While much of the Music Academy of the West’s summer festival runs more or less like predictable clockwork, the annual gala event is more of a movable feast. Time, place and featured artist vary from year to year, from a pre-festival warm-up date to a mid-festival spot — as with last year’s gala featuring Chris Thile — and, this year, as an end cap, a week after the official concert finale.
This year’s model took place on the swanky, vast lawn, a k a a private polo field, of the Bella Vista Estate in Summerland, owned and loaned by benefactor Patrick Nesbitt, a hotelier who often opens the estate to worthy causes in town. Taking the stage for a short showcase performance was famed soprano Audra McDonald, a perfect choice given her chameleon’s ability to work — and work at an award-winning level — in musical theater, opera and television, to boot.
Gala partiers, in suitably elegant black-and-white attire (minus the occasional frumpy reporter in tow) dined on flat-iron steak, salmon, or lemon and herb risotto cakes as mains, imbibed specialty wine and cocktails. Some heeded the designated yellow accent for the event, partook of the free black or white pashminas available, and came prepared for patronage during the “paddle raise for music education.” Fast-talking auctioneer Jim Nye helped pull in a sum total of $1.2 million for the Academy’s various programs.
The gala event had a bonus feature this year, the much-anticipated lead up to the major new center downtown, known as “The Muse.” The ambitious off-campus compound, based in a large structure on the corner of Canon Perdido and State streets, will be an expanded education and performance space slated to open in 2028…