Mahaiwe Gala Guests Raise Funds And Relish A Performance By Renee Fleming
Attendees made gifts towards a $110,000 goal to fund the theater's new boilers and a new set of fire-proof stage curtains.
Mahaiwe Executive Director Janis Martinson and Mahaiwe Board Chair Margaret Deutsch
Contributed by the Mahaiwe. Photos by Julia Kaplan. Friends of the historic Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington gathered on July 30 to celebrate the organization’s past, present, and future with — what else? — gorgeous music. Some 600 people attended the Mahaiwe’s 2022 gala, which included dinner under a tent on nearby Memorial Field and a multiple-standing-ovation performance by world-acclaimed vocalist Renée Fleming, who performed a range of arias and modern numbers, from Händel’s “Bel piacere e godere” from Agrippina to “Climb Every Mountain” from "The Sound of Music."
The Mahaiwe’s annual gala is an important source of revenue for the 690-seat nonprofit theater, which first opened in 1905 and was fully restored in 2005. It offers roughly 140 programs for 35,000 patrons every year, including concerts, dance, lectures, and films.
Prior to the performance, Gala patrons enjoyed dinner catered by Peter Platt of Old Inn on the Green; music by the Michael Junkins Group; “Mahaiwe Marquee,” a custom cocktail created with Berkshire Mountain Distillers to celebrate its 15th anniversary in our community; and flowers by Erica Darling Floral Design.
Pianist Howard Watkins and Renee Fleming
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
