2012 Black & White Gala »

BLACK AND WHITE GALA TO HONOR VIRGINIA WARING WITH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD  (Click here for downloadable PDFs of Tribute Book form and Gala Invitation)

WHAT:  28th Annual Black & White Gala benefiting the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition

WHEN:  Sunday, February 19, 2012 - 6:30 PM - Hosted Cocktails; 7:15 PM Program, Dinner & Dancing

WHO: 

• Honorees:
  
• • Virginia Waring - Lifetime Achievement Award and
  • Marta Casals Istomin - Distinguished Arts Award
• Gala Chair - Rev. Patty Spicer
  
• Honorary Chair - Gary Hall with Wells Fargo - the Private Bank
• Dinner Chairs - Sherrie & Ron Auen
  

TICKETS - $300 per person includes cocktail reception, gourmet dinner, short classical music program and dancing to the music of Pat Rizzo and his orchestra - 760-773-2575.  Buy Tickets Now!

Longtime desert dweller, classical pianist and competition namesake VIRGINIA WARING plus cellist / international arts icon MARTA CASALS ISTOMIN will be honored at the 28th Annual Black and White Gala for their musical contributions and encouragement of young musicians.

Virginia Morley Waring has devoted her life to music, nurture and public service. Born in Dinuba, California, her talent gained musical honors at Mills College, and then a full scholarship at the renowned Music Academy of Fontainbleau, France. There she studied with the great Robert Casadeus and Nadia Boulanger, and joined with another gifted American pianist, Livingston Gearhart. They formed a piano duo, and in time a marriage and family. The specter of impending war brought them back to the USA where they toured extensively as “Columbia Artists” for thirteen years, appearing regularly on the “Fred Waring Show.” In 1954 Virginia married Fred Waring and became not only wife and mother, but an integral part of the extensive Waring music and publishing organization. With Fred’s declining health, Virginia assumed the baton as conductor and master of ceremonies, becoming Chairman of the Board of Fred Waring Enterprises and President and Owner of Shawnee Press, a highly regarded publisher of Choral Music. She is the author of two books, her own autobiography, “Return to Fontainbleau” and the biography, now in its 2nd printing, “Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians.” She is Namesake
and Founding President of the VWIPC.

Marta Casals Istomin is an internationally known figure in the arts:
President of the Manhattan School of Music in New York from 1992 to
2005; former General Director of the Recontres Musicales d’Evian Festival International (France, 1990-1997); member of the National Council on the Arts (USA, 1990-1997) and Artistic Director, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, DC, 1980 to 1991). During her 16-year marriage to the legendary cellist Pablo Casals, she helped the Maestro establish the Casals Festival, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, and the Conservatory of Music. For five years after his death, she was co-Chairman of the Board and Music Director of the entire Casals Festival Organization and added a children’s string program to the conservatory. She taught cello at the Conservatory of Music in Puerto Rico and was visiting cello professor at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. She has received numerous honors, awards and honorary doctorates in the US, Europe and Latin America. She was married to the internationally eminent American pianist Eugene Istomin from 1975-2003.