Songs tell stories and arguably none have been as enduring as those included in the Great American Songbook, works written in the early 20th century by composers including George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern.
And in 2020, Tucson Desert Song Festival is turning its attention to those great stories and songs thanks to two $100,000 gifts this month from two big fans of the festival.
Dorothy Dyer Vanek, who has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Tucson arts organizations over the years, pledged $50,000 to the Great American Songbook festival and another $50,000 to the 2019 Latin-themed festival.
TDSF Board of Directors President Jeanette Segel, a former professional opera singer who performed on stages throughout the East Coast, matched Vanek dollar for dollar for both festivals, according to Tucson Desert Song Festival Director George Hanson.
The gift is the latest to the festival from Vanek, who donated $150,000 for the upcoming 2018 festival celebrating what would have been Leonard Bernstein’s centennial birthday. The Bernstein festival runs Jan. 16 to Feb. 4, 2018, at venues throughout Tucson.
The 2018 festival, the sixth since the Song Festival launched in winter 2013, will tell a truly American story about the New York Philharmonic conductor and composer. Throughout the 19-day event, musicians and vocalists will explore Bernstein’s life through the stories he told in such works as the comic operetta “Candide,” his one-act opera “Trouble In Tahiti,” his Third Symphony “Kaddish” and the dozens of songs he composed in a career that spanned five decades.
Bernstein died in 1990.
Cathalena E. Burch
