32nd Season Gala

Friday,
October 14, 2011, 6pm
The City Club of
San Francisco

Thomas Beischer and Ellen Bermingham
Gala Co-Chairs

Gala co-chairs Thomas Beischer and Ellen Bermingham invite you to join them on Friday, October 14, 2011, at the City Club of San Francisco to celebrate another exceptional season of music and contemporary dance performances at San Francisco Performances' 32nd Season Gala.

The evening's festivities will begin at 6pm in the City Club Café followed by dinner, live auction and a performance featuring soprano Leah Crocetto with pianist Tamara Sanikidze in the Main Dining Room. Dress is black tie optional and valet parking will be provided.

The annual Season Gala is San Francisco Performances' largest fundraising event. All proceeds from the evening go toward education programs that increase awareness of and participation in the arts. Anchored by the artist residency program that places internationally acclaimed artists in classrooms and community workshops, education programs expose new audiences to many of the great artists of our time.

Individual tickets for the evening start at $400 and table sponsorships begin at $4,000. For more information or to purchase tickets contact James Toy at 415.677.0326 or james@sfperformances.org.

Leah Crocetto and Tamara Sanikidze

Leah Crocetto & Tamara Sanikidze

Leah Crocetto is currently a third-year Adler fellow with the San Francisco Opera and graduate of the Merola Opera Program. She was the 2010 Grand Finals winner of the Metropolitan National Council Auditions; First Place Winner, People's Choice and the Spanish Prize winner at the 2009 Josè Iturbi International Music Competition; winner of the Bel Canto Foundation competition and this summer she represented the United States as a finalist at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Recently she made her European debut in the role of Leonora in Il trovatore with the Opéra National de Bordeaux. At the San Francisco Opera last season, she covered Leonora in Il trovatore and Desdemona in Otello. Leah also delighted San Francisco Performances audiences when she appeared on our Salon Series this past season. Leah will open the San Francisco Opera's 89th season this fall as Liù in Puccini's Turandot.

Coach and accompanist Tamara Sanikidze is an alumna of the 2009 Merola Opera Program and the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington National Opera (WNO). The second-year Adler Fellow has worked on the WNO productions of Don Giovanni, Hansel and Gretel, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Carmen and Turandot. She has served on the music staff at Virginia Opera, Opera Cleveland, University of Maryland Opera Studio, Pittsburg Opera, Washington Concert Opera and Wolf Trap Opera.

Auction Items

Dinner for A Song
Enjoy a delicious dinner and delightful conversation when you and two friends dine at Barbaccowith the wonderful soprano and SF Performances Vocal Artist-in-Residence Jessica Rivera at a San Francisco restaurant. Jessica will be in town for her residency in mid-January so the time frame for the dinner is January 23-26. Jessica returns to the Bay Area in April to appear on SF Performances' Young Master Series, April 29 and with the Berkeley Symphony, April 26. This package includes up to four tickets to each of those concerts. In addition, you can attend one of her in school visits and see her in her other role as an inspiring teaching artist.

Shaken or Stirred
Learn how to mix the perfect martini with a true Renaissance man, San Francisco Performances' Music Historian-in-Residence (and Master Martini Mixologist) Bob Greenberg. You and up to seven friends will be whisked away in a chauffeured limo to Bob's house in the Oakland Hills to enjoy dinner and Bob's sublime martinis. Not to be missed is Bob's collection of more than 400 vintage martini shakers. When not mixing drinks, Bob will provide the perfect martini music from the piano.

Compose Yourself
Sit back and relax in the comfort of your own home. You and your friends can enjoy a concert and conversation with renowned composer Lera Auerbach. Lera will play a selection of her own works and share insights about her composing process. In addition, you will receive four tickets to her SF Performances concert with cellist Alisa Weilerstein and soprano Lina Tetriani, March 14, 2012. Your home concert must occur on Monday, March 12.

Plus a fourth very special mystery lot that will be revealed at the gala…

Corporate and In Kind Sponsors

Gold Table

Thomas and Lily Beischer