Before Savor the Symphony officially got started Thursday night at The Ritz, the size of the crowd was already impressive. According to organizers the fundraising event had achieved sold-out status quickly due to the pandemic’s limiting the attendance to less than 140. Another person laughed it was also because people were just wanting to get out and see friends.
While Dallas Symphony Orchestra League President Anne Ligon and Mari Epperson were going over last-minute details in the ballroom, guests like Honorary Chair Roberta Corbett, Barbara Bigham, Carole Ann and Richard Brown, Jill Goldberg, Kathy Cothrum, Jeannie and Tony McClung, Kay Weeks, Venise Stuart and James Leffler were in the reception area checking out the silent auction items and catching up.
Jolie and Bart Humphrey were back from Puerto Rico after she’d chaired the Mad Hatter’s fundraiser. Upon spotting Event Chair Sharon Ballew, the ladies laughed how Sharon had been Jolie’s auction chair for the Mad Hatter’s. At one point, Sharon’s living room was filled to capacity with more than 100 items that went up for bid to fundraise for the Arboretum… Bob Schlegel laughed when he was asked who “the babe”on his arm was. He responded, “She’s a very good friend of my daughters.” To which the “babe” (aka Myrna Schlegel) added, “I’ve known them all their lives.”
Cindy and Charles Feld and Dallas Symphony Association Ross Perot President/CEO Kim Noltemy arrived just as the group was being seated for dinner. Kim’s excuse was her having had to attend the rehearsal of Friday and Saturday nights’ Mahler Symphony No. 1 with Fabio Luisi conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Great excuse!
Dinner consisted of a Little Texas wedge salad of crispy lardon, alpine Roquefort, pickled red onion, roasted corn, My Epicurean Farm petite greens; an entrée of wood-grilled filet mignon, white cheddar potato, dauphinoise, mushroom duxelle, baby carrot puree and sauce bordelaise with Inwood Estates Winery and Bistro’s 2017 Magellan Cabernet Sauvignon; followed by a dessert of dark chocolate mousse, vanilla crème brulee, praline crisp, chocolate cake and raspberry sorbet.
Proceeds from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League’s delicious fundraiser will benefit Young Musicals, Young Strings, My DSO Concert, free concert tickets to the CASA and Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs and Dallas Symphony Youth Concerts.