Community Concert Association Announces Series Underwriter; Elects Officers

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Nov. 13, 2015 - PRLog -- The Fort Myers (Fla.) Community Concert Association Board of Directors announced Sunday that philanthropist Berne Davis has agreed to be the underwriter of the entire 2016 concert season.

Davis, who is 101 years old, has been a member of the Community Concert Association for 68 years and was the association’s first sponsor in 1995 in honor of her late husband Sidney.

“Berne has been a program sponsor every year for the past 18 years,” said Community Concert Association President Mary Lee Mann. “This gracious southern lady and patron of the arts has contributed substantially to our Endowment Fund to ensure the continuation of the association for many years to come and we are eternally grateful to her.”

The announcement was made at the fall meeting of the Community Concert Association.

Mann also announced that Madeleine Taeni of Cape Coral will sponsor “Aida”to be performed February 10 by Teatro Lirico D’Europa; Pamela Templeton of Fort Myers will sponsor the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra March 2;  and Rob and Ruth Diefenbach of Fort Myers will sponsor the March 21 performance by classical pianist Emanuel Ax.

The Community Concert Association also elected officers for 2016.  They are:

●  Mary Lee Mann, President (Alva) – community leader and long-time officer of the Community Concert Association;

●  Ian Mann, Vice-President (Fort Myers) – attorney

●  Kay Higgins, Secretary (Fort Myers)– community volunteer; and

●  David Hall, Treasurer (East Lee County)– Sanibel-Captiva Bank.

New board members welcomed to the Community Concert Association:

●  Frank Mann Sr. (Alva)– Lee County Commissioner;

●  lan Mann (Fort Myers) - attorney;

●  Wiley Parker (Fort Myers) – architect with Parker/Mudgett/Smith Architects; and

●  Barbara Shafer (Fort Myers) whose late husband, Judge Robert Shafer, was a long-time board member.

Mary Lee Mann reported to the Board that few tickets remain for this year’s 67^th Concert Series that begins in January with five concerts:

●          Russian National Ballet Theatre performing Sleeping Beauty – January 4, 2016.  The Russian National Ballet captures the delight, the fantasy and the drama of the cherished story Sleeping Beauty through classical ballet and the timeless score by Tchaikovsky. The Russian National Ballet Theatre was founded with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and invigorates the tradition of classical Russian ballet with developments in dance from around the world.

●          Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra  –January 25, 2016.  Richard Wagner’s Overture to The Flying Dutchman and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade Symphonic Suite will be included in this performance by the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, which is the largest music institution in northern Poland.

●          Teatro Lirico D’Europa performing Aida – February 10, 2016.  Aida is the tragic story of the love between Rhadames, the Egyptian general, and Aida, an Ethiopian slave, and the jealousy of Amneris, daughter of the King of Egypt.  Teatro Lirico D’Europa is the most successful opera touring company in Europe and the U.S. and travels with a full orchestra of 47 to 50 members and a chorus of 40 singers.

●          Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra – March 2, 2016. The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra will present Brahm’s Symphony No. 2 and feature cello soloist Daniele Akta in Tchaikovsky’s The Khojaly Requiem and Camille Saint Saens’ Cello Concerto No. 1. The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra plays a varied repertoire and has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikvereine in Vienna, the Philharmonic in Cologne and major halls in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Lucerne.

●          Emanuel Ax, Pianist – March 21, 2016. Emanuel Ax is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist and an internationally-acclaimed performer who is currently on the faculty at Juilliard.  His program will include Dussek’s Piano Sonata No. 24, Elegie harmonique and Beethoven’s No. 8 Pathetique and No. 23 Appassionata piano sonatas.

All performances will be at the Barbara B. Mann Hall on the Florida SouthWestern College campus in Fort Myers.  All five concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and are included in one ticket price, which ranges from $155 for orchestra seats, $85 for lower balcony seating and just $65 for upper balcony.  Mezzanine seating already is sold out, Mann said.

For tickets and membership information, visit www.fortmyerscommunityconcerts.org or call 239-489-4171.

About the Fort Myers Community Concert Association

The Fort Myers Community Concert Association is an all-volunteer not-for-profit organization founded by the late Barbara B. Mann in 1949 to bring world-class entertainment to Southwest Florida at affordable prices.  The association consists of more than 1,700 members, underwriters and sponsors. Performers brought to Fort Myers in the past by the association include The Israel Ballet, The Boston Brass, Minnesota Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Vienna Boys Choir, Violinist Itzhak Perlman, Flutist James Galway, Pianist Andre Watts, Violinist Joshua Bell with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and many others.