Donation Provides For Tent Over MasterWorks Pops

The Masterworks Patriotic Pops Concert was originally going to have two concerts and be located indoors due to funding issues.
The concerts were originally planned for Saturday at 7 and 8:30 p.m. at Rodeheaver Auditorium instead of at the Winona Lake Amphitheater under the big white tent, because Masterworks did not have the $10,000 to hold the concert outdoors with sound equipment.
The concert will now be Saturday outdoors at 8:30 p.m. under the big white tent at the Winona Lake amphitheater.
Kathy Gill, Winona Lake resident, wrote a letter to the editor and attended the Winona Lake Town Council’s June 17 meeting to express concern with the concert being moved indoors due to lack of funding.

Gill said she checked her phone messages Tuesday and had an old phone message from a person in town wondering if funds were still needed for the concert outdoors.
“We both shared how important the concert is to us personally and to our community and makes our town a destination for the Fourth,” Gill said.
The donor said they wanted to donate $10,000 for the concert outdoors and did so Tuesday.
Gill said it makes all the difference to have the concert outdoors.
“I love the concert and I think we need this in our community and I’m thrilled,” Gill said.
Gill is a violinist in the Symphony of the Lakes and was a member of the Central Ohio Symphony, and they played a patriotic pops concert at Ohio Wesleyan University in an outdoor amphitheater.
“We moved here and have gotten to go to the concert outdoors and it’s an important part of our Fourth and a great opportunity for people of all ages,” Gill said.
Dr. Patrick Kavanaugh, Masterworks artistic director, said Gill contacted him Tuesday morning to inform him that $10,000 has been raised by an anonymous donor to go toward having the concert under the tent.
“The show will go on. I am so happy and know everyone I talked to about originally having the concert indoors had long faces, but now that the concert is outdoors people are happy,” Kavanaugh said. “This is a miracle and I’m so happy with Kathy and her perseverance.”
Gill said $300 was raised as of Monday for the concert for the fund for it to be under the big white tent.
Kavanaugh said after discovering the funds have been raised, he contacted Ryder Productions, Fort Wayne, for sound equipment and Mutton Tent Rentals, Fort Wayne, for the tent rental.
“I wasn’t sure if we would get the sound and tent equipment, being a few days before the Fourth, but they were available,” Kavanaugh said.
Kavanaugh said since Fort Wayne Philharmonic Choir performs Friday and will use the sound equipment then, it will be available for Saturday’s concert in Winona Lake.

(Story By The Times Union)