2022 Tucson Desert Women of Song By April Bourie
The Tucson Desert Song Festival is more than your typical festival. It’s a rare business model that brings great singers to Tucson, according to George Hanson, the festival coordinator and Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s former conductor. A little over 10 years ago, festival cofounders Jack Forsythe and Cecile Follansbee recognized that there was an opportunity to help local performing organizations bring world-class vocalists to Tucson if they could provide the additional funds needed to attract this caliber of performer. “They began to talk to their circle of friends and asked them to support the concept,” Hanson explained. “Jack knew that Tucson was the winter home of people who lived the rest of the year in major metropolitan centers with artistically rich marketplaces – people with very cultivated experiences and tastes – living in our relatively small regional arts space.” This meant there would be a market both for donors and patrons.
Nicole Cabell 32 BizTucson
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Winter 2022
Forsythe and Follansbee created a board consisting of many friends and then proposed the idea to several local performing arts organizations, including the Tucson Symphony Orchestra
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This year’s stars may be our biggest yet, focusing the attention of the vocal world on our pueblo.
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George Hanson Coordinator Tucson Desert Song Festival –
and Arizona Opera. They explained that they would provide additional funds to the organizations to book world-class singers to accompany their musicians
Ailyn Pérez
during the first two or three months of each year when the weather is at its best in Tucson. The local organizations would plan and pay for the other aspects of the performance, such as the venue, their performers and sound and lighting technicians. The organizations bought into the idea, and the benefits of hosting worldclass singers quickly became apparent. “The singers don’t just entertain and inspire the audience; they also transform the group they are singing with …. It’s the kind of thing that sticks with the performing group,” Hanson said. “For example, the way one plays Strauss on a violin is the way a great singer would sing it. Singers can show players how to play the music through their voices.” The 10th annual Tucson Desert Song Festival will run from early January to mid-March. The theme is “Women of Song,” and it is dedicated to the memory of founder Forsythe, who died of cancer in May 2020. Participating arts organizations were encouraged to con-
Susanna Phillips www.BizTucson.com
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