Music in gardens to help orchestra make Austria trip: Concert, auction at Matthaei for Huron students
Saturday, January 28, 2006, BY MARJORIE KAUTH-KARJALA

Tropical flowers and beautiful music will come together Sunday to blow January blahs away.

A benefit concert and auction to help send the Huron Symphony Orchestra to Austria next month will be held at Matthaei Botanical Gardens at 1800 North Dixboro Road starting at 4:30 p.m. Both Huron and Pioneer music students will be making trips to the European country this year.

Huron Orchestra Director Chris Mark promises a relaxing afternoon at the Gardens. “It’s a great atmosphere (at the botanical gardens). …Look around, listen to music, hang around on a Sunday,'’ Mark said.

Four top members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, as well as one Huron student, will perform during the concert at 5:30 p.m. During the reception preceding the event, Huron orchestra students will perform both in the Gardens’ conservatory and on the grounds.

Auction items include a Clavinova digital piano, nine violins hand-painted by area artists, concert tickets and many other items. Tickets for the event are $15 and can be reserved by calling (734) 355-2031.

The benefit, as well as many other fundraising efforts, are crucial to being able to send the 85-member orchestra to Austria to both perform and to celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday in the composer’s historic stomping grounds. The orchestra is trying to raise about $35,000 to fund the trip, which is scheduled for the end of February. The money will pay for students who need assistance to cover the almost $2,500 cost and for incidentals like instrument rental, Mark said.

“It’s one of those places I’ve always wanted to go to because it’s the classical music capital,'’ said Daphne Lambropoulos, a senior and president of the Huron Symphony Orchestra who plays the viola.

The Pioneer High School symphony band is working at raising funds for its own trip to Austria in July. The band will perform at a conference of European and Asian music educators in Schladming, Austria, said David Leach, director of bands at Pioneer. The students will be an example of the results of music education techniques used in the United States, Leach said. Also, the students will perform works by two local composers, Michael Daugherty and John W. Stout, both of whom have children in the Pioneer band.

Gail Stout, the wife of the composer and president of the Pioneer Band Association, which helps support the Pioneer band program, said she is excited her daughter will make the trip and “be able to see things that are steeped in history,'’ as well as the opportunity to experience another culture, Stout said. “It’s a life-learning experience - times infinity, Stout said.

The Pioneer band group is planning a benefit gala and auction for 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Four Points Sheraton at 3200 Boardwalk Ave. Cost is $25 per person, Stout said. The auctions will be both live and silent, and music will be provided by Pioneer’s jazz band and other student ensembles, said Leach, the band director.