BE OUR GUEST

Fred Goodwin is co-chairman of this year's Community Concert Association membership campaign. He is also a retired dean of the College of Humanities at Southeast Missouri State University.

For the past two weeks, some 50 of your neighbors in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Scott City and Chaffee have been at work on an annual task in civic betterment. We want to say thanks to them.

The group includes doctors, dentists, retirees, lawyers, businessmen and women, housewives, and teachers. None of the workers gets a penny for the time they invest and the effort they give. They work, most of them, because they believe this region becomes a better place when it can give its citizens a chance to hear live concerts featuring primarily classic music. We think they are right.

Since 1927, the Community Concert Association has been offering low-priced concerts of high quality to smaller communities across America. In 1935, the Cape Girardeau area undertook its first season with Community Concerts under the civic leadership of businessman Louis Hecht, Clara Drew Miller, a local piano teacher, and Madeleine Bergmann. In the 55 following years, tens of thousands of area residents have taken advantage of Community Concert membership to hear some of the world's best performing artists.

Each year for a three-week period, the association conducts a membership campaign. That drive, now under way, is scheduled to end Saturday of this week. If you've had a chance to review the concert series for the coming season, you'll know the tradition of offering outstanding players, dancers, and singers continues in 1991-92. Performing at Academic Hall at Southeast Missouri State University will be the Sofia Chamber Orchestra, featuring Lelan Chen, violinist, whose first appearance here several years ago was a season highlight.

Other programs include the Oregon Ballet Theatre and a concert by the Paratore Brothers, a duo-piano team whose credits include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic and NBC television. Rounding out the series will be a vocal quartet, The Scholars of London.

These days prices for concert hall tickets in larger cities are prohibitive to many, so one of the advantages of Community Concert membership is that escalating prices are controlled by a group contract. Membership in the Cape Girardeau Association, $20 per adult, $10 per student, a maximum of $50 per family, makes it possible to see the 1991 series at a top price of $5 per person each concert. That level of cost is matched nowhere.

We should add at this point that one of the reasons the price of concerts remains affordable for almost everybody is that certain patrons elect to take memberships at costs above the minimum, the additional money serving to ensure top quality performers and low individual costs. A tip of our hat to these good neighbors as well.

Once the membership drive closes, opportunities end for joining the association this year. Perhaps you have already been canvassed by a volunteer worker. If not, and if you want to take advantage of a remarkable musical bargain which is also an investment in community betterment, a little time remains. A call to membership headquarters, 335-4743, will assure your place.