Howard’s Writing Award

The Profant Foundation announced that writer Howard Jay Smith would be a recipient of what has been dubbed the “James Buckley Excellence in Writing Award”: it comes with a $2,000 cash grant. Mr. Smith has recently published a piece in the Beethoven Journal about the Beethoven and Mozart collections at the Lobkowicz Palace Museum in Prague, the Czech Republic. “That journey,” he tells us, “was part of my ongoing research for a novel-in-progress, Meeting Mozart in Venice, Vienna & Prague, which is the follow-on to my 2016 novel, Beethoven in Love; Opus 139,” he tells us.

The award will be announced at this year’s Fiesta Finale on Sunday, August 4 at El Paseo restaurant. Other award recipients are Angela Borda (Community Service Award), Robert Cassidy (the Dorothy Artaud Award), Marc Sucher (Patricia Crosby Hinds Award), Taj Vaccarella (Rose Award), and Vibiana Pizano Smith (Paul Michael Toomey Award).

Profant Scholarships are made available through community support and proceeds from the Fiesta Finale annual gala, this year being underwritten by Mimi Michaelis and Susan Petrovich. Tenor Marco Antonio Labastida, known for his rendition of Granada, has been added to the program which will feature artwork that “comes to life,” not only with posed actors, but also with dancers and musicians. Dancers Kristen and Serge Chmelnitzki, owners of the local Arthur Murray Dance Studio, will be featured and Ricardo Chavez and his company will again bring fiery Flamenco to the stage. Included is a lavish dinner, a costume contest, and dancing under the stars. I do believe there are some spaces remaining, but you should contact mprofant@aol.com, to confirm. Tickets are $225 per person or a booth (for four) at $1,000.