On Monday, December 29, at 7:30 p.m., the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts (COTA) and the Sherman Theater in downtown Stroudsburg are teaming up to present a program of Yuletide Jazz featuring outstanding artists who’ve performed at the award- winning COTA Festival over the past 31 years.
The lineup includes the premiere of the COTA Cat Alumni Big Band; Eric Doney’s Pacific Street Swingin’ Jingle Singers; and a jingle jam hosted by Spencer Reed, featuring jazz greats Phil Woods, Dave Liebman, Urbie and Jesse Green, Bob Dorough, Nancy Reed, Bill Goodwin, Vicki Doney, and Paul Rostock plus Nellie McKay, Jay Rattman, Davey Lantz, Bobby Avey, and Mark Williams.
This program is a benefit dedicated to raising the matching funds needed to complete the Sherman Theater Capital Campaign, and to reducing the financial losses suffered from Hurricane Hannah’s backlash at last September’s COTA Festival.
Support is being sought on two levels. A $31.00 ticket (one dollar for each year of COTA) is available for the concert only, and a $100.00 benefactor package is available and will include a pre-concert set and art show in the Sherman lobby with hors d’ouevres created by local chefs. Tickets are available at the Sherman Theater box office online at www.sherman theater.org or by calling 570-420-2808. Details can be found at www.cotajazz.org.
Phil Woods and the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts were recently awarded the 2008 Creative Community Award at the Governor’s Awards for the Arts. It is this very sense of community that unites COTA and the Sherman Theater once again for December 29th’s benefit event. On Saturday, September 6, 2008, Hurricane Hannah visited the Pocono Mountains and delivered rain by the buckets on the COTA Festival site in Delaware Water Gap. In anticipation of Mother Nature, COTA placed a call to the Sherman Theater asking for help in staging the Festival. The response was immediate: “Anything we have is yours.” An alternate stage was built, additional tents were erected, a sound system was set up, and on went the show. The music was spectacularly intimate, and COTA patrons who braved the elements were treated to a day like no other in Festival history. Intimacy, however, came at the price of unpaid bills, and thus the need to raise additional funds to keep the Festival alive.
The Sherman Theater, meanwhile, continues the public phase of its Capital Campaign. The Cap30 Campaign asks area residents and Sherman patrons from all over to contribute to finishing the renovation and expansion of the theater buildings, including the restoration of the historic 1929 Main Street faade. “If every person in Monroe County were to give $30 to this project, we would reach our goal of creating a debt-free performing arts center for the region and community,” says Richard Berkowitz, Executive Director of the Sherman Theater. “We are already well on our way to success, having received funding from both private and public grants and donations. Now we are asking for the community’s support.” With the success of this campaign, the nonprofit organization will own the theater building debt free, while funds raised will also be used for the acquisition of building space for the expansion of the regional arts center, ensuring that the theater and Stroudsburg will have a long-term economic and cultural impact on the region.
For COTA’s December 29th Yuletide performance, a Big Band has been organized by former members of the COTA Cats, an educational arm of the Celebration of the Arts. These professional musicians are coming from all over for a reunion and the first-ever performance by an alumni band. They will be performing classic Big Band holiday music as well as Wolfgang Knittel’s transcriptions of Duke Ellington’s version of “The Nutcracker Suite”. Also gathered especially for this occasion are Eric Doney’s Pacific Street Swingin’ Jingle Singers, combining local COTA instrumentalists with members of the Pocono Choral Society, and jam-master Spencer Reed’s full-of-surprises aggregate, filled with swinging, soulful holiday spirit.
As the spirited leadership and volunteers at COTA and the Sherman are quick to remind everyone, tickets for their joint Christmas spectacular make a great gift not only for friends and family, but also for two valuable community organizations.
The lineup includes the premiere of the COTA Cat Alumni Big Band; Eric Doney’s Pacific Street Swingin’ Jingle Singers; and a jingle jam hosted by Spencer Reed, featuring jazz greats Phil Woods, Dave Liebman, Urbie and Jesse Green, Bob Dorough, Nancy Reed, Bill Goodwin, Vicki Doney, and Paul Rostock plus Nellie McKay, Jay Rattman, Davey Lantz, Bobby Avey, and Mark Williams.
This program is a benefit dedicated to raising the matching funds needed to complete the Sherman Theater Capital Campaign, and to reducing the financial losses suffered from Hurricane Hannah’s backlash at last September’s COTA Festival.
Support is being sought on two levels. A $31.00 ticket (one dollar for each year of COTA) is available for the concert only, and a $100.00 benefactor package is available and will include a pre-concert set and art show in the Sherman lobby with hors d’ouevres created by local chefs. Tickets are available at the Sherman Theater box office online at www.sherman theater.org or by calling 570-420-2808. Details can be found at www.cotajazz.org.
Phil Woods and the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts were recently awarded the 2008 Creative Community Award at the Governor’s Awards for the Arts. It is this very sense of community that unites COTA and the Sherman Theater once again for December 29th’s benefit event. On Saturday, September 6, 2008, Hurricane Hannah visited the Pocono Mountains and delivered rain by the buckets on the COTA Festival site in Delaware Water Gap. In anticipation of Mother Nature, COTA placed a call to the Sherman Theater asking for help in staging the Festival. The response was immediate: “Anything we have is yours.” An alternate stage was built, additional tents were erected, a sound system was set up, and on went the show. The music was spectacularly intimate, and COTA patrons who braved the elements were treated to a day like no other in Festival history. Intimacy, however, came at the price of unpaid bills, and thus the need to raise additional funds to keep the Festival alive.
The Sherman Theater, meanwhile, continues the public phase of its Capital Campaign. The Cap30 Campaign asks area residents and Sherman patrons from all over to contribute to finishing the renovation and expansion of the theater buildings, including the restoration of the historic 1929 Main Street faade. “If every person in Monroe County were to give $30 to this project, we would reach our goal of creating a debt-free performing arts center for the region and community,” says Richard Berkowitz, Executive Director of the Sherman Theater. “We are already well on our way to success, having received funding from both private and public grants and donations. Now we are asking for the community’s support.” With the success of this campaign, the nonprofit organization will own the theater building debt free, while funds raised will also be used for the acquisition of building space for the expansion of the regional arts center, ensuring that the theater and Stroudsburg will have a long-term economic and cultural impact on the region.
For COTA’s December 29th Yuletide performance, a Big Band has been organized by former members of the COTA Cats, an educational arm of the Celebration of the Arts. These professional musicians are coming from all over for a reunion and the first-ever performance by an alumni band. They will be performing classic Big Band holiday music as well as Wolfgang Knittel’s transcriptions of Duke Ellington’s version of “The Nutcracker Suite”. Also gathered especially for this occasion are Eric Doney’s Pacific Street Swingin’ Jingle Singers, combining local COTA instrumentalists with members of the Pocono Choral Society, and jam-master Spencer Reed’s full-of-surprises aggregate, filled with swinging, soulful holiday spirit.
As the spirited leadership and volunteers at COTA and the Sherman are quick to remind everyone, tickets for their joint Christmas spectacular make a great gift not only for friends and family, but also for two valuable community organizations.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
