Hoogland Center for the Arts Gala Event Showcases Cooperation Among Tenant Arts Groups

On May 1, 2004, the arts community in Springfield gathered in the premiere Center for the Arts Gala. This black-tie-optional event was an evening of live performances, music, dancing, a silent auction, and more.  

The event began at 7 p.m. with a reception and live piano music in the facility’s main floor gathering space.  At 8 p.m. the shows began and repeated at 10 p.m.  An hour-long break between the shows allowed for attendees to sample desserts, enjoy refreshments, listen to music, and experience visual arts and programs in the facility’s art gallery.

Included in this event was an hour-long production with selections from Les Miserables featuring a 100+ choral group, orchestra, soloists and narrators.   Peter Samuel, formerly of Springfield, who appeared as Javert in the Broadway production of Les Miserables, was a featured guest performer. 

Performances by the facility’s tenant arts groups demonstrated how the arts integrate by merging their talents in two, 25-minute productions.  While the Les Miserables and tenant programs ran concurrently, they repeated so that gala attendees could view all the offerings.

The Sangamon Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Haglund, participated in the tenant program, which included:

  • Overture to L'Itiliana in Algeri, Gioacchino Rossini (SVYS Symphony Orchestra)
  • Poetry Reading (Springfield Theatre Company)
  • Memory from Cats, Andrew Lloyd Webber (SVYS Symphony Orchestra, Muni Opera, & Springfield Ballet Company)
  • Swan Lake, P.I. Tschaikovsky (SVYS Symphony Orchestra & Springfield Ballet Company)
  • Sleepy Maggie (St. Andrews Pipes and Drums & Irish Dancers)
  • Scotland The Brave (St. Andrews Pipes and Drums & Irish Dancers & SVYS Symphony Orchestra)
  • East Meets West #9 (David Cain & Springfield Ballet Company)
According to Grace Luttrell Nanavati, Gala chair, “This event offered an opportunity to show the Hoogland Center for the Arts as a collective entity, demonstrate the possibilities of that interactive energy, and showed how the arts can grow by being in one location. It was an exciting opportunity to see what possibilities exist with the arts in the Springfield area.  Attendees were thrilled with the entertainment in this wonderful, new facility, and took pride in knowing they were helping fund a world-class arts facility right here in our community.”

Proceeds from the 2004 Center for the Arts Gala Beyond Our Dream will go to fund the facility’s operations.
Thank you for visiting the SVYS site. If you have any questions or comments, please contact the orchestra manager.
Sangamon Valley Youth Symphony, 420 S. 6th Street, Springfield, IL 62701-1808 (217) 753-8000