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FOUNDER'S AWARD
"This to me is one of the great organizations because it does something so meaningful, not only for the recipient, who benefits by the help given by Career Bridges, but because it teaches all of us how magnificent, how poetic, how beautiful is the human voice in opera. So, we thank all of you guests of honor for having taught us tonight the legacy of the beauty of music and opera...and we are doing nothing but just helping this little rowboat along." – Eugene Grant
At our 5th Annual Gala, May 11, 2007, Career Bridges was proud to present its Founders Award to Emily and Eugene Grant, for their encouragement, pertinent advice and financial support, from our very inception until today. In their acceptance remarks, they both were extremely eloquent. Their ideas about the human voice and the purpose of Career Bridges illuminate and reflect our ideals and our mission. With gratitude and pride we present their remarks:
Emily Grant said: "When I say, "Thank you David and Barbara", I really mean it because behind every project there is some great wonderful strength and passion and that belongs to David and Barbara. ... And I applaud them heartily...and I have to say that all of you in this room have been bitten by a virus. That virus is your love of opera and your love of the human voice. It is something to be reckoned with and we understand right from the moment we met David and Barbara, which goes back many years, which goes back to our love of opera and our interaction with some of the wonderful singers at that time. If this is something we can not lose, we can not lose track of it and we must continue it because it is the stuff that lives are made of. It's the glory of the human voice and that's why I was bitten by that virus and when David mentioned that he had a vision, I said, "Go for it!" And here we are tonight, enjoying this wonderful program and realizing that we are part of an ongoing part of this great life that we live. And thank you to David and Barbara and all of you who are here tonight and my husband, Eugene, who introduced me to opera when I first came to New York. I only knew it from the radio in Toronto, but I'd never seen a real live opera until I came to New York and that's why I'm here tonight, feeling wonderful being here with all of you. Thank you so much."
Eugene Grant said: "Thank you, Emily...thank you, Barbara...and thank you, David. I'm reminded of a line from Gray's Elegy,
'In a Country Churchyard', and it goes like this. "For many a flower is born to blush unseen on the desert floor". Now what we are experiencing tonight, it seems to me, is a night of enrichment. Enrichment of the soul, enrichment of the spirit and the chief enricher and his wife are standing behind me, the people who visualized the idea that you could help aspiring, talented people to earn a livelihood from the magic of their voice if they are given the tools with which to do so. And so those voices tonight that we have just heard are perfect examples of the combination of nature and nurture. These people have been born with a talent. But how can you make it come alive? How do you electrify it? And above all, how do you teach these people to earn a livelihood? That message is what they give to these young people in addition to technical training. Now, what a wonderful way to enjoy the legacy of the beauty of opera that has been given to us by people like Roberta Peters, like Juan Pons, like Paul Plishka, like Eve Queler and hundreds of others whose names we can all remember. This to me is one of the great organizations because it does something so meaningful, not only for the recipient, who benefits by the help given by Barbara and David, but because it teaches all of us how magnificent, how poetic, how beautiful is the human voice in opera. So we thank all of you guests of honor for having taught us tonight the legacy of the beauty of music and opera...and we are doing nothing but just helping this little rowboat along....Thank you."
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