Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts Benefits Youth Music Programs

By Bill Peters

PHSA member Marybeth Rehman-Dittu is surrounded by fourth-graders at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Rehman-Dittu is dressed as Mother Goose. The kids heard the L.A. Philharmonic perform Ravel’s “Mother Goose” on Nov. 1 at a concert provided in part from funds derived from the Pasadena Showcase House of Design. -Courtesy Photo

$18 million dollars: that is the total funds donated to date to music programs throughout the community from proceeds of the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, the presentation of a local home professionally decorated and opened to the public. The all-volunteer group has sponsored the event, recognized as the largest and most successful home and garden tours in the country, for the past 48 years.
To ensure the continuance of the generous program, President of the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts, Kathryn Hofgaarden and Provisional Chair Mary Ann Clayton, announced the names of the 2013 provisional class.
The provisional class includes Barbara Cser, Pasadena; Jayne Chesebrough, Sunland; Suzette Cummings, Sierra Madre; Helena Delu, Pasadena; Yolanda Hamilton, Los Angeles; Marsha Seyffert, Altadena; Ellen Sherwood, Arcadia; and Vikki Sung, San Marino.
In addition to duties staffing the 2013 Pasadena Showcase House of Design, the new provisional class members will participate in three music programs produced and supported by the PSHA. The youth-oriented music programs include the Music Mobile in which the Pasadena Conservatory of Music and PSHA members introduce third-graders throughout the San Gabriel Valley to the instruments and music of a symphonic orchestra; the PSHA Youth Concert where about 4,000 fourth-graders from San Gabriel Valley schools visit the Walt Disney Concert Hall for a special performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; and the PSHA Instrumental Competition in which young musicians compete for approximately $30,000 in award monies in the areas of brass, strings and woodwinds.
On Nov. 1, over 4,100 elementary students from the San Gabriel Valley experienced a classical music concert—designed especially for them by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Under conductor Rafael Payare, the orchestra performed Maurice Ravel’s “Mother Goose”, the delightful suite based loosely on “Sleeping Beauty” and other fairy tales.
“It was humbling and gratifying to see the excitement on the children’s faces,” Hofgaarden said, reporting on the concert sponsored by her group along with additional funding from The Green Foundation.
Marybeth Rehman-Dittu added to the colorful and eventful day by dressing as Mother Goose. Rehman-Dittu serves the PSHA as Youth Concert Chair.
Throughout the years, the PSHA says over 350,000 children have been provided the opportunity to discover, enjoy and study classical music. Overall, proceeds from the 2011 benefit generated $600,000 that has been distributed in the group’s Gifts and Grants program.
The 2013 Pasadena Showcase House of Design will be held April 21, 2013 through May 19. Tickets go on sale Feb. 4.

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