Rose Albano-Risso
City Editor

It's one of the best bargains around. And it's coming to Manteca on March 29.

We're talking about the annual Family Concert Series featuring the Stockton Symphony. The venue is the Calvary Community Church on East Lathrop Road in Manteca.

And here's why you are getting the best bang for your buck and why families don't have to break their piggy banks to enjoy about two hours of classical music performed by the best professional musicians around. Admission tickets are just $10 each for adults, only $3 each for children between the ages of 5 and 18, and free to those under 5.

The concert, under the baton of Maestro Peter Jaffee, will be preceded as usual by an instrument petting zoo at 1 p.m. followed by the concert at 2 p.m.

Tickets to these annual concerts are "extremely discounted," thanks to the efforts of The Symphony Comes to Manteca Committee whose sponsorship makes it possible for the Symphony to perform here. The Family Concert Series is a project of the Stockton Symphony which brings these performances targeted for families to various venues throughout San Joaquin County.

For more than two decades, Manteca has been fortunate to be one of these venues. However, to keep it going, the committee needs help from the public to raise the approximately $9,500 that it takes to bring the performance here. The committee holds only one major fund-raiser during the year, which is the Evening With the Maestro event in January hosted by Delicato Wineries in Manteca. Additional funds are raised through sponsorships.

"We need donations to subsidize the cost of the concert," said Manteca financial analyst Norm Knodt who currently heads the Symphony Committee.

Contributions are "extremely important because the whole concept of the program is outreach," he said.

"We're trying to promote the arts and help the school district and the community in general," added Knodt.

The concert is not the only way that the Stockton Symphony is promoting the arts here in Manteca. In the weeks leading to the concert, Jaffee makes special lecture-seminar appearances at various campuses in the school district. He has worked with band students at East Union and Sierra high schools in previous years. This year, he worked with teachers of the Manteca Unified School District during which he previewed the pieces that will be performed at the concert "so that they can go over the music with their students," Knodt explained.

"Peter makes himself available for that for free," he said.

Those who missed the Evening With the Maestro fund-raiser at Delicato have another chance to support the Family Concert Series in Manteca. They can do that in the form of tax-deductible sponsorships. Below are the different levels of sponsorship from which donors can make a selection. Included are the benefits that donors can expect to receive in exchange for their generous contributions. All checks must be made payable to the Symphony Comes to Manteca Committee and can either be mailed or dropped off at Delicato Wineries: 12001 S. Highway 99, Manteca, California 95336. The winery is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., or call 824-3500 for more information.

The law requires that donors be informed of the tax-deductible portion of their contributions, which corresponds to the total contributed amount minus the estimated fair market value of any donor benefits provided, which is zero unless otherwise noted. Donors have the right to waive the benefits they derive from their contribution to make their donations fully tax deductible.

 

• Recognition in the Manteca Family Concert program and on the Symphony Committee's website, www.mantecamusic.org . Fair market value of benefits: approx. $5