The Emporia State University (ESU) Department of Music is hosting the 2018 Annual Gala Benefit Concert, featuring the Spire Chamber Ensemble, on Saturday, September 15, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will take place in the Heath Recital Hall of Beach Music Hall on the ESU campus. All proceeds from the concert go toward ESU music scholarships, giving students an opportunity to realize their dreams of becoming professional musicians and educators.
This year’s concert, Vocal Fireworks, will be performed by the Spire Chamber Ensemble from Kansas City. The group’s founder and director, Ben A. Spalding, received undergraduate degrees in voice and piano from Emporia State University and two master’s in conducting and composition from Rowan University. Spalding is also the Director of Music and the Arts at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mission, Kansas, where he has built one of the most prestigious concert series and arts programs in the Kansas City area. The concert will also feature Grammy Award winning soprano EstelíGomez and baroque trumpet specialist Brian Shaw. The group regularly sells out Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center and has received praise from Kansas City music critics.
Tickets for the concert are $25 and can be purchased over the phone at (620)-341-5431, or at the door on the evening of the event. This is lower than the cost to see them perform in Kansas City, and unique because all proceeds go directly to fund scholarships, with a goal of raising $15,000 this year. Donations above the $25 ticket price are welcome as a charitable contribution.
A highlight of the concert will be the induction of Dennis Fisher, Associate Director of Wind Studies at the University of North Texas, into the Beach Hall of Distinction. Fisher graduated from ESU in 1971 and has had a prestigious career as a conductor and educator. This ceremony will take place during the concert intermission.