Christmas Concert at The Sanfilippo Estate

By Don Evans

The Sanfilippo Foundation has been a friend of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame almost from its inception. As a brand new organization three years ago, Sanfilippo offered us the opportunity to host our first major fundraiser at its spectacular estate and director Greg Liefel and his staff held our hands all through the details that made it a memorable and profitable evening for our organization. More recently, this past March, the Foundation open its doors for our first Fuller Award, at which Gene Wolfe and a host of world-class writer friends celebrated until the late hours, even taking a spin on the carousel.

Again this year, the Foundation has made a generous donation to the silent auction—a pair of tickets to this year’s Christmas Concert on Dec. 7, 8, and 9. The evening features organist Dave Wickerham on the Mighty Wurlitzer with special guest William Powers, an opera bass-baritone.

Tickets do not go on sale for this concert until shortly after our silent auction Oct. 13 and will, as they always do, be gone in a blink.

The Estate is not open to the general public except through pre-arranged charity events and group tours. Anybody who’s ever had the rare pleasure of visiting the Estate spends most of their time saying “Wow!” and clicking their camera. The place is ceiling to floor amazing: an unbelievable collection of musical instruments in a splendid setting that is as elegant but a lot more fun than any museum you’ve ever visited.

 The high bidder on these tickets will get full value out of their donation even before the music begins.

http://www.placedelamusique.org/events.html

Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. His short story collection An Off-White Christmas will be published by Simon & Schuster later this year. He is the current Senior Artist-in-Residence at Chicago's Cliff Dwellers Club and the Chicago editor of the upstart journal Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the committee that selects the annual Harold Washington Literary Award recipient, as well as the Chicago Literary Advisory Council of the American Writers Museum.