events, Philip Glass and Jake Heggie. There will also be two Jazz Artists-in-Residence, vocalist Luciana Souza from the past and trumpeter Sean Jones from the present; and Jones will be performing with his trio. The other two classical artists who will be performing will be violinist Jennifer Koh and mezzo Sasha Cooke.

The program for the full black-tie evening begins at 6 p.m. on Friday, September 30, with a reception in City Hall, which will be followed by a full dinner. Guests will then cross Van Ness Avenue to Herbst Theatre for the concert. The evening will then conclude upstairs in the Veterans Building Green Room with a post-concert dessert reception. The event is nearly sold out, but there is a very limited quantity of Individual Tickets still available. The price of each ticket for the entire affair is $500, $340 if which is tax-deductible. Those hoping to secure a reservation should call 415-677-0326.

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