And welcome back to part two of our community connection right here on K one. The one you drafts, gentlemen. Heting here with me is John Jenkins. He's with Barnisville Symphony Orchestra. We've got a big old gala coming up, don't we. We do tell us a little bit about it. Yes, thank you, thanks for having me first of all, Oh our pleasure. Yeah. We're calling the gala Passport to Spain and it will take place October twenty eighth, Saturday, at seven point thirty at the Barnesville Community Center.
Now I'm known as the Center. We have an exciting program, so we'll have of course, we'll have Ronald Radford as the guest entertainer mil guitar master. We'll also have a live auction, of course. But the highlight of the event is we're honoring Miss Betty Williams as the BSO Britst Cultural brist Prize Cultural Award recipient for this year. Wow. That's great. You know,
that's always a special thing. We gave out a nice award last year, and we recognize people who have just been so integral in getting us started and keeping us going absolutely. Last year we recognized Miss Nannie Role. Yeah, she's been a pillar cultural pillar of the city as well, and we will our entree is being catered by a crossing. Second, we'll have the option of vegetarian or seafood. Kai. Wow, nice, are you pulling
out all the stops? Aren't you absolutely special? Evening now the gala, of course, we can find this on the website, but we also want to remind people that not only can you get tickets and when one of those run, yes, the tickets individual tickets are one twenty five that's good, and you can purchase the table for as little as one thousand dollars. That's nice, and that's eight people, very good. And you can also become a good sponsor of the orchestra. I think the number sixty six comes to
mind. Yes, this is our sixty sixth anniversary, and we have a fundraising campaign going on in the season where we're asking our supporters whether or not you come to a concert for sixty six dollars per month for the duration of the season in honor of our sixth anniversary. We started off as a Phillip Symphony and so that's the significance of the sixty six aniversary. Here's the tie in. Yeah, well this is great. Sixty six for the sixty sixty
year. Just do it every month. You're not gonna miss folks. You're gonna put You're gonna spend it on stuff anyway, Spend it on something that's going to enrich the culture of our community. Really keep the arts alive and vibrant. Yeah, and that we're around for many generations to come. Oh. Indeed, now, not only are you the executive director, you're a performer as well. I do. I have not been performing as much lately.
I've been focusing mostly on my executive director role. Yeah, I understand, I know how that can take you away from it, right, But what do you play? I played trombone primarily. Wow, my oldest grandson is playing that. Okay. Great. First of all, he thought it was fun because he could make funny noises. Well, yeah, sure, And then all of a sudden he realized, you know, that's an instrument that's quite important in the orchestra. And now he's taking it very very seriously,
and he's been doing very well at contests. It's great. He's really taken this on a very very seriously. It all started with just kind of goofing around and says it's got some potential here. Yeah, it is a special instrument because, apart from the cello, it's the closest instrument to the human voice. It is. Yeah, and you know it just it's a resonant there, and it's right there in the middle of the orchestra array, the man life. So you play, and not only that, you're behind
the desk, you're out there making calls. You're talking to people and welcoming them in as far as being not only patrons, but also you know, folks who might want to contribute a little bit more to the symphony as well and keeping everything in order. How many musicians do you have? We have around sixty musicians. So between you and Maestro, you guys are kind of like hurting cats, aren't you. Yes, well, I see, so maestro handles most of all the musical aspects, most of the best aspects.
Well, that's good. Split that up, because you guys could drive each other crazy. Yeah. Otherwise, So, John, you've been with us for a little while here not only is the executive director but also as a performer. Yes, this is my second season as the executive director. Yeah, and you come all the way up from Tulsa to take care of business. And I like the fact that you're not afraid to be mobile, and you're always out there and you're always willing to talk to people about the orchestra.
Absolutely, I'm thankful to do what I get to do, and I love this community and I look connecting with the people in the community. Oh, it's something else, it really is. We're very, very blessed. You know, a lot of communities are size do not have one tenth of what Bartlesville has. You're right, and you know you kind of hit it there earlier that this began as the Phillips Orchestra, right, and our companies
said that kind of got this down, up and going. Have always been great patrons of the art, Yes, and they wanted to make sure that their employees had the opportunity to get the very best what the world had to offer right here in the safety and convenience and relative piece and quiet of Bortlsville. Right. We started in nineteen fifty seven by a group of scientists and
engineers from Phillips who needed a musical outlet. They had a musical ability and they would rehearse in the Adam's Auditorium in the first concert took place in December nineteen fifty seven and an around nineteenth seventy six or seventy seven we became the Barcelo Sympony Orchestra. So you know, you've got everything that London has as far as musical ability, you just don't have, you know, the smell
of London buses around here, you know, yeah, exactly. It's got to be a treat to be a part of something so wonderful here in our community, something that just adds so much. And of course you know when the season gets up and going, we always have Maestro in here and he's
always I mean, he can't wait to tell you what's going right. But each and every program, each and every show is really not only fun, not only entertaining, but it's also educational as all get absolutely, and he makes some really unique tie ins with different things that you wouldn't think would go together, and it's like, I see what you get in there. Very
clever, yeah, very clever. So once again, this is on the twenty eighth, the Gala celebration and it's at the Community Center, one twenty five seat and if you want to get a table it's a thousand, it's and it goes to a great cause. You're going to be fed very well from our friends and crossing second. Yes. And on top of that day you're contributing to the betterment of our community, if I might say. And our gala chairs are John and Andy Saltzman of the Eatery. Oh really nice.
So we're kind of spreading the love all over the place, aren't we. Absolutely, man, I like how you do. John, Thanks for being with us today. Thank you Tom all right. John Jenkins with us here from the Bartlesville, SI