Timeless Gifts To Host 16th Annual Christmas Duets Concert And Fundraising Gala

Jazz Singer Joan Collaso is the Founder of Timeless Gifts Performing Arts Program for Youth and Young Adults. Photo provided by. Vee L. Harrison.
Jazz Singer Joan Collaso is the Founder of Timeless Gifts Performing Arts Program for Youth and Young Adults. Photo provided by. Vee L. Harrison.

Timeless Gifts To Host 16th Annual Christmas Duets Concert And Fundraising Gala

By Tia Carol Jones

Joan Collaso founded Timeless Gifts Performing Arts Program for Youth and Young Adults with a concert that would pair aspiring performers with seasoned world class musicians for a Christmas Concert. After the success of the concert, Collaso decided the concert was something she wanted to do every year. But, she wanted to turn it into a program where young people would participate in a six-week summer program and have a concert after the six weeks, along with the Christmas concert.

Timeless Gifts will host its 16th Annual Christmas Duets Concert and Fundraising Gala on Sunday, Dec. 7th, at CineCity Studios Chicago, located at 2429 W. 14th St. Doors open at 3 p.m., a buffet dinner will be served at 4 pm, and the concert will begin at 5:15 pm. Complimentary valet parking will be available. Collaso said that this year is different from other years because instead of taking place in a theater space, it will take place at CineCity Studios. It is the same place Timeless Gifts has used for the summer program. This will also be the first time there will be a gala taking place with the Christmas Duets concert.

Collaso said throughout the years, the program has resulted in many projects and performance opportunities for the young people who participate in the Timeless Gifts program. She said some of the young people who started participating in the Timeless Gifts program when it started in 2011 are still in the program. The summer program is now seven weeks long and there is also a fall program, along with the summer production and the Christmas Duets concert. Timeless Gifts serves children and young people, beginning at 3 years old, going all the way up to 24 years old.

Collaso said it is important to provide music opportunities to young people in the Chicago the way Timeless Gifts does because the arts are key in helping to build confidence, self-esteem and the arts help when it comes to STEM subjects. She said students who have a background in the arts learn how to think and see things more creatively. She said that Timeless Gifts wake up a young person’s creative juices.

There will be around 30 students performing in the concert. To prepare for the Christmas Duet Concert, the young people rehearse for weeks. Collaso said the Christmas Duet Concert will be top notch, the way it always is. In addition to the young people’s performance, Dee Alexander will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award and performing during the concert. The event will be hosted by Art “Chat Daddy” Sims and Dana Divine.

“It’s going to be such a fun night. It is well worth the investment to come out and support our young people,” Collaso said.

The Christmas Duet Concert will include a wide range of Christmas and holiday songs that people know and love, and some that people might not know, but Collaso is sure the audience will love them. Collaso said she wants the audience to see the joy, sense of accomplishment, effort and talent that it takes to pull of the concerts that Timeless Gifts puts on. She said, with the motto for the year being ‘Raising the Curtain for a Brighter Future’, she wants people to understand that supporting the arts is key and Timeless Gifts can’t do what they do without the support of the community.

“Lastly, we want them to take away the Christmas spirit and the joy of the holidays, because it’s going to be a lot of laughter, it’s going to be a lot of dancing … When they leave, they’re going to leave feeling hopeful, joyful and just have a feeling that it is a good thing that Timeless Gifts is doing,” Collaso said.

For more information about Timeless Gifts and purchase tickets for the event, visit www.timelessgifts.org.

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