A red carpet led up to the double doors of the Woman’s Club of Downey, on Paramount at Lubec, and a gold and black draped theatre curtain stood there, with the life-size silhouettes of a jazz band.

“I love jazz,” said Pat Gil, organizer of the party. “It's a great American art form that we should be proud of.”

Welcome to the Downey Symphonic Society’s annual Garden Party (one luxury feature much appreciated at the Woman’s Club is the ample free parking). Guests sat at tables under the spreading olive tree on the private lawn, enjoying Robert Colvin playing jazzy saxophone melodies, sipping champagne or lemonade, and nibbling on cheese and grapes.

Inside the spacious banquet room, silent auction items were spread around the wall. They included an eye-catching bottle of Stella Rosa wine decorated for the Dia de los Muertos with a skull with hearts and roses, alongside an elegantly dressed lady skeleton as tall as the bottle, with colorful beaded boxes donated by Cocoon. There was a silver flute that disassembled and fit neatly into a small velvet-lined box along with A Beginner’s Guide Lessons; dinner at the Olive Garden and tickets to the Regal Theatre; and an elegant manicure care basket.

Attendees greeted each other in person for the first time after three years, and we saw Adele Alexander Ambruso, Dorothy Pemberton, Tom Hutchinson, and Bernice Mancebo Stumps, and just in from his new home in Twenty-Nine Palms, artist Roy Shabla.

“There is a good arts community there,” said Roy, “that stretches the length of the valleys from the 10 Freeway to my house.”

Among the guests were Carol and Frank Kearns with Dottie Nadalski, baton winner last year and Carol’s friend since high school. “Downey is a place where everyone can get to know each other,” as one guest remarked.

**Carol Kearns and Dottie Nadalski (photo by Lorine Parks)**

President Anthony Crespo brought his new fiancee Gloria- he asked her just yesterday- and his parents. Bill and Katie Hare, Marge and Larry Lewis, and Ruth Hillecke, Mary Phillips, all DSS Board members, helped fill the tables that were set in black and white, like piano keys, with centerpieces of huge white hydrangeas and baby’s breath.

Also on hand to welcome the hundred or so guests were Music Director Sharon Lavery, and a surprise attendee was Mark Artusio, first chair bass violin until last year. “It’s like getting the old gang back together again,” Sharon said.

President Anthony welcomed everyone and remarked that the spirit of the recently departed Joyce Sherwin was with us everywhere. Having the Garden Party as a fundraiser was Joyce’s idea nearly 10 years ago, and attendance has grown steadily every year. Previous baton winner Priscilla Winslow couldn’t be there in person, but she made a donation in Joyce’s honor.

“The evening is a tribute to Joyce,” Anthony said.

Pat Gil, organizer of the evening and looking very Jazz Age in a black derby hat and a black frock coat, added her greetings, and pointed out all the opportunities in the silent auction gifts.

Then Sharon took the microphone. “Your being here today tells us how you support us,” Sharon said, and then proceeded to outline the coming season. “The October 15th concert, ‘Somewhere in Time,’ in the Downey Theatre features a wonderful concert pianist, Man-Ling Bai, playing Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.

“We will continue to honor the works of John Williams with Adventures on Earth from “E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial)” said Sharon. “John’s nearing his 90th birthday. And the Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite will be a fantastic finish.”

“For the winter concert on January 21,” Sharon continued, “we always showcase our fabulous string section, this time with Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. We’re calling the evening ‘With a Song in My Heart,’ and we’ll play ‘Irish Tune from County Derry,’ better known as Danny Boy. And then, we’ll feature Kelli O’Connor in Copeland’s Clarinet Concerto.”

“For the spring concert on April 8,” said Sharon, “we will play music with a Latin theme, like de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance. Two world premieres and one composer will be present, a colleague of mine. We’re doing ¡Danzon! Number 2, scored for a full orchestra, a form of Mexican music that originated in Cuba; and Mariachitlán by Juan Pablo Contreras, a Latin Grammy-nominated composer who combines Western classical and Mexican folk music.”

Sharon’s excitement at presenting the works and the performers she has chosen was contagious and whetted everyone’s appetite. During dinner, a jazz trio from USC’s Thornton School of Music was joined by sax virtuoso Colvin, to make music for us while we ate. And what a feast it was. Tender chicken breasts with three delicious sauces: creamy mushroom, lemon, and teriyaki. Steamed and parmesan-spiced zucchini slices and roasted potatoes in a buttery sauce completed the main course.

The dessert was to die for- double die- because it was not one but two: cheesecake with raspberries, and chocolate layer cake with dark chocolate icing and filling. At each table there was an iced silver bucket was a bottle of Josh Cellars chardonnay, and a matching bucket of red.

After dinner we settled down to a final chance to bid on the auction items, while guests visited. Then the lively “live” auction began, with patrons bidding some items to the max, and even over, like a pair of tickets to the Symphony season, because whatever was bid was a donation to a good cause.

The funds raised will go to paying for the season’s concerts, and the DSS’s Outreach Program, Music in the Schools. In partnership with the Downey Unified School District, third and fifth graders are bused in to their own morning concerts in the Downey Theatre, and a quintet visits each elementary and Middle School during the school year, for a symphonic program written by Dr. Tom Osborn.

A treasure chest of gift certificates, and Disneyland coupons good for tickets, was auctioned off, and finally the coveted prize, an evening of Music and Sharon, for two lucky people: dinner with Sharon at the Brickstone restaurant at Embassy Suites and a walk across the parking lot for the dress rehearsal for the Downey Symphony October performance, with seats “anywhere on the stage that you would like.”

Music Director Sharon herself conducted this part of the auction, and said, “You can sit where you like. One time someone requested the French horns. Or asked for the drums. If you want to sit with the cellos, you’re there. It changes the feeling, wherever you sit, and it’s incredible.”

Frank Kearns, who has won this opportunity himself, said, “There is nothing like it. To be in the middle of the music - you can feel the vibrations from the instruments. It’s the experience of a lifetime.”

A final tie in the bidding led Sharon to declare two evenings, one for each bidder, one for the October concert, the other for the January. “Everyone wins,” said Sharon. “This is your Symphony Orchestra.”

Tickets for the October 15 performance and season subscriptions for all three concerts are available now at the box office, 8435 Firestone Blvd; www.downeytheatre.org; or call (562) 861-8211.

Jazz-themed Garden Party raises funds and enthusiasm for Downey orchestra