PORTSMOUTH — Kate Grana’s memory hovered over the stage at Portsmouth High School Saturday night.
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PORTSMOUTH — Kate Grana’s memory hovered over the stage at Portsmouth High School Saturday night.
The event was “Cabaret for Kate,” a variety show hosted by The Kate Grana Music & Arts Association (KGMAA) to raise money for major improvements to the PHS auditorium, where the event was held.
Ms. Grana, a beloved Portsmouth music teacher, choral director and vocal coach for more than three decades, died in May 2016. Some of the performers who took the stage Saturday were former students who paid tribute to her in words and song.
“Kate was my middle school chorus teacher,” said Laurie Spaner, who kicked off the show with a duet with her eighth-grade daughter, Katie. “She was an amazing person and just had a way of sparking your love of music.”
Laurie and Katie, accompanied by husband and father Craig Spaner on piano, performed a humorous rendition of The Barenaked Ladies’ “If I Had a Million Dollars,” with different lyrics to fit the occasion.
“If I had a million dollars, I’d buy a new speaker system,” they sang.
KGMAA is raising private donations and seeking grants to transform the tired auditorium into a state-of-the-art community hub for drama and music.
One of the biggest problems, supporters say, is the faulty sound system they say is outdated and in dire need of an overhaul. They also want to replace those wooden, fold-up seats that have been there since the beginning.
“This building and those seats you’re sitting in opened the day John F. Kennedy died: Nov. 22, 1963,” emcee Sheli Beck Silveria reminded the crowd at the beginning of the program. “There have been approximately 10,000 students who have sat in those chairs.”
(The old seats were mentioned several times during the show. During a break in the show early on, cast members brought about half a dozen seat cushions to lucky patrons.)
The show featured over a dozen different performances that ranged from miming a weightlifter (Vlad Tenenbaum of The Bit Players) to modern dance (Devon Pauline from Kelley Ann Dance Center) and numbers from musicals (The Four Gal Quartet performing “Forget About the Boys” from “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”)
Another former student of Ms. Grana’s, Sydney Carbone, accompanied herself on guitar as she sang a set of original numbers she called, “Songs from Kate’s Guitar.”
$10,000 raised
On its Facebook page, The Kate Grana Music & Arts Association reported about $10,000 was raised at the event. Donations can be made through the Facebook page or by mailing a check to KGMAA, P.O. Box 523, Portsmouth, RI 02871.
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