Dionne Warwick, who has won six Grammys and was recently honored by the Kennedy Center, will be performing in Hood River on April 13 at the Hood River Middle School Historic Auditorium.
Dionne Warwick, who has won six Grammys and was recently honored by the Kennedy Center, will be performing in Hood River on April 13 at the Hood River Middle School Historic Auditorium.
As she embarks on what is set to be her farewell tour, award-winning singer and R&B legend Dionne Warwick won’t be visiting Portland. Instead, she will make a stop at the Hood River Middle School Historic Auditorium on April 13, giving Gorge fans the perfect chance to see her live before her retirement.
The concert is put on as a fundraiser by and for the Hood River County Education Foundation, which, according to HRCEF Board Member and Fundraising Chair Mike Schend, was a large part of the reason Warwick chose to perform in Hood River, rather than Portland.
The HRCEF hosted a concert with “little orchestra” Pink Martini. The concert sold out weeks before the performance, and overall was such a great success that the foundation wanted to replicate it with another big artist, according to Schend. He said that, with this in mind, he asked a friend of his who works as a booking agent in Portland if there were any other prominent artists they could bring.
“We started looking at names and one that she pulled out was Dionne Warwick,” Schend said. “And I was like you’ve gotta be kidding me, there’s no way.”
To his surprise, Schend said, his friend had met Warwick before and knew her former music director. Using her connections, they began negotiations. But, Schend said, the foundation was initially concerned about the monetary aspect, as Warwick would be expensive to bring to the Gorge.
However, Schend said that as they continued their discussions, it became clear how valuable having Warwick in the community would be. Similarly, he said Warwick and her agent became more interested in coming to Hood River as well, primarily because of the education foundation’s cause.
“I don’t think [her team] even knew where Hood River was,” Schend said. “So when we started to talk to her more, she was willing to, because of what we’re doing for the education foundation, she was willing to bypass performing in Portland to give us regional exposure. So she’s not going to Portland, she’s only coming here.”
Though the HRCEF supports many causes, Schend said this particular concert is scholarship-related. One of the foundation’s main goals is to help students interested in higher education, whether that’s trade school, community college or a four-year university. In particular, they strive to help kids throughout their whole time in higher education, rather than only when they’re freshmen.
Schend said the HRCEF’s ultimate goal would be to provide every student that wants to go into higher education with a scholarship, as unlikely as that seems. Every fundraiser is a step toward that.
“These fundraisers like this are so important because it gives us more ability to serve all those kids,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever reach the goal of having enough money where every kid that applies gets money, we’re a long way from that. There’s hundreds and hundreds of kids that apply. We just don’t have the money to go around. But that would be our goal, and that’s what the fundraisers are for.”
For those interested in buying tickets for Warwick’s concert, Schend encouraged people to hurry, as more than 800 of the 11,00 tickets have already sold. To buy tickets, visit bit.ly/DionneHRCEF2024. To learn more about the HRCEF or to donate, visit their website at hrcef.org.
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