Heart Gala 2010

Last night was the 2010 Heart Gala. The National Heart Association has this gala/auction to raise money each year for research and prevention of heart disease. It's also (according to a reporter in attendance) one of Nashville's prettiest events. Everyone looked so beautiful!

I was the producer of the event working with Erin Link from the Heart Association. Erin is the director of social events and is a dream to work with. She worked tirelessly to make this event a success.

My responsibilities as producer were to oversee the production of the event...from theme to linens to entertainment. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center is one of the most beautiful venues. Everyone there is so great to work with. Thank you to Allison Huber, Bruce Pittman, and Brian Doane especially.

Thank you also to my Gary Musick Productions teammates: Jonathan Yeaworth for doing a great job of organizing and directing the sound and AV elements, Jim Sheridan for being an awesome stage manager, Chris L, Jacob, and Chris A. for running the load-in crew, and Gary for putting together the power point presentation.

The theme this year was Asian... "Fortunes of the Heart"

Volunteers are in place and ready for the silent auction

West lobby of the Schermerhorn

Valet entrance with red carpet and silk lanterns

We had 10 large urns filled with bamboo. Thanks to my buddy, Grant Batson for finding and cutting the bamboo!

We varied the table linens...half black with green runner and the other half green silk. The red chopsticks ended up looking awesome!

The black Charivary chairs looked great too

We had a local group called "Playing by Air" perform the traditional Chinese lion dance

Co-chairs, Dan and Lisa Slipkovich and Jim and Laurie Seabury. Lisa and Laurie were great co-chairmen and deeply believe in the cause.

The Schermerhorn Symphony Center is such a beautiful place to have an event. The Schermerhorn is the home of the Nashville Symphony.

The Craig Duncan Orchestra provided dinner music as well as entertainment for the late night party. Craig is awesome and they always do a great job. Thank you, Craig!

The auctioneer helped the Heart Association raise a lot of money through auctioning off several popular lots like a trip to Italy, a trip to France, and a dinner with a celebrity chef and Kix Brooks from Brooks and Dunn.

Another popular lot was golfing 18 holes with Titans Defensive Coordinator, Chuck Cecil. During the auction Cecil came on stage and pumped up the crowd by offering to match the winning bid. With his match, the winning bid for the day of golf was around $10,000.

There is always a special appeal which was inspired this year by the story of a young woman named Nykia who received a heart transplant. She shared her story and thanked everyone for their generous donations which helped to save her life.

The Craig Duncan orchestra performed afterward for the late night dance. Denise Patton (wife of our own Dave Patton at Gary Musick) sings with them and did an amazing job. Jeff Lisenby (one of our vocal directors at Gary Musick) played piano. The party went until 1am. After load-in around 7am that morning, we were all exhausted!

Chinese Lion Dance

The Craig Duncan Orchestra playing during dinner