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Tag: Phil Vassar

Vassar rocks The Center

Vassar rocks The Center

Written by Tom Vaught on . Posted in Entertainment, Music.

ANNA MARIA – Soulful songs, the pounding of piano keys and cheering Phil Vassar fans shook the rafters of The Center of Anna Maria Island Friday night.

Sponsored by the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Vassar played the rich chords of his songs on his piano with boundless energy. His style, a mixture of Billy Joel and Randy Newman, had his fans cheering as he played both sitting and standing, accompanied by guitarist Jeff Smith.

Between songs, Vassar stopped for liquid refreshments bought by fans, brought to the stage by servers and supplied by The Chiles Group for sale by The Center.

Vassar’s career began in the mid-1990s, composing songs for country singers like Collin Raye (“Little Red Rodeo”), Alan Jackson (“Right on the Money”), Tim McGraw (“For a Little While”) and others.

He was named ASCAP’s Country Songwriter of the Year in 1999 and was the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Male Vocalist in 2002.

Later, his career turned to performing and he recorded 27 top 40 hits and 10 number one songs. He remains active in performing and composing.

Center of Anna Maria Island

Center starts new year on solid financial footing

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Center of Anna Maria Island, Community News.

ANNA MARIA – The Center of Anna Maria Island greeted the new year with good news and the nonprofit’s board members hope it will just keep getting better.

During a January board meeting, board Treasurer Christine Hicks reported that at the close of December, the midpoint of the fiscal year, the Center had a net ordinary income of $100,304, which was $67,114 over budget and $94,281 over the previous year. Net ordinary income excludes capital income.

In capital income, the Center closed out at -$65,450, primarily due to an expected $50,000 reimbursement from Manatee County, which has not yet been received from the excess concession funds awarded in 2018 for capital improvements to the Center’s facilities. The organization closed out the month with a net income of $34,854, $28,831 over the previous year and $1,664 over budget.

Outside of cost-cutting measures, one of the items keeping the Center’s costs down, board Chair David Zaccagnino said, is that there are still two open positions on the nonprofit’s staff that he hopes will be quickly filled. The Center board is seeking an operations director and a development director to join the staff.

“Everything’s going good,” Zaccagnino said of the Center’s operations headed into season.

With The Outlaws concert oversold at about 600 tickets, he said he expects the estimated gross from the concert to the Center to be about $30,000. The concert was the first of three at the Center presented by the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and Manatee County Tourist Development Council. The Sandbar restaurant provided food and drinks for the event. Local musician Trevor Bystrom served as the concert’s opening act.

The next act to take to the Center stage will be Phil Vassar on Feb. 8 followed by B.J. Thomas on March 21. Other upcoming events include the two-night annual Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, the Tour of Homes and a fashion show.

The Center’s board members also are looking into starting a green initiative to improve the building for the environment with the added bonus of saving on utilities. The first part of the initiative being considered is refitting the exterior lights with LED bulbs to help improve visibility on the ground and lessen the light intrusion on the surrounding residences. If the board chooses to go with the LED lights, Executive Director Chris Culhane said it could potentially save the Center $1,000 per month in electricity costs.