“Challenge Grant” offered for Bowl

3/5/05 NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER Couple to match gifts toward renovationPlans to add a soundenhancing enclosure on the Santa Barbara Bowl stage and make other improvements there will get a $2 million boost through donations from an anonymous benefactor and a Santa Barbara couple. Ginni Dreier, a Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation board member since April, and her husband, R. Chad Dreier, are putting up $1 million, half of which is a “challenge grant” to encourage additional donations. That grant will be redeemed by the Dreiers if $2 million more is collected from other donors by June, said Beth Dolinsek, administrator of the American Classic Capital Campaign. Including those two gifts, $3.3 million has been raised so far toward the $12 million goal announced by the foundation’s directors in August. Adding a three-walled covering of stone and wood on the stage, both as a sound reverberation chamber and to protect performers and their equipment from the elements, is a key part of the planned renovations. Besides enhancing the Bowl’s natural acoustics and making performances less noisy for surrounding homeowners, the “Pavilion,” as it’s being called, will “provide the concert-hall quality necessary to attract leading symphony orchestras and premier vocalists,” according to the capital campaign chairman, Scott Brittingham. It will be designed to complement the facility’s rustic architecture. If the $6 million needed for the enclosure can be raised by June, construction will begin in November and should be completed for the opening of the 2007 concert season, said Paul Dore, president of the Bowl Foundation. “The Pavilion is the centerpiece of the Bowl’s future,” he said. “It’s what will enable top-tier acts to continue to play (there), yet not interfere with the casual, elegant ambiance that concertgoers treasure from Bowl performances.” A Depression-era product of the federal Works Progress Administration, the outdoor amphitheater on Milpas Street was built in 1936 and seats about 4,500 people. Other improvements planned include an an overlook on the upper level that will have a concession stand and restrooms, installing more comfortable seating, reconstructing the box office and making the Bowl’s entrance more attractive and accessible. “We view our donation as of way of thanking the Bowl for the years of enjoyment it has provided the community and our family,” the Dreiers said in a statement. “We hope our challenge will encourage others to take part in the next chapter of its history.” Renovations costing about $7 million, raised from grants and donations, were completed there in June 2002. They included new restrooms, enhanced backstage facilities and structural reinforcement needed to hold the weight of the planned pavilion. The new enclosure will also be strong enough to accommodate more stage lighting and props, such as “video walls” that are increasingly used by performers.LORRAINE D. WILSON / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS R. Chad Dreier and wife Ginni are prepared to donate $1 million toward Bowl improvements.

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