Written by Mary Dan Eades on April 4, 2016
Ten local nonprofits found a joint cause to celebrate Thursday — themselves, along with the 41st anniversary of Montecito Bank & Trust. And SBCS was one of them!
During its annual Anniversary Grants awards, Montecito Bank & Trust highlighted 10 organizations, making an anniversary donation to each to help in the pursuit of their respective missions.
The evening event continued a time-honored tradition that began on the bank’s anniversary in 1993, when its associates nominated and then voted for nonprofits to be awarded.
“I’m going to brag about my employees,” Montecito Bank & Trust President and CEO Janet Garufis said, noting 220 employees donated more than 2,000 service hours to nonprofits last year.
Per usual, attendees watched short videos produced by Cox Communications, each describing the individual missions of the nonprofits, which get to keep the videos for their own promotional and fundraising use.
The Anniversary Grants class of 2016 included Angels Foster Care of Santa Barbara, Atterdag Village of Solvang Auxiliary, C.A.R.E4Paws, Child Abuse Listening Mediation (CALM), Dons Net Café, Easy Lift Transportation, Inc., Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation – Central Coast Council, Old Yeller Ranch Rescue, Return to Freedom and the Santa Barbara Choral Society.
Manuela Geiger-Kolbitsch, SBCS soprano and the bank’s portfolio manager of commercial lending, said she nominated the Santa Barbara Choral Society for its first-ever grant after joining the organization a year ago.
“I think it’s a really good cause,” she said.
The Choral Society is honored to be awarded this grant by MB&T and pleased to be associated with this iconic local institution and the caring and sharing environment they have fostered in our community!
With their help, and that of partner Cox Cable, we were able to produce a short video describing ourselves and our 68 year old mission to foster the choral arts and bring outstanding choral masterworks to the community. Take a look:
https://vimeo.com/embed-redirect/161472972?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=50781467
American baritone, Ralph Cato has travelled the world extensively, telling stories in song with his warm, clarion baritone voice.
Tenor, Benjamin Brecher has performed over fifty operatic roles with many of the world’s most prestigious opera companies, specializing in the high lying lyric tenor repertoire. He has performed 16 roles with New York City Opera alone. Career highlights include performances with Opera Orchestra of New York, L’Opera de Nice, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, L’Opera de Montreal, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among many others. His orchestral solo repertoire includes Mozart, Handel, Orff, Bach, Haydn, as well as many performances of Britten. In 2000 he began performing the great Irish Tenor songs in a concert produced for him entitled A Celtic Celebration, Twenty years later, the show has become a North American hit with performances with 45 Symphonies in North America. Ben continues his discography having added his twelfth recording in 2016 Forgotten Liszt, with pianist Robert Koenig, and will record a new release in 2022 entitled “Three Centuries of Thomas Moore” including the music of Britten, Berlioz, and Sarah Gibson on MSR Classics. He is a Professor of Voice at University of California Santa Barbara, where he has served as the Head of Voice.
Born and raised in Southern California, April Amante is a versatile soprano with expertise and facility in repertoire spanning from early music to contemporary musical theater.
Tracy Van Fleet is pleased to return to the Santa Barbara Choral Society. As a soloist, she has performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Lüneburg Symphony in Germany, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río in Mexico, Pasadena Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Los Angeles Bach Festival, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Philharmonic, USC Symphony and Chorus, and others. She has had many appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Opera Pacific, San Diego Opera and Opera Colorado.