Bravo! Vail announced today a $1 million gift from Board Chair Craig J. Foley to underwrite the popular music Festival's long running Soirée Series and free and community engagement concerts. The new Festival Recognition Award, funded by Craig J. Foley, will be granted yearly by Foley to recipients chosen from staff, volunteers, and donors to honor those who have demonstrated extraordinary passion and commitment in achieving the mission of Bravo! Vail: Enriching people's lives through the power of music. Recipients of the Award will be prominently recognized throughout each season in underwriting credits for the Soirée Series and other community engagement performances.
"I am delighted and honored to serve Bravo! Vail as its new Board Chair and to make this gift. Bravo! Vail is such an extraordinary institution which provides the highest quality music for everyone in the Valley. Our Festival has such great momentum and I feel now is the time to ensure the continuance of the remarkable Soirée Series and expanded free community engagement performances. I've chosen Cookie Flaum and Jim Palermo in our first year as a wonderful way to launch this new effort", said Craig J. Foley, Bravo! Vail Board Chair.
"It takes hundreds of dedicated musicians, patrons, donors, and community members to make the music sound extraordinary, and this gift is really as much in honor of the entire Bravo! Vail family. Being included as a recipient of this new Festival Recognition Award with Cookie Flaum, someone the entire Staff, Board, and I hold in such high regard, is simply magnificent", said James W. Palermo, President & Executive Director.
Cookie Flaum and her husband Jim Flaum have lived in the Vail Valley for over 20 years. A former Bravo! Vail Trustee and current Advisory Council member, Flaum acts as the Chair of the institution's Education Committee, and has been a member of the Gala and Nominating Committees. Aside from her contributions to Bravo! Vail, Cookie has dedicated her energies to the Literacy Project for Eagle County and the Eagle County Schools System tutoring middle school children, and was a member of the Community Cancer Coalition Board, bringing awareness about cancer through prevention, education, and early detection in the Valley. She has a long association with many other good causes and organizations in the Vail Valley, including the Art In Public Places Board, the Vail Valley Foundation, and the Shaw Outreach Team, where she was involved with a successful capital campaign to construct and endow Jack's Place, A Cancer Caring House.
Bravo! Vail's Soirée Series provides some of the Festival's most memorable moments. Consisting of four private concerts held in four unique and spectacular homes throughout the Vail Valley, the Soirée Series offers guests a pre-concert cocktail reception, an intimate performance, and a gourmet dinner prepared by one of the Valley's top chefs. A perennial favorite, the Soirée Series distinguishes Bravo! Vail by offering a truly one-of-a-kind social and artistic experience.
The summer 2014 Soirée Series saw a wide variety of interesting and compelling programs. On Wednesday, July 16 a String Trio Soirée featured members of the
New York Philharmonic; and Monday, July 21 saw a popular evening with the inimitable conductor, pianist, and musical raconteur Bramwell Tovey. The Saturday, July 26 Haydn and Weber Soirée featured the Dover Quartet and guest clarinetist
Stephen Williamson, principal clarinet of the
New York Philharmonic at the time. The Series concluded on Friday, Aug. 1 with The French Impressionist, featuring members of the New York ensemble, Le Train Bleu, in works by Debussy, but also Bach, Bruce, and D'Rivera.
All Soirées include cocktails, a concert, and a gourmet dinner served by area chefs. Featured chefs in 2014 included Daniel Joly, of Mirabelle at Beaver Creek (July 16); Jean-Michel Chelain, of The Left Bank (July 21); Tracey van Curan, of Foods of Vail (July 26); and Eric Berg, of Vail Catering Concepts (Aug. 1). Plans for the 2015 Season are currently underway.
Bravo! Vail has substantially increased the number of free and community engagement concerts throughout the Valley over the last two seasons. The Bravo! Vail Season offers free, hour-long chamber music concerts at the Vail Interfaith Chapel, The Chapel at Beaver Creek, Edwards Interfaith Chapel, and locations in Gypsum and elsewhere throughout the Valley. In tandem with Bravo! Vail's recently completed three year Strategic Plan, the grant by Craig J. Foley will make possible the further expansion of free, community engagement concerts Valley wide.
