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September boasts an impressive lineup of jazz shows throughout the Northwest
The smooth sounds of jazz
Explorer News
Ty Bowers
August 22, 2007
As August draws to a close and the summer heat and monsoon steam begin to dissipate, folks in the Northwest get jazzed — literally.
In September, two groups — the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council and the Tucson Jazz Society — pull out all the stops to bring marquee jazz artists to local audiences, GOVAC with its annual jazz party on Sept. 15 and TJS with its monthlong Fall Series.
The sounds of salsa, big-band era and contemporary jazz and swing soon will fill the cooler air of fall nights.
‘Jazz Jam ‘07’
For eight years, the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council has brought some of the world’s top jazz musicians to the Northwest. In fact, according to GOVAC board vice president and “Jazz Jam” host Al Cook, 50 musicians have come to the Oro Valley events over the years.
And this year’s soiree will feature six more darlings of American jazz.
The assembled sextet includes two long-time members of NBC’s “Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” band – drummer Ed Shaughnessy and saxophonist Pete Christlieb. Pianist Shelly Berg, bassist Dave Stone, trombonist/band leader Andy Martin and trumpet player Wayne Bergeron round out the show card.
“They’re some of the most talented, exciting performers in the world of jazz today,” Cook boasted in a phone interview.
The group’s Sept. 15 poolside performance at the Hilton El Conquistador will raise money for the 10-year-old arts organization’s many programs.
“That’s the level of talent you need to make it work as a fund-raiser,” Cook said of the “Jazz Jam” sextet.
This year’s event will include a special tribute to the late “Tonight Show” arranger and assistant band leader Tommy Newsom, who died in April of bladder cancer.
Newsom performed at a GOVAC jazz party in 2003, back when the event was held in Al and Marilyn Cook’s own backyard.
“We became good friends,” Al Cook said of Newsom. “He was writing and playing up to a few weeks before his death.”
Shaughnessy and Christlieb played with Newsom during Johnny Carson’s late-night television reign.
Both men have played live and on recordings with some of jazz’s all-time greats.
The rest of the Sept. 15 ensemble’s members have distinguished recording careers of their own, including stints with popular bands and on Hollywood soundtracks.
When the group arrives, its members will even teach master classes at the University of Arizona before getting ready for their GOVAC performance.
Jazz Society’s ‘Fall Series’
The Tucson Jazz Society begins its annual fall jazz-a-thon with a Labor Day weekend filled with swing and salsa standards.
Get folks to dance, and you have a hit on your hands, according to TJS Executive Director Patricia Possert.
The organization’s monthlong series starts Sept. 1 with Joe Bourne and Big Band Express channeling the likes of Duke Ellington and the Rat Pack for concertgoers at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort. The next night, Flaco Diaz and his All Star Salsa Band spice things up at St. Philip’s Plaza.
The following Sundays in September (except for Sept. 23) will feature a variety of acts, from fusion outfit Turning Point Band to swing singer Julie Ann. The whole series concludes Sept. 30 with a “super set of burning jazz,” Possert said in a phone interview, with group performance by some of the region’s best artists.
“The psychology of the lineup is to be as diverse as possible,” Possert explained. “There are as many styles of jazz as kinds of chocolate. You can have a side of swing with salsa.”
With the exception of the Sept. 1 show at Star Pass and the Sept. 9 event at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, all of the shows will be held at St. Philip’s Plaza, at the intersection of Campbell Avenue and River Road.
“These artists have traveled all around the world, and yet they tell us they’ve never experienced the level of hospitality like they do in Tucson,” Possert said.
Local jazz fans should consider that the ultimate compliment.
Jazz Jam '07
What: Eighth-annual Greater Oro Valley Arts Council jazz party, with hosts Al and Marilyn Cook.
Where: Hilton El Conquistador, 10000 N. Oracle Road
When: Sept. 15
Cost: $35 for lawn seating; $75 for preferred seating and hors d’oeuvres; $125 for VIP seating and three-course meal.
Details: Show starts at 6:30 p.m. with band members Ed Shaughnessy, Andy Martin, Pete Christlieb, Wayne Bergeron, Dave Stone and Shelly Berg; live auction during intermission.
Phone: 797-3959
Online: www.govac.org
Tucson Jazz Society Fall Series
What: Tucson Jazz Society series of concerts throughout September
Where: St. Philip’s Plaza, JW Marriott Star Pass Resort and Loews Ventana Canyon Resort.
When: Shows on Sept. 1, 2, 9, 16 and 30.
Cost: $20 for general admission; $25 for general admission to Sept. 30 SuperJam Jazz Party.
Details: Lineup includes Joe Bourne and Big Band Express, Flaco Diaz and his All Star Salsa Band, Turning Point Band, Julie Ann and others.
Phone: 903-1265
Online: www.tucsonjazz.org
“Long-time local arts academy opens Northwest hub Song and dance”
Explorer News
Laura Marble
August 15, 2007
The Music & Dance Academy has name recognition for many Northwest residents.
Some children have attended its Magic Rug concerts, sitting on an Aladdin-like carpet while classical musicians took them on a melodic journey. Some have taken the academy’s classes in public spaces such as the Northwest YMCA.
Some have caught concerts by its faculty members at St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church or performances by its students at the Foothills Mall.
But until recently, this provider of arts and culture has been somewhat of a wanderer in these parts. It has lacked a permanent Northwest home.
On Aug. 25, the institution will introduce its newest facility — the Oro Valley Music & Dance Academy — to the public. The 2,500-square-foot space at the southeast corner of Oracle and Magee roads includes five music studios, two of which also serve as dance rooms. One is equipped as a piano lab.
The facility will serve the quarter of the academy’s 400-some students who live in the Northwest.
They were always asking us when we were going to open something in Oro Valley,” said Nina Tishkevich, the academy director. “Now we’re very excited we’re finally here.”
The academy was founded in Tucson in 1995 as a music school that is taught by the Suzuki philosophy and Russian music school techniques.
The Suzuki method stresses learning in small steps and the use of repetition.
Lessons began in infancy with fun parent-and-child activities and progressed in childhood through instrument exploration and eventual voluntary recitals.
Three years ago, the academy began offering classes at the Northwest YMCA to better accommodate some of its Northwest students. A request in 2005 from the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council that the academy offer Magic Rug concerts kicked off its relationship with Oro Valley. It began offering classes through the Oro Valley Parks and Recreation Department, and this year added Marana’s department.
The new lineup of classes, serving both adults and children in Tucson and in the Northwest, includes not only music but also dance.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for our students who already take music lessons and have a sense of rhythm to get into dance,” Tishkevich said. “By age 3, they have a perfect sense of rhythm which is difficult to develop later in life.”
Dance offerings include not only classical training but also social dance and private lessons for people with one-time needs — such as a couple about to get married or an adolescent girl preparing for her quinceañera.
A new program — Winning Combinations — will be offered only in Oro Valley.
The program offers simultaneous classes for children and their parents so nobody has to spend inordinate amounts of time in a waiting room.
On Tuesdays, parents can attend Moms’ Morning Stretch while their young children engage in inventive music-based play. On Thursdays, parents do Pilates while their 3- and 4-year-olds attend Creative Movement class.
“We thought of our moms who run around and never have time for themselves, and we thought that was a great idea,” Tishkevich said.
The new facility sits next to Tumble Gym, and Tishkevich said the two businesses will work together to provide childcare at discount rates for parents who want to attend evening social dances. Also in the same shopping center are Trader Joe’s, Beaver’s Bandbox and a variety of restaurants.
July Fourth handout
Retail giant Wal-Mart makes cash splash with $250,000 gift to OV for Naranja Town Site
Explorer News
Patrick McNamara
July 11, 2007
Hot dogs, hamburgers and fireworks. What could be more American than that on the Fourth of July?
How about Wal-Mart and a wad of cold hard cash?
That’s how it played out in front of a crowd of 4,000 at the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council Independence Day festivities at Cañada Del Oro Riverfront Park where Wal-Mart representatives presented Oro Valley officials with a $250,000 donation toward the Naranja Town Site.
“This is great,” Oro Valley Town Council Member Terry Parish said. “I’m pleased to see Wal-Mart making a contribution to bettering our quality of life.”
Naranja Town Site is Oro Valley’s proposed 213-acre park that would include a community center, pool and water park, skate park, ball fields, music pavilion and other amenities.
In order to fund the project town council will likely seek a November 2008 bond election.
Depending on how the funding plays out, the entire project could net an estimated $150 million price tag.
Town officials have been developing the Naranja Town Site project for the past five years which has had many fits and starts since its conception.
“The problem is the site is currently remote,” Oro Valley Mayor Paul Loomis said.
Added to the problem of location will be the cost to bring sewer and other essential services to the site, located on Naranja Drive between First Avenue and La Cañada Drive.
“It’s the right thing to do,” said Delia Garcia, a Wal-Mart spokesperson, about the company’s donation. “This represents a very long and fruitful partnership.”
Garcia said the company donated at least $7 million to various causes throughout the state last year.
Despite the company’s philanthropy, the world’s only retail hyper-power is often the target of resentment.
Some quarters of Oro Valley also have an aversion to the company, most of which stems from Vestar Development Company’s decision to anchor the 850,000-square feet Oro Valley Marketplace shopping center with a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
“I would just as soon give them their $250,000 back and tell them to move on to another location,” said Oro Valley resident Art Segal.
“Let them spend their $250,000 to fight the City of Tucson’s big box ordinance,” Segal said.
Segal, who also is the driving force behind local-affairs Web site and blog Let Oro Valley Excel, thinks the donation by Wal-Mart is simply an effort to buy goodwill in the community.
But Council member Parish said he doesn’t believe that’s the case.
“I don’t think that’s part of their motivation,” Parish said. “It’s clearly a demonstration of their goodwill and commitment.”
Parish added that the offering came with “no strings attached.”
“This isn’t done just because we want,” Wal-Mart representative Garcia said, “it’s part of a partnership with the community.”
Loomis said he has not been in contact with any other potential donors for the project.
Other donors to the project have been Ventana Medical Systems and the Northern Pima County Chamber of Commerce.
In 2006, Ventana ponied up a $5,000 donation and another $5,000 in matching funds. Last July the chamber donated $1,000 to the project.
GOVAC stakes its claim on 'Street of Dreams'
Explorer News - Laura Marble - March 21, 2007
Table saws roared and hammers banged on March 15 as workers rushed to put their finishing touches on Stone Canyon’s “Street of Dreams.”
The street features eight upscale homes, built and furnished by Tucson homebuilders and interior designers, which are open for touring through April 29.
More than 30,000 visitors are expected to attend the event, which takes place in various parts of the country each year and has shown up in Pima County twice.
As the event’s only charity beneficiary, the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council stands to make thousands of dollars.
“Street of Dreams” will give the organization a $5,000 donation as well as $5,000 for recruiting volunteers. Two homebuilders will donate $5,000 each. In addition, the arts council receives all of the proceeds from its “Evening of Dreams” event March 24.
The money will go toward the arts council’s general fund, where it will be used to expand its programming beyond visual arts and music, into performing arts, fashion and graphic design.
The following homes are on the tour:
La Mia Toscana: $2.5 million
This Tuscany-style home evokes the Old World with massive beams, rich colors, stone floors and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar. A serpentine stone-paved drive winds up to and around an imposing water fountain. But old mixes with new: A simple flip of a switch blacks out a media room with a view as hidden automated shades lower. The home boasts a steam room, a juice bar and a linen closet that keeps towels warm.
Stone Hollow: $4.2 million
This 10,288-square-foot home is the largest on the tour and features a hand-painted table made from a 250-year-old Brazilian bridge. Luxury amenities include a television set that turns into a painting when it’s turned off, a spa area with a fireplace and six-massage-headed shower, and a fully equipped extra kitchen for the butler. The swimming pool features a beach entrance.
Reflections of Tuscany: $4.295 million
This home evokes Tuscany charm with antique front doors and flagstone floors, but doesn’t minimize its position near Hole No. 7 on the golf course. An alder-wood-paneled library contains an Italian book cabinet, a bronze Griffin desk, hair-hide chairs and velvet drapes. A Roman bath is all marble — even the walls. A voice command system keeps the sprinkler and pool-cleaning systems in check and alerts the home owners to visitors.
Casa de los Suenos: $4 million
This sleepy home soothes the senses with earthy greens, smoky grays and touches of hyacinth. A roof deck offers a 360-degree view of surrounding mounains, sunsets and city lights. The garage is climate-controlled for the comfort of a hobbyist or handyman. An iPod docked in the great room can distribute music to any room with speakers, or a “party mode” setting can send music to all the rooms.
Serenity by Design: 2.595 million
Calmness is key in this desert home with stacked ledge stone walls that blend into the landscape. The master suite features a leather chaise and headboard from Italy and a European fireplace that appears to float. Other features include a grand piano, a swim-up bar out back and a coffee bar in the kitchen. A 600-square-foot contained casita contains a full kitchenette, bar and plasma television set. The camera security system can be remotely monitored by homeowners when they are away.
Tetto Volatore: $4.5 million
This home’s main architectural feature is an enveloping shade trellis that shelters a deck on the roof. The luxurious deck features a Zen garden, a bar, a fireplace and a plasma television set. The master suite has an outdoor shower. A whimsical guest casita features leather floors and a cardboard chair.
Bella Palazzo: $2.95 million
A central attraction in this Old World Mediterranean home is a wall sculpture titled “Under the Tuscan Olive Tree.” A dining room ceiling made of pewter also stands out. In the spa area, an LCD mirror mounted above the counter vanity can be used either as a television set or a place to watch yourself while shaving. One of two complete laundry rooms offers a mini-kitchen with a refrigerator and microwave oven. A water leak detection system shuts off water in the home automatically if a leak is detected.
Sonoran Zen House: $2.69 million
This rammed-earth home combines energy efficiency with style. A wine retreat stores wine glasses, a utensil drawer and two wine stewards — one for white and one for red. The breakfast area boasts stellar views of a giant saguaro and Pusch Ridge. One bathroom features pebble floors.
Street of Dreams
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, through April 29
Where: Stone Canyon development in Rancho Vistoso Boulevard about 2 miles west of Tangerine Road
Cost: $10 for adults and $8 for seniors and children over 3 on weekdays; $12 for adults and $10 for children over 3 on weekends
Phone: 575-4058
Online: www.streetofdreams.com
Evening of Dreams
When: 6:30 to 10 p.m. March 24
Where: Stone Canyon development in Rancho Vistoso, off Rancho Vistoso Boulevard about 2 miles north of Tangerine Road
Cost: $60, which includes live entertainment, dancing, food, an auction and a sampling of specialty drinks from local fine restaurants; proceeds benefit the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council
Phone: 797-3959
Online: www.govac.org
Northwest
View eight luxury homes, raise money for arts council during Oro Valley events
By Danielle Sottosanti
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.15.2007
The public can view eight of Oro Valley's luxury homes by starlight and help raise money to benefit the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council at a charity event 6:30 to 10 p.m. March 24 at Stone Canyon Golf and County Club.
Stone Canyon is a recreational community in Rancho Vistoso.
For $60 a ticket, people will be able to tour eight show homes after dark, sample food and drink from 25 Tucson-area restaurants, dance, drink martinis from a "martini luge" ice sculpture, and participate in silent and live auctions that will include artwork in the homes.
All proceeds from this charity event, called Evening of Dreams, will go to the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council.
GOVAC hopes it will raise $60,000 to benefit programs supporting art in schools, said Kate Marquez, the council's development and marketing director.
Evening of Dreams is part of Street of Dreams 2007 — a for-profit, six-week luxury-home show that features multimillion-dollar homes, fully furnished and landscaped, ranging from 4,000 to 7,500 square feet.
Street of Dreams Inc. has produced 85 luxury-home shows such as this in North America, including a home show in Honeybee Canyon Estates, also in Oro Valley.
Around 3.5 million people have attended these shows.
"Everybody wants to improve their lifestyle. They always have a need to have a better place," said Dave Straughan, president of Street of Dreams Inc. He started the company in 1983 in Seattle.
The luxury-home shows give people a chance to see what products are available on the housing and interior-design market and also satisfy their curiosity, Straughan said.
"It's also human nature to look into other people's homes, especially big, elaborate homes," he said. "It's just a fabulous opportunity to see what's available to improve your life."
In addition to the March 24 charity event, people can tour Street of Dreams homes from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, starting Saturday and continuing through April 29.
Tickets may be purchased in Stone Canyon at the Street of Dreams office, 407 Tortolita Vista Drive. Sales end at 5 p.m. each day.
Weekdays, tickets are $10 for adults or $8 for seniors 65 and older and children 4 to 12. Children 3 and younger attend free.
Weekends, adult tickets are $12, and senior and child tickets are $10.
The tours take about 2 1/2 hours, and food and drink will be available at a concession stand, said Debbie Graves, show manager.
Tickets for Evening of Dreams on March 24 are $60 per person and may be purchased through the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council at its Web site, www.govac.org, or by calling 797-3959. They'll also be for sale at the event itself.
Tickets may be purchased in advance for Evening of Dreams, but not for the daytime tours, Graves said.
Northwest
Park plans wow OV residents, officials, but they ponder how to build, pay for it
By Danielle Sottosanti
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.08.2007
Oro Valley residents and officials marveled at plans for a 213-acre park at an open house event last week, but now must decide how to pay for building the nearly $151 million project — possibly with property taxes.
Although people in Oro Valley pay county property taxes, the town does not levy a property tax — but that could change.
Oro Valley voters may have to decide whether to opt for local property taxes that would pay for building and possibly operating and maintaining the proposed park, the Naranja Town Site, which will be at 60 W. Naranja Drive.
Plans for the park include a 1,100-seat music pavilion with lawn seating for 2,000, 12 sports fields, 12 tennis courts, a community center and an aquatic center.
The Oro Valley Town Council was scheduled to consider approving programming and concept design for the park last night, after the Northwest Star's press time.
These plans have — as a handout from the town says, "something for everyone" — but a recreation area of this size and scope comes at a price. That price is nearly $151 million for construction alone and, according to the town's figures and those of its consulting firm, $2.5 million annually for operation and maintenance costs.
"It looks fabulous," said Phyllis Rieman, an Oro Valley resident who looked at the plans at the town's Feb. 26 open house event. "But it will be expensive to build and maintain."
Rieman, 62, said she would be willing to pay local property taxes to fund the Naranja Town Site.
"I think it's a plus and would increase housing values," she said.
Residents Marvin and Mary Alice Billow, both 77, said they would be willing to pay property taxes as long as they were within reason.
Bonds need voter approval
But at the Town Council's study session last week, Vice Mayor Helen Dankwerth said she is concerned that property taxes could inordinately affect people who have had their property in Oro Valley for years but may now be on a fixed income.
To cover construction costs, the town would have to issue bonds and levy a secondary property tax, which would require voters' approval in a bond election.
The secondary property tax could range from 50 cents to $1.06 per $100 of assessed property value, depending on whether the town decides to build the park all at once or a little at a time, said Oro Valley Finance Director Stacey Lemos.
If the park is built all at once, it would cost taxpayers about $1.05 per $100 of assessed property value, Lemos said. That is a combination of an 83-cent monthly secondary property tax to fund construction costs and a 22-cent monthly primary property tax to fund operation and maintenance costs.
This means that someone with a $500,000 home would pay nearly $37 per month for 25 years. The average cost of a home in Oro Valley is $250,000, Lemos said.
Another option would be to build the Naranja Town Site bit by bit.
That would delay completing the park, and its costs could increase with inflation.
Fields first, youth coach urges
There's also the question of what would get built first.
Earthwork and infrastructure work alone, which would be necessary if any of the other facilities were to be built, would cost about $20.6 million.
Based on the town's current plans for the Naranja Town Site, building the playing fields and courts area would cost $24.5 million, the community center and aquatics center would cost $75.7 million, and the music pavilion would cost about $29.7 million.
Oro Valley resident Christopher DeSimone, who is a soccer and Little League coach, said that, if the park is built, the playing fields and infrastructure should be built first.
"If the park isn't built, I'm not going to cry, but if you're going to build the park, build the fields and infrastructure," DeSimone, 36, said.
Combined with the $4.60 monthly that the infrastructure work would cost, building the playing fields and courts area would cost a taxpayer with a $500,000 home about $9.91 in property taxes each month.
The town should wait until it grows more until it builds components such as the music pavilion, DeSimone said.
But the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council has been strongly advocating for building the music pavilion.
"We need to build a facility that can be used at least seven to eight months out of the year," said Dick Eggerding, president emeritus of the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council.
Eggerding would like the town to build the Naranja Town Site all at once because he is concerned that if it's built little by little, Oro Valley will end up with an incomplete park, he said.
$2.5 million a year to run it
But once the park is built, it will still cost money to operate and maintain it.
The town and its consulting firm estimated that, even after deducting money recovered by user fees, maintenance and operation could cost the town $2.5 million annually.
One way to fund it would be for the town to issue bonds and levy a primary property tax, which would require voters' approval in a bond election, along with the secondary property tax used to pay for construction costs.
If the town builds the park all at once, then the primary property tax would be 22 cents per $100 of assessed value, Lemos said.
But if the town builds the park little by little, another option would be for the Town Council to increase the amount of revenue from the town's 6 percent "bed tax" on hotels and other lodging that goes to pay for the Naranja Town Site.
The resolution that allocates this tax revenue will expire on June 30, so it is possible for the Town Council to adjust how much of this tax money would go toward the park project.
? Contact reporter Danielle Sottosanti at 618-1922 or at dsottosanti@azstarnet.com.
Inner child guides director's quest to remold GOVAC
March 7, 2007
In his first week as the executive director of the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council, Michael Patch hadn’t yet decorated his new office. He had, however, placed among the stacks of papers on his desk, a handful of personal items: framed photos of his family, a slinky and a jar of Play-Doh.
The Play-Doh, he said, reminded him of his childhood.
“Close your eyes and smell that,” he said on Feb. 28. “Nothing puts you more in touch with your childhood than the smell of Play-Doh.
“If I can’t be a bit childlike and find joy in simple things,” he added, “I have no place being a part of the arts.”
It was Patch’s connection to childhood, punctuated by an eight-year stint working with a North Carolina children’s theater, that made him seem to some GOVAC board members as the ideal candidate to lead the nonprofit agency at a crucial point in its existence. The organization that once focused on fine arts and classical music has decided to reach out to children and young families.
“I think for whatever reason, we got away from our mission of serving the entire community,” board member Satish Hiremath said recently. “As I say, I’m a firm believer that GOVAC can be all things to all people.”
To help develop programs for younger audiences, the group hired Patch as its second-ever executive director — a man whom a previous boss described as “very playful,” someone who fiddles with a slinky when he’s lost in thought and who enjoys the smell of Play-Doh because it reminds him of his childhood.
“He’s fun, he laughs,” GOVAC President Mahes Prasad said of the group’s new hire. “During the interview process his laughter was infectious.”
While interviewing with the organization’s board of directors, Prasad recalled, Patch presented a plan to make the organization’s events more family friendly.
“His ideas were in sync with the direction we wanted to take GOVAC,” Prasad said.
Only a week into his job, Patch already was juggling ideas that would expand the reach of the organization.
“GOVAC has a wonderful history of arts in the town, but the town has changed,” he said. “We want to consider: How can we serve everybody?”
To expand its reach, GOVAC plans to add more family-friendly activities to its annual fall festival. The organization also will hold a culinary festival and is considering adding fashion- or interior design-based events in the future.
“We’ve got the classical music; we’ve done the jazz,” Patch said. “But at the same time, we’re looking at events that will touch all ages.”
The process that culminated with Patch’s hiring was tumultuous for the arts organization. By the time the search came to a close, previous Board President Dorothy Vanek and board members Bob Langwig, Dave Dame and Dwaine Greer had left the organization in what was described by a remaining board member as a fight over GOVAC’s future direction.
The resigning board members had held four of the five seats on the committee that was looking for a new executive director. At the time of their resignations, the field had been narrowed to two candidates, one of whom was Patch.
After the resignations, the board had planned to start the search process from scratch. However, they quickly scratched that idea. They figured they would end up hiring someone like Patch, who had impressed most of the remaining board members when he met with them during the interviews.
“Why go through the process of casting another net when in all likelihood he’s going to be our choice anyway?” Hiremath explained.
“Irrespective of how the search committee went the crème rose to the top,’ Prasad said.
Patch has two brothers. One is an actor, the other a chemist. Professionally, Patch likes to think of himself as somewhere in the middle. He’s an administrator who works with the arts.
“I have little (artistic) talent of my own,” he said, “and a great appreciation for anyone who has talents.”
At his previous job with the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Patch had started as an office manager. By the time he left, his duties had expanded. He was working as the executive director’s liaison to the theatre’s board of directors and as the personnel director. At the same time, he had helped the organization move into a new building and form its long-term plan.
Bruce LaRowe, the executive director of the children’s theater’s, said after a while it became evident that Patch’s talents had outgrown his position.
“I’m sorry to see him go,” LaRowe said, “but I think the reality was he had grown to the point where it was time for him to be an executive director.”
LaRowe said that Patch had a “playful sense of humor” that helped him fit in well in Charlotte. “We are a serious business here, yet it’s an environment where you’re around kids. If you can’t have fun here, where can you?”
Dick Eggerding, a recent addition to GOVAC’s board and one of its founding fathers, said Patch’s previous work experience made him a perfect fit for the organization’s new direction.
“He’s got the track record, so I’m very enthusiastic about him,” Eggerding said. “The only rub is that the expectations are so high.”
Patch’s spirit and enthusiasm should help him settle in, according to Prasad.
And according to Hiremath, that energy is the “icing on the cake,” especially when it comes to guiding an organization that has survived a serious round of infighting on its way to finding a common vision.
“We’ve come through this 100 percent stronger,” Hiremath said. “I haven’t been this excited in I don’t know how long.”
That excitement, and the opportunity to be part of an organization that was reinventing itself, were among the key reasons why Patch chose to come to GOVAC, he said.
“A lot of things have yet to be written,” he said. “That’s the joy of the job.”
Michael Patch
• Age: 37
• Home: Originally from the Phoenix area
• Work: Executive director, Greater Oro Valley Arts Council; started Feb. 26
• Previous arts exerience: Administrative manager, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte (N.C.), 1998 to 2007
• Education: Master’s degree in Public Administration, University of North Carolina–Charlotte
• Family: Single
• Hobby: Photography
Northwest Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.01.2007
Oro Valley Volunteers needed for Street of Dreams The Greater Oro Valley Arts Council is seeking volunteers to help with staffing homes in the 2007 Luxury Home Show Street of Dreams in Stone Canyon. The show will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays from March 17 to April 29. Volunteers who work a minimum of three full days at the show will receive two tickets valued at $120 to attend a large charity event, "Evening of Dreams," on March 24. Volunteers must be able to stand or sit for four or eight hours. Call Amanda Kate Marquez, project director, at 797-3959, for more information.
News Elsewhere
AZ Daily Star
Arts groups want big- city spaces
By Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.28.2007
Mesa trumped Phoenix last year when it opened its $100 million Mesa Arts Center. Now Oro Valley is considering building a performing arts center that could trump Tucson. Late next month the Oro Valley Town Council will discuss a master plan to develop Naranja Town Site, a 213-acre former gravel pit. The site could become a regional arts draw with a 1,000-seat music pavilion and a 500-seat auditorium alongside ball fields, a community center, trails and other amenities. The price tag: at least $156 million based on what it would cost to build in 2009, much of which the town would likely ask voters to pay. The plans come at a time when many in the arts community agree there are not enough performing-arts spaces for a fast-growing metropolitan area of more than 1 million. Virtually everyone with a stake in the community's cultural future agrees that the inadequacies of the 35-year-old Tucson Music Hall need to be addressed — with or without more seats in Oro Valley:
? Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup envisions building a symphony hall alongside the Tucson Music Hall, and connecting them with a common lobby. But Walkup said he thinks the city is least five years away from making a plan. The pressing priority in the expansive Downtown Rio Nuevo renovations is a 12,500-seat arena to replace the 9,500-seat Tucson Arena.
? Tucson Convention Center Director Richard Singer envisions a stand-alone music facility possibly built near the current TCC Box Office.
? Tucson Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Susan Franano would like to see the orchestra's home remain Downtown, but said the orchestra must first concentrate on raising an endowment fund to secure its long-term financial stability. Which brings us to Oro Valley's plot of desert, where native vegetation sprouts among low-lying piles of soft sand. Those dreaming the loudest in the booming town of 44,000 envision this will be a crown jewel in the Tucson area's music and arts community in four or five years. A sound and scheduling mess The Tucson Music Hall opened in 1971 at a time when communities were rushing to build all-purpose facilities. Because it was built for everyone, from orchestras to operas to speechmakers to theater troupes, the 2,235-seat facility is perfect for no one. Musicians "just get hammered in there," said Adam Boyles, Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra's music director and a big fan of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, one of the Music Hall's primary tenants. "There's not really much you can do apart from miking them. We all call it a cavern. It's too huge." The hall's acoustics are too dry, added Arizona Opera's Joel Revzen. The string section has to physically strain to be heard, while the percussion and brass sections have to play quietly so they don't drown out everyone. "The basic structure of (the Tucson Music Hall) absorbs sound. It doesn't reflect sound. So you don't have anywhere near enough reverberation and ambience in the hall," Revzen explained. "I've heard Verdi's Requiem here. I've heard Beethoven (Ninth). I've heard big pieces. And yet, they don't leap off the stage, so people don't get excited about it. You come to something that puts you back in your chair, everybody's going to want to hear it." But the uneven acoustics and other pitfalls are minor complaints from the Music Hall's primary tenants — the TSO, Arizona Opera and Broadway in Tucson-A Nederlander Presentation. The more significant problem is that all three cram their seasons between September and May, and each could use twice the time for rehearsals and performances. "Virtually every week during the performing arts season, the Music Hall is busy," said the TCC's Singer, who oversees all the venues on the convention center campus. If Tucson built a symphony hall, he said, it would pick up all those dates on the calendar for Broadway in Tucson and Arizona Opera. Oro Valley: a central location Oro Valley's proposed music pavilion would not replace the Music Hall, but it would become home to the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council programs that include the TSO MasterWorks four-concert chamber series and TSO kids concert events. GOVAC's season of 40-plus programs now is held in auditoriums at Canyon del Oro and Ironwood Ridge high schools and spaces at Town Hall. The arts council boasts near sellouts of its MasterWorks concerts and healthy attendance overall, topping 40,000 for the past couple seasons, said program supervisor Jim Mack. The TSO also performs at the group's annual Fourth of July concert at Riverfront Park, attracting between 6,000 and 8,000 people in the blistering summer heat. "It would allow us the opportunity to really centralize a lot of the arts in one location," said Mahes Prasad, newly named president of the council's volunteer board of directors. "The Naranja Town Site can be a conduit to showcase many of the programs we offer." Oro Valley has long prided itself on its commitment to the arts, explained town spokesman Bob Kovitz, a musician and actor in his spare time. So it is not surprising that a survey a decade ago showed the need for more cultural events, which led to the creation of the arts council. The town drafted its Naranja Town Site master plan after a follow-up survey in early 2004. The hilly spot where town officials hope to erect the community center and pavilion is east of North La Cañada Drive between West Naranja Drive and West Tangerine Road. It's sunken low like a bowl, where sound would presumably be absorbed before it reached the homes that peek off the distant hills. "I think it's wonderful," said town resident George Schulte, a Kiwanis volunteer who manned the town's tree-recycling program at the site in late December. "I think people will come. This whole area's developing and the kind of people who are moving here are the kind of people who come to the symphony." "It's very exciting. It's going to be something that I think this community and the Northwest is going to flock to," said GOVAC founder and president emeritus Bob Weede. Weede sees the facility serving his town's residents and tens of thousands more, most of them from the Foothills and the far Northwest Side including SaddleBrooke — areas that, according to TSO figures, supply nearly 40 percent of the orchestra's subscription ticketholders. If you build it, will they come? The Naranja Town Site would be reminiscent of the MAC, the year-old Mesa Arts Center, a $100 million campus that includes a 1,588-seat concert hall and three smaller theaters, an art gallery, public art and arts studios in downtown Mesa. Since opening in September 2005, the MAC has hosted nearly 600 performances. Attendance has topped 265,000, with 60 percent coming from outside Mesa, said spokesman Walter Morlock. The MAC was built with proceeds from a 1998 voter-approved quality-of-life sales tax, which still raises $4.6 million towards the MAC's annual $12.3 million operating budget, Morlock said. Phoenix, meanwhile, pumped $18.5 million — approved by voters — into renovating its 35-year-old multipurpose Symphony Hall. The work displaced the resident companies — the Phoenix Symphony, Ballet Arizona and Arizona Opera — for one season before the hall reopened in August 2005. The Phoenix hall has some of the same technical pitfalls as the Tucson Music Hall, but the renovations — mostly cosmetic tweaks including expanding the lobby and installing new seats and carpets, a new roof and a quieter air conditioning and heating system — did little to alleviate acoustic shortcomings. As for how the Naranja Town Site would be financed, that's anyone's guess. On Wednesday, Wal-Mart officials announced the company would donate $250,000 to the project. Wal-Mart is planning to open a supercenter in the planned Oro Valley Marketplace. Oro Valley Mayor Paul Loomis said the entire project — which could be built in phases or downsized — could reach nearly $200 million. The cost could be financed through general-fund bonds, a sales tax similar to Mesa's or the introduction of a property tax — all ideas that are being quietly debated and considered. Frankly, Loomis admitted, all would need voter support. Loomis said he couldn't speculate how that would fare. But at an open house at the site in December, the overwhelming question was "When are you going to start?" said Ainsley Reeder, the town's parks and rec director. "Individually there were some who questioned or who took issue with different portions, but there was an overwhelming support for the entire plan." Someday, a symphony hall; first, a way to pay the bills Tucson Symphony officials say they have no plans to abandon the Music Hall or Downtown Tucson. But the idea of a symphony hall will have to wait, at least until the orchestra establishes an endowment fund, Executive Director Franano said. The hope, shared by the TSO board and a big chunk of its devoted donors, is to guarantee the orchestra's financial stability so that it can "return to an era of balanced operation and not be using up assets," Franano explained. But in a symphony hall of its own, Franano said that the 80-musician-strong ensemble could possibly double its programming from the current 17 weeks in the Music Hall and a dozen or so weeks at other venues over time. "Getting to 40 weeks overnight is not something that can happen, but you can certainly build toward that if you have the space available," she said. Boyles believes the stronger the TSO is the stronger Tucson's music community becomes. And one of the keys is a space better suited for them. "It only benefits everybody in town, all the musicians, for the TSO to be as strong as it can be," Boyles said recently. "And they can't make the next step unless they have a good hall." On StarNet: Should a new symphony hall be part of Downtown Tucson's revitalization? Go online to vote in our poll, and watch a video of Oro Valley concertgoers talking about the town's proposed arts center, all at go.azstarnet.com/onemillion ? Contact reporter Cathalena Burch at 573-4642 or cburch@azstarnet.com.
at Home with AZ Daily Star
Council encourages art, art appreciation
By Elena Acoba Special to the Arizona Daily Star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.28.2007
Visual artists and lovers of art get plenty of support from the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council, which offers avenues to encourage making and appreciating art throughout the Northwest Side. While not a membership organization, GOVAC stays in touch with some 2,000 visual artists who want to participate in its programs, says Carmen Feriend, who was GOVAC's executive director for eight years. She left the post at the end of last year. The organization relies on volunteers, donors and sponsors to fund and run its myriad programs. Year's biggest events: Each of GOVAC's two major festivals features 75 artists who display and sell their works. A volunteer leads visitors on a tour of the booths to talk about the art and artists. Comcast's Oro Valley Festival of the Arts will run April 14-15 at Canyon del Oro Riverfront Park, which is also the site of the fall Comcast's Art in the Park Celebration. Other fun stuff: Ventana Medical Systems provides gallery space for three or four GOVAC-sponsored juried exhibits each year. The organization also organizes art classes through the town's parks and recreation department and runs the Art in Oro Valley contest and exhibition. Winners will be announced March 29. Latest buzz: Public art is about to get a huge boost as several retail centers open up. The town requires all development to include artwork equal to 1 percent of its construction costs. The Oro Valley Marketplace at West Tangerine and North Oracle roads, for example, will provide $760,000 in public art, Feriend says. GOVAC administers the program. More information: 797-3959 or online at www.govac.org. Club Scout ? Contact freelance writer Elena Acoba at acoba@dakotacom.net.
Northwest Daily Star
NEW TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Wal-Mart offshoot is smaller, puts additional emphasis on selling supermarket items
By Danielle Sottosanti arizona daily star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.25.2007
The Tucson area's third Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market opened last week in Oro Valley at 7951 N. Oracle Road. Neighborhood Markets are smaller than other types of Wal-Mart stores and sell more grocery items than other products, said Rick Velasco, Wal-Mart district manager. The 41,679-square-foot store held a grand opening ceremony on Jan. 17. The other Neighborhood Markets are at 3925 E. Grant Road and 2823 W. Valencia Road. Oro Valley's newest supermarket is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and has a deli, pharmacy, half-hour photography lab and organic-foods section. Customers who are in a hurry can pick up a fountain drink, pastry or coffee at the "Grab-It-and-Go" bar, which is located near the front of the store. Rather than waiting in a checkout line to pay for "Grab-It-and-Go" items, customers just drop what they owe for the purchases in a box. Before the Oro Valley store's grand opening, Wal-Mart donated a total of $35,000 to several area organizations including the Oro Valley Police Department, Immaculate Heart School, the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council, the Oro Valley Historical Society and Project Graduation. These donations include $2,000 that went to Immaculate Heart School — which consists of Immaculate Heart High School and Immaculate Heart Academy, both on East Magee Road. The company also has donated to the Catholic school in the past, said Cathy Middleton, the school's director of institutional advancement. "Wal-Mart has always stepped up," she said. "To us, they have been very neighborhood-friendly." Oro Valley's new Wal-Mart is a few employees short of its goal of hiring 120 workers, 70 percent of whom will work full time, Velasco said. ? Contact reporter Danielle Sottosanti at 618-1922 or at dsottosanti@azstarnet.com
Plenty to do outdoors in Southern Arizona
January 10, 2007
If there is one thing residents in Northern Pima County like to do, it’s play. They like it so much, in fact, that we would probably have to devote a completely separate book to highlight all of the different clubs, attractions, activities and organizations that are dedicated to making sure there are plenty of fun things to do around here.
With Tucson’s over 300 days of sunshine, those fun things often mean heading outside. Nature enthusiasts have a variety of activities to choose from, be it hiking, camping, birdwatching or just simply taking in the scenery on an evening walk or bike ride. Many residents have formed hiking, nature and wildlife watching clubs, while many others simply opt to enjoy these activities solo.
Catalina State Park just off of Oracle Road in the northern foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains has some of the best hiking trails in the area. Whether you enjoy a lazy hayride, a journey through the park on horseback, or a challenging trek through its peaks, the park has a variety of trails and activities catered to every skill level. And no matter which of these activities you choose, you’ll undoubtedly find something interesting that will keep you coming back.
Northern Pima County is also very friendly to its visitors and residents who prefer to take in the environment on bicycles. Numerous biking clubs at all skill and age levels can often be found pedaling their way through the area on an early morning ride, while others take to the hills on one of the many available mountain biking trails. The town of Oro Valley has an extensive bike trail system, while other areas in the Catalina Foothills have gone out of their way to make sure bikes and cars can share the road safely. Many Northern Pima County residents enjoy the challenge that the hills of the area provide, which is why the route of El Tour de Tucson, a bike race held every November, traverses through this area.
Ski enthusiasts might be surprised to find that the closest place to hit the slopes is only about an hour drive away. Mount Lemmon is the southernmost ski area in the United States and boasts an average of 175 inches of snow per year. Mount Lemmon is also a favorite for campers and hikers, as it has an abundance of campsites and trails.
Residents can get their fill of fitness indoors as well by joining one of several gyms or resorts in the area. Northern Pima County also has its own YMCA where members can take classes, swim, or work out in its fitness room while enjoying the mountain views out of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
If you enjoy watching sports rather than partaking in them, Tucson is home to some of the best and most entertaining college sports teams in the country. Residents love their University of Arizona Wildcats, especially the men’s basketball team, which are frequent favorites during March Madness. Springtime brings Major League Baseball to the area, with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies holding spring training games in Tucson’s ballparks. During the regular baseball season, residents can enjoy their summer nights at Tucson Electric Park watching future major leaguers play for the Tucson Sidewinders, the Diamondbacks’ minor league team and winners of the 2006 Triple-A championship. A short jaunt up to Phoenix will give you your fix of all four major professional sports teams (football, basketball, baseball and hockey), one of just a handful of U.S. cities that can do so.
On the other side of the spectrum, fans of the arts will certainly find a plethora of entertainment to meet their fancy. Both the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council and the Marana Arts Council frequently hold concerts and festivals that draw well-known musicians to the area. The Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Ballet Arizona can often be found collaborating on one of many stellar performances, including the acclaimed holiday favorite, The Nutcracker. Theater enthusiasts can choose from a variety of Broadway performances at the Tucson Convention Center and the UA’s Centennial Hall, while the Arizona Theater Company puts on several performances featuring the talents of Tucson’s local actors. The UA also puts on several dance, music and theater performances to showcase student talent.
Whatever your taste for fun may be, you’ll be hard pressed to wake up in the morning with nothing to do, yet another one of the countless benefits of visiting and living in Northern Pima County.
Getting in tune - Explorer News
Amphi music students rub elbows with professional counterparts
November 15, 2006
A music teacher stood before a few dozen seventh- and eighth-graders on a recent Wednesday afternoon, his arms outstretched and his eyes wide open.
The students quit shuffling sheet music and fidgeting with their instruments. Russ Granillo's stare instantly brought quiet to the classroom at Coronado K-8 School.
"Quarter notes, please," the teacher said as kids shifted in their seats. "And 1, 2 ..."
Granillo's students played their scales as five members of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra - a brass quintet - listened.
"Being professional musicians," the teacher said pointing to the quintet, "they can hear things we can't."
And so on Nov. 8, without getting the chance to tune their instruments, the students began playing a brassy version of "Amazing Grace" - for the first time in front of an audience.
"You know what I heard the most?" TSO trombonist Michael Becker asked after music stopped. "It's the trumpets."
Becker, who has played his instrument for 32 years, talked to his newfound pupils about the importance of orchestral balance. No one instrument should out-blare another, he suggested with a glance to a sheepish-looking group of young trumpeters.
"This time no trumpets," Granillo said.
Again, the students played.
"Yep, the trumpets are a little too loud," echoed TSO's Michael Sherline, who sat near the door cradling his tuba.
For the past six years, during October and November, TSO musicians have come to band classrooms at middle and high schools throughout the Amphitheater district to work with students. It costs the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council more than $10,000 a year to run the "Musicians in the Classroom" program. The benefits of the exchanges, however, can't be measured in dollars and cents, according to Bob Weede, a GOVAC board member and founder.
Perhaps some kids and their teachers simply revel in talking shop with their professional counterparts, said Weede, who accompanied the TSO players on trips to Cross Middle School on Nov. 7 and to Coronado on Nov. 8. But others might catch a sort of fever for the music, he added, once they see how far it can take them.
Countless studies over the years show that music instruction - and arts instruction, in general - can boost a student's performance in school. For instance, a 2005 study by The College Board, which administers the SAT, shows that students with four or more years of art instruction fare better on college admissions tests - with an average score of 1,074, compared to the 1,028 average of all other test-takers.
Because academics so often cite the importance of arts instruction to education, the public has come to believe them. In fact, according to a 2005 Harris Poll, some 93 percent of Americans consider the arts "vital" components to a well-rounded education. Yet, when asked in the same poll to rate the importance of arts education (on a scale of 1 to 10), 54 percent put it dead last, behind other academic pursuits.
"They help the kids," Granillo said of professional musicians. "They help me."
The music teacher grew up playing the trumpet and then the French horn. The latter is a more difficult instrument to master, according to Granillo, but one at which he excelled.
None of the seventh- and eighth-graders in his Nov. 8 class played the horn, which the TSO's Kristine Crandall took care to point out as the professionals discussed ways to balance the groups' sound.
"One solution is to get some of your trumpet players to switch over to horn," Crandall suggested with a chuckle.
"Twenty bucks to any trumpet player who makes the switch!" Granillo kidded his students.
"I remember being a young tuba player and being louder than (the others)," Sherline admitted. "I was wrong to play that way ... it was not musical."
The class, admonitions in mind, again played "Amazing Grace." The sound, even to the untrained ear, sounded more balanced.
"We've got a free clinic here," Granillo reminded his students. "You guys should take advantage of it."
The TSO each year plays for thousands of students throughout the region, as part of its "Music in the Schools" program. The GOVAC extension, however, goes beyond mere performance. As in a master's class that some college or university might hold with outside musicians, middle and high school music students get to pepper the TSO pros with questions about their craft.
"They have very, very specific questions," said TSO clarinetist Jeremy Reynolds, who worked with Cross teacher Frank Pones' students on Nov. 7.
Reynolds joined four others - a flutist, oboist, bassoonist and French horn player - to play a number of classical selections for Pones' middle school students.
The professional musicians took the time to deconstruct each piece. They also made a case for playing music with passion and for every student to develop a musical style of his or her own.
"Everyone knows the five senses, right?" Reynolds asked the Cross students. A chorus of "Yes's" filled the room.
"Well, in music we almost have all five sense ... and we have passion," the clarinetist said, as if trying to convince them of the necessity of that last ingredient.
Students sought practice tips. They asked questions about the TSO players' professional-grade instruments. Some of the kids who played woodwind instruments, which require bamboo reeds to make sound, asked how often they should change their reeds.
The professionals make their own reeds, bassoonist Letitia Bryant said. "It's not about the equipment. It's about you."
Perhaps to some students' chagrin, but with a welcoming nod from Pones, the TSO players emphasized the need for near-constant practice.
"How many here want to be First Chair in the band," Reynolds asked.
The First Chair, or best player, leads each section of the orchestra and often gets the pick of solos.
Nearly all of Pones' students eagerly raised their hands.
"That's a passion you all share with us," Reynolds told them.
At the end of every session, Weede and other GOVAC volunteers pass out vouchers that will get any student and one parent, for free, into one of the arts council-sponsored TSO Masterworks concerts.
The Nov. 10 concert, Weede told the students at Cross and at Coronado, included a performance by piano prodigy Steven Beus, who recently won $65,000 in an American Pianists Association competition.
"It's not just football you can make money at," said Weede, wagging his finger. "How's that? Huh?"
Whether any of either school's students will play professionally, of course, remains uncertain. Just 50,400 people throughout the country play music full-time, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2005 study of the U.S. job market and wages. But the median income of those who do is $52,333 a year. About 10 percent of them make more than $100,000 a year.
"We probably all started the same as you," TSO trombonist Michael Becker told Granillo's students at Coronado on Nov. 8, "in band, in middle school."
Two of the brass quintet's members have played for more than 40 years. Another two, including Becker, have played for more than 30. Even the youngest among them, trumpet player Elizabeth Bright, has played for 14 years.
In some measure, all it took for them to land their jobs at the symphony: practice. Lots of it. Hours upon hours of it.
"Do you all do your scales?" Becker asked the seventh- and eighth-graders.
A few let out groans.
"OK, I know," Becker said with a chuckle. "Yes, playing scales are boring. But try to mix it up with different techniques."
"Try accenting every third note," Bright chimed in.
A few of the kids shrugged. But, their teacher sat in the corner nodding furiously, with a wide smile.
Concert celebrates several holidays at once
November 7, 2006
As the time for turkeys, Christmas trees and menorahs draws near, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra will be ready with a selection titled "Voices of Spring."
The orchestra is gearing up to play a Viennese waltz evoking the season of baby birds and blossoms. It may seem an unlikely choice, but then again, during the yuletide season in Vienna, it's spring.
The setting for the performance is St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. The Holiday Magic concert on Nov. 18 won't cover Easter, but it will cover holidays falling in November through January.
"We always want to be the first out of the gate," said Jim Mack, the program supervisor for the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council. "We want to start the holiday season off with the first concert."
The conductor, George Hanson, knows something about New Year's Day celebrations in spring, because he spent time in Vienna.
He saw young people in tails and white dresses dancing to "Voices of Spring." He noted the way the Viennese perform waltzes - with subtle alterations to the musical notations - and learned how to conduct the pieces that way.
"I love making waltzes part of holiday offering," he said. "It sort of reminds me of wonderful days there."
Another waltz on the concert program, "Skater's Waltz," will provide a musical backdrop for art created by Oro Valley children.
Students in elementary schools across town listened to "Skater's Waltz" and "Sleigh Bells" in their art classes and drew pictures based on what the music evoked. The resulting pictures - everything from a crayon-colored menorah on which the candles endearingly slant downhill to a brightly colored turkey with curly-Q's on its feathers - will appear on giant screens above the orchestra.
"The reason behind it is that we want to bring together music and visual artwork from two separate genres within the encompassing art label," Mack said.
The children who provided the art will receive free tickets to the concert. The lineup is designed to appeal to children, with upbeat pieces including "March of Toys" from the musical "Toyland" and selections from the movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
"I think George Hanson decided on that one," Mack said. "He said, 'Let's see if this will tickle the kids.'"
The large screens at St. Andrew's will have another use, as well: They will give people close-up views of featured parts of the symphony. A camera in the back of the symphony will capture the conductor's face.
"It's rumored that he makes some funny faces while conducting, so we all are going to find out," Mack said.
The concert will include a prelude by a children's choir from St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and traditionally ends with a sing-along.
"It ought to put people over the edge in terms of getting themselves ready for the holidays," Hanson said. "This should be the thing that really ties it up in a big bow."
www.VISITTUCSON.org
Oro Valley
Named one of “America’s Top-Rated Smaller Cities” for 2005, the Town of Oro Valley is a scenic retreat located at the base of Pusch Ridge at the western edge of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Northwestern Pima County, six miles north of the Tucson city limits. The valley, formed by the Santa Cruz River joining Gold Creek, sits at an elevation of 2,620 feet, covers over 34 square miles and has a current population of nearly 40,000. The community of Oro Valley is a resort destination with several championship golf courses, two popular retirement communities, two country clubs, one private and one public, and a total of four 18-hole golf courses and one nine-hole. There is one resort hotel in Oro Valley and additional lodging is available at several local hotels.
The Oro Valley Arts Council brings the community together with seasonal arts festivals and entertainment, such as the Oro Valley Jazz Festival, the Oro Valley Festival of the Arts, and a concert series by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Just east of Oro Valley is Catalina State Park, a desert oasis preserved for hiking, biking, horseback riding and bird watching. The town also hosts several annual athletic events, including the Arizona Distance Classic marathon, the Copper Bowl Tennis Championship and theTucson Marathon finish line.
Explorer Newspaper, 9-21-2006
Northwest - Foothills
Performers help arts council raise funds
By Laura Marble, LMarble@ExplorerNews.com
September 20, 2006 - He drummed for the queen of England in a 1970s jazz performance and fought the temptation to peek into the Royal Box.
He provided a steady backbeat for Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis Jr.
He appeared on "60 Minutes," "The Tonight Show" and briefly in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," and on Sept. 29, Butch Miles will appear at a Northwest resort.
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The drummer, of Count Basie Orchestra fame, will join five other jazz greats who have racked up decades of performances at the Academy Awards, on soundtracks and alongside celebrated jazz singers.
"We'll have a swinging good time playing the only art form America has ever known," Miles said.
The occasion is "Let's Jazz It Up," an evening of music, wine and hors d'oeuvres at the Hilton El Conquistador Golf & Tennis Resort that will raise money for the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council. The resort is sponsoring the event.
Along with Miles, the star-studded sextet will include trumpeter Warren Luening, trombonist Bill Watrous, tenor saxophonist Rickey Woodard, bassist Chuck Berghofer and pianist Bill Cunliffe.
The performers all have had chances to work with one another at sometime in their musical pasts, Miles said.
"These are some of the best musicians on Earth," he said. "I'm really looking forward to working with each one of them."
The sextet will use a peninsula in one of the Hilton's swimming pools as its stage. Guests will arrive poolside at 6 p.m. for mingling after leaving their cars in the care of the hotel's valet service. Music will begin at about 7 p.m. and continue in two one-hour sets.
The musicians will get together before the performance to talk to one another about their tunes and decide who should do what.
"These guys are really blue-ribbon players," said Al Cook, an organizer of the event. "They're so good they can immediately play together."
Jeff Haskell, a professor of jazz studies at the University of Arizona, will serve as the master of ceremonies, and the recommended mode of dress is casually elegant.
The musicians will perform various types of jazz music, Cook said, including famous ballads, up-tempo standards and pieces that amply showcase soloists.
"The playing is an electric thing," he said. "If an audience is very near to the musicians, it's an experience that we've discovered resonates with people."
During the second set, the University of Arizona School of Music Studio Recording Combo will perform with the jazz greats. Before leaving Tucson, the accomplished musicians will visit the university and teach master classes.
"That's part of GOVAC's ongoing interest in education," Cook said.
Cook and his wife, Marilyn, seven years ago began bringing jazz musicians to the greater Tucson area for intimate concerts to boost GOVAC's budget. Over the years, the event has raised about $45,000.
"This is going to help pay for many events, such as the free July Fourth party at Riverfront Park and the free festivals in the spring and fall," Cook explained.
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Explorer Newspaper, 9-20-2006
Education
Conductor takes risks to avoid 'half-tepid applause'
By Brian P. Nanos, ExpNews@ExplorerNews.com
September 20, 2006 - Half way through the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra's first rehearsal of the season, Music Director Adam Boyles already is slightly out of breath and sweating.
"I have to calm down a little," he says, "so I don't blow out my back or something."
Calm? Boyles? Not likely.
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During the orchestra's board meetings, President Debbie Bouchard offers both caffeinated and decaffeinated tea. The number of people drinking caffeinated tea has grown since Boyles showed up a year ago.
"People say, 'Give me some caffeine, I have to keep up with Adam,'" Bouchard explains.
The 27-year-old Boyles took over as music director and conductor of the orchestra last year after beating out a field of more than 60 other applicants.
The move was a homecoming for Boyles, who was raised in Tucson and graduated from Canyon Del Oro High School in 1997. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, where the orchestra will perform this year, stands less than three miles from Boyles' childhood home, near the intersection of La Cholla Boulevard and Magee Road.
When they met Boyles, the first thing many orchestra members noticed was an excited, wide-eyed enthusiasm that overcomes him whenever he talks about music.
Now that he's spent a year as their music director, tasked with planning and preparing for each performance, Boyles' excitement has proven contagious.
The majority of last year's orchestra players have returned for another season, something that can never be taken for granted in community orchestras with members trying to work the music around their day jobs. Another 15 players joined after auditions held this summer, making this year's group the largest in SASO's 27-year history.
At a recent rehearsal, Boyles moves from section to section of the orchestra, with specific recommendations and corrections for the players. He micro-manages his players, even telling the string players how to hold their bows.
Two years ago, when SASO auditioned for new music directors, Boyles' ability to offer specific corrections rather than simply vague criticisms made him a frontrunner for the job.
Other conductors, says violinist Bouchard, often said something like "play warmer."
"And it's like, 'OK, how?'" she says.
Boyles says the players in this orchestra - perhaps because they are amateurs - more willingly accept and work with criticism than others.
Conductors at community orchestras must walk a fine line.
They have to be demanding of the players to elicit top performances. However, if they become too demanding, players will stop showing up.
Boyles' manages to keep his musicians excited, even as he tells them they're playing something all wrong. The players don't bristle at his corrections, they say, because the orders come with a dose of "you-can-do-it" optimism.
"He has such a great presence that he's able to be demanding and not offend or scare anyone off," violist Tim Secomb says.
Even sponsors have caught on to the excitement.
This year, in a deal considered unprecedented in the history of the orchestra, the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council signed as the sole sponsor of its first concert.
That concert will feature a solo by Tucson Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Steven Moeckel and a section during which the entire orchestra, save for the first three violin players, will put down their instruments and clap.
The clapping, which will take place during a performance of Donald Grantham's "Southern Harmony," stems from Boyles' idea that orchestras should take risks to engage their audiences.
Bolyes also has scheduled dramatic readings from Shakespeare's "Henry V" for the orchestra's November performance and a tap dance concerto for May.
He'd rather have an audience that boos and throws rotten vegetables at him than one that sits through the entire performance unengaged. "There's nothing worse than half-tepid applause."
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