Phyllis Cortese Is Livin’ Her Dream

Familiar Newtown Face Takes Over As Ives Concert Park’s New Boss

By John Voket

When Phyllis Cortese was just a little girl from West Hartford, her mom took her to see Barbra Streisand on Broadway in Funny Girl. From that moment on, the precocious young lady knew she wanted to be in show business.

Flash forward about four decades. Ms Cortese and her family are moving back to Connecticut after her 12-year career as a recording artist in Hollywood, and a stint as general manager for a popular southern California FM radio station.

1999 - show business goal realized… check!

So, on one of her first nights out of the house after relocating back to the relative sleepiness of Newtown, Ms Cortese goes out to a concert at the Charles Ives Center at Western Connecticut State University.

As she walks down the tree-lined path and sees the stage for the first time, colorful lights reflecting in the tranquil pond that surrounds the cavernous performance space, she says to herself,  “Boy, I’d love to run this place some day.”

2008 - goal of running the Ives Concert Park realized… check!

After a four month process, and a national talent search, the Danbury Mayor’s Office, the Charles Ives Authority for the Performing Arts, and WestConn President James Schmotter announced that Ms Cortese would become the local concert venue’s new executive director. Yes, Phyllis Cortese was livin’ her dream, again!

“For just a second or two there it was, ‘be careful what you wish for.’ But now that I’m here, the hours are flying by, and even the occasional bad day is great,” Ms Cortese said while walking between the outdoor concert park and her windowless office in an adjacent campus building this week. Even on this day, a massive computer problem cannot take the spring out of her step.

While the office provides a quiet envelope compared to the hustle and bustle of hundreds of students shuffling by, if you listen very closely, you can hear the sound of dozens of plates spinning. That’s because Ms Cortese actually took over the position several months behind the ball, as concert booking and venue management is concerned.

Although the Ives operation benefited from a range of grants in past seasons to help underwrite operations and marketing costs, by the time she took the helm, Ms Cortese said it was past deadline for many of the funding opportunities. She had to hustle to catch up to pitch potential corporate sponsors, and was thrilled to hear Union Savings Bank remained committed to its three-year contract  as presenting sponsor for the venue’s “Celebrity Series.”

“We appreciate their support tremendously,” she said.

She also collaborated, helping to forge a unique and innovative relationship with Premier Concerts of Waterbury, and the Ridgefield Playhouse. Premier has promoted Ridgefield Playhouse shows as well as Ives concerts in the past – most notably a sold out Steve Miller show in 2006 which drew more than 4,000 up to the university’s westside campus.

That relationship has yielded the concert park’s season opener with Melissa Etheridge on June 29. The summer season rolls out through late July with a jam band double play featuring moe. on July 6, and Allman Brother Warren Haynes and his band Gov’t Mule on July 26.

Sprinkled in between are highly anticipated shows from Ives alum Lyle Lovett on July 1, The Beach Boys featuring Mike Love on July 3, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons on July 10, and the prolific Ani DeFranco on July 15. But Ms Cortese is almost taking the celebrity series in stride as she actively brainstorms what she considers to be among her most important responsibilities at the Ives: connecting young people to the arts.

“The arts changed my life as a result of seeing that performance of Funny Girl as a little kid,” she said. “And this year we’re pledging a minimum of 3,000 free tickets to families and especially children from the entire region who might not be able to afford to go out to see a live show.”

Ms Cortese said these days, if a family has to struggle just to fill the gas tank or afford groceries, it’s impossible for them to consider budgeting entertainment. She suggested that even more could be done if a corporate benefactor would step up with a matching program so she could extend that opportunity to become exposed to the arts, to even more children.

The Newtowner has suggested the Ives Authority consider opening a performing arts camp at the concert park, possibly as early as 2009, to help induct even more young people to the stage. She is also working on numerous other ideas, with the intent of filling the venue with programs well into the fall.

She plans to stage an intimate Manhattan String Quartet concert in the round with patrons seated right on stage within just a few feet of the performers, along with a children’s series, possibly in collaboration with Connecticut Ballet. A swing jazz night may also be in the offing with café tables and a catered dinner right on the stage.

“It’s so amazing to be under this roof, and to feel the acoustic warmth,” she said from beneath the cathedral-like roof over the Ives stage. “To just be under here and to have that string quartet playing unamplified for two or three hundred people… it’s giving me chills just thinking about the possibilities.

On a larger scale, the Ives is also planning a full scale Ives Festival Symphony show under the direction of WestConn professor Fernando Jimenez, a Shakespeare performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a family cultural arts fair, as well as separate Irish and Ecuadorian heritage festivals.

The full schedule of the program is still in flux as Ms Cortese fine tunes dates and ramps up the hiring of her staff.

She is also in need of more than a hundred volunteers who will handle all types of duties from backstage and venue-side operations, concession staffing, and parking support to routine office duties. She is pleased to be welcoming Newtown High School student Laura Newberry, who will be coming on as her production office intern once school ends for the summer.

“We have about 100 volunteer opportunities here at the Ives for the summer, and no matter what you are doing here it’s fun,” Cortese said.

Fellow Newtowner Robert Connor is also returning to run the facility operations for the season. Ms Cortese said her neighbor will be a huge asset to both the venue and her office, because he has been involved in event management there for well over a decade.

“He works at a lot of the regional venues, but the Ives is like home for him – he’s very attached here, it’s like his family,” she said, adding that Paul Sirois, who serves as treasurer of the Ives board, hails from her hometown as well. “We’ve got our little Newtown team here.”

The Charles Ives Center for the Arts was founded in 1974 to honor the memory of Danbury native Charles Edward Ives, one of America’s greatest music composers, by providing a nationally recognized forum for the performing and creative arts. In 2006, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton took steps to create a City Authority to preserve and protect the Ives Center’s founding fathers’ vision.

The Charles Ives Authority for the Performing Arts now operates the outdoor amphitheatre situated on preserved, state owned land which includes 40 wooded acres, a pond, gardens and public hiking trails.

Group sales of 30 or more for the Ives are being handled through the Ridgefield Playhouse box office.

For volunteer information, Contact the Ives operations office at 837-9227. Summer Concert Series tickets are on sale at TicketMaster.com, or visit www.IvesConcertPark.com for more information.