The Green Music Center Grand Opening

The big day was finally upon us, it was the grand opening of the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University! For those of you that don't know about the GMC; it's a brand new world-renown acoustically near perfect music hall that was just completed. It's been years in the making and the culmination of opening weekend is a huge deal for Sonoma State University, the city of Rohnert Park, the county of Sonoma and all of Northern California.

All Sonoma State University managers were given jobs to help with the opening. I was scheduled to help with handing out the tickets to see Lang Lang (world famous pianist) to the guests. I worked with Nicole Hendry (Housing), Peter Flores (CMS), Letitia Cook, Laura Lupei, Jennifer Crist and several others as we helped greet, inform and direct the arriving guests to the event. The guest list included some of the worlds richest and California's most powerful players. I saw Nancy Pelosi and her husband, along with Jerry Brown (Governor of the State) to name just a few.

The music hall itself can hold about 1,400 people. But the giant door at the back of the hall can open and another 2,000 people can enjoy from out on the lawn. There were jumbo tron screens up on each side and there are permanent speakers up each sides of the lawn so they can see and hear the performance.

After the performances, fireworks were launched into the sky for over 20 minutes- that's about six songs!

Once the fireworks were over, the elite were taken to a fully catered dinner to which I helped them find their seats. After a night of drinking wine and listening to Lang Lang they were all quite hungry by 10:30 that night!

Once all were seated and I had my moment helping Jerry Brown find a particular guest (highlight of my evening!) I was exhausted. I relaxed for a bit listening to the Sonoma State Jazz band and watched some of the dinner guests dancing their way out before finally heading home sometime around eleven o'clock that night. It was a full day, but very rewarding and something so huge to be a part of it was a true gift.