Society: Burroughs High musicians present annual show
While some Burbank traditions go back many moons, others are relatively newly minted. Such is the case with “Live! At The Burroughs Bowl,” an evening of music under the stars that was presented by students in the John Burroughs High School’s instrumental music program on May 24.
Staged for the past six years, to both signal the end of another school year and serve as a major fundraiser for the school’s Instrumental Music Assn., this year’s concert was presented with the theme “A Night at the Oscars.”
Arriving in the school’s quad, performers and supporters felt like they had left the Burroughs’ campus and been transported over Mount Lee to the section of Hollywood Boulevard outside of the Dolby Theatre that is red-carpeted for the annual presentation of the Academy Awards.
Welcomed by Pressley Myer, who served as the evening’s greeter, performers emerged from the red carpet to take their place on stage while concert-goers filled the surrounding lawn.
Among the notables in attendance were Burbank Unified School Board member Char Tabet, the co-chairs of the event, Sandie Seaver and Sandy Acevedo, and members of the association’s board of directors, Lorna Lopez, Debra MacRae, Cherie Fryman, Marnye Langer, Geri Maddern and Suzanne Ryan.
The evening’s performance, emceed by Dave LaFrance and under the direction of the school’s director of bands, Tana Barnett, featured scores from some of Hollywood’s most-beloved Oscar-winning films including “Casablanca,” “Bridge on the River Kwai,” “West Side Story,” “The Sound of Music,” “Chariots of Fire” and “Frozen.”
For his significant donation to the association that was established as the fundraising arm of the school’s music program, Steve Linesch, brother-in-law of Robert Jung, who serves as the organization’s president, was invited to join Barnett as the evening’s guest conductor.
Among the Burroughs seniors who made the last appearances of their high school-musical careers were Stephanie Ayala, Cole Clarke, Melissa Do, Tyler Lopez, Michael MacRae, Kayla Olivas, Samantha Paniagua, Cullan Ryan, Christopher Sacha, Kaitlin Schamber, Jonah Stoffers, Nicolas Van Loo, Lemuel Benedicto, John Borgard, Christopher Van Dam and Edward Youn.
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DAVID LAURELL may be reached by email at dlaurell@aol.com or (818) 563-1007.
