I marked a couple of firsts off my life's to-do list Thursday night.
One was hearing an opera soprano sing at the Center of the Universe. The other, where I first met said opera soprano, was at the Jazz Hall of Fame, 111 E. First St., attending Uncorking the Cure for MS. It was a wine-themed fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, with proceeds going toward research, programs and services that directly affect the lives of Oklahomans with MS.
Oklahomans (albeit with Georgia roots) like the marvelous Mary Benes, who wore a beautiful Yoana Baraschi dress in red.
"Why don't we call it merlot, since it's a wine event," said Benes, who was in attendance with her daughter, Ashley Benes - the aforementioned opera singer who graciously accepted my request to hear her sing outside, where she performed a sample of "Musetta's Waltz."
Afterward, someone else suggested she hear herself sing in the fabled Center of the Universe, where her mother, I and half a dozen strangers paused to listen - and, afterward, applaud. She even had a TV producer come up to her that evening to ask if she was the one he heard singing.
Back inside, I spied my first-ever lunch date in Tulsa, Tracey Norvell, there with her dashing neighbor, Justin Conway.
Dress was business-casual, but the women really stepped it up a notch - and, quite often, in black. Among them were Robin Green Tilly, Nancy Hermann and Lucia Laughlin, who co-chaired the event with her husband, Dr. Brent Laughlin. Also en noir was Barbara Pontius, who had one of the coolest pairs of shoes (German-made Trippens) in the room.
A highlight of the evening was the silent auction area, where people sipped wine while managing friendly bidding wars on a variety of items.
Emceeing the evening was Michelle Lowry, who wore a beaded Nanette Lepore dress in eggplant ("If you want to get real fancy, aubergine," she said), with strappy gold Stuart Weitzman shoes. When she wasn't onstage, she was carrying her "new baby": a Prada bag from a recent trip to New York.
"That was a wall-to-wall event, but it was so much fun," she said.
Also mingling were Drs. Jim Geurin and Jill Warnock, Jerrid Horton, Novia Stice, and former Tulsa Tribune arts writer Caroline Johnson and her husband, Rusty.
If you missed the event but would like to make a donation to NMSS, call the Oklahoma chapter, 918-488-0882.
Original Print Headline: Wine, song mark NMMS event
People & Places
Any evening that starts with a red carpet and Spartan soldiers forming a sword-drawn canopy over your head deserves writing about.
Come December, Shannon West will be a college graduate.
