AAFSW Presents a Special Musical Soirée

A Special Musical Soirée

Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.
 
“A Musical Trip Around the World”
 
featuring
 
Deborah Miller, Lyric Soprano
 
and
 
Jennifer Heemstra, pianist
 
DACOR Bacon House 
Washington, D.C.
 

$60 per person
$100 per couple

 

AAFSW and the AAFSW FUN FOR FUNDS FUNDRAISING EVENTS COMMITTEE cordially invite you to welcome the fall on Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. at the DACOR Bacon House, 1801 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20006.  DACOR, an Organization of Foreign Affairs Professionals, has kindly offered to sponsor AAFSW and its guests for this amazing AAFSW Fundraising Event at the DACOR Bacon House, a historic and elegant mansion in the heart of Washington, DC.

We will enjoy a lovely musical evening presented by Deborah Miller, lyric soprano, and Jennifer Heemstra, pianist and 2016 AAFSW SOSA winner. We will all take a magical trip around the world as Ms. Miller and Ms. Heemstra showcase songs from many countries. Guests are welcome to arrive at the DACOR Bacon House as early as 7:00 p.m., when the doors open. The concert will start promptly at 7:30 p.m. After the musical presentation, our AAFSW guests will have an opportunity to socialize and enjoy coffee/tea and desserts.

This AAFSW Fun For Funds event includes live piano music and singing, followed by coffee/tea and desserts. RSVP by Friday, September 15, 2017 to office@aafsw.org and send a check made out to AAFSW for $60.00 per person or $100 per couple to: AAFSW Reservations, 4001 North Ninth Street, Suite #214, Arlington, VA 22203.

Attire, please: Cocktail / Evening.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. 

Sheila Switzer

AAFSW Program Chair

 

Dr. Joanna Athanasopoulos Owen, AAFSW President

AAFSW Fun for Funds Fundraising Events Committee Chair

 

 

 

Deborah Miller is an experienced, adept, and versatile artist whose repertoire spans five centuries of classical music.  She holds a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of Texas, and in addition has studied voice in Europe and in New York.  She has performed over twenty leading opera roles (including Aida, Violetta, Mimi, Fiordiligi, Rosalinda, Pamina, Donna Elvira, Nedda, and the world premiere of Phaedra in “Hippolytus”).  She has sung hundreds of concerts and oratorios in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, England, New Zealand, New York, California, Texas, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, and was sponsored by the US Information Service on a recital tour of several islands in the Caribbean.  She has won prizes in many international singing competitions both in the United States and in Italy.  On 9/11/10 she appeared with the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra in the multicultural concert “Ode to Freedom.”  She frequently performs for senior centers and community organizations.  She is married to Ambassador Terry Miller, and they have three children, all of them professional musicians.  She is the reigning Ms. Senior Virginia USA, and won 2nd runner-up in the national Senior USA Pageant in Las Vegas last May.

 

Jennifer Heemstra, professional pianist and entrepreneur, received the College of Music Distinguished Alumni Award from Michigan State University this May.  In December 2014, she founded the Kolkata Classics trust which provides health services for trafficked women, educates children from the slums to the elite and exposes the citizens of Kolkata to high quality classical music.  She has put on 62 concerts and performed for and worked with over 60,000 adults/children.  For her work, she was presented with the Secretary of State Award for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad in 2016.

Recently Heemstra founded an American NGO/501(c)(3), the Pitch Pipe Foundation, which sends musicians abroad to drive social change.  Initially focusing on Trafficking in Persons in South Asia, Heemstra plans for the foundation to expand to every corner of the globe.

Before moving to India, Heemstra was a lecturer and staff accompanist at Case Western Reserve University and frequently concertized with members of the Cleveland Orchestra.  Heemstra earned her Master of Music from The Cleveland Institute of Music and a Bachelor of Music from Michigan State University.