A glitzy gala honouring David Foster at Bayview Place Roundhouse Friday night could be described by the title of one of the Grammy Award-winning music producer’s megahits: Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable.
Dedicated to David, the Canadian College of Performing Arts fundraiser presented by developers Patricia and Kenneth W. Mariash Sr., was also a celebration of national pride.
“I’m the biggest flag-waver on the planet,” Foster told a crowd of 450 in the historic Roundhouse’s car shop, lavishly transformed into an elegant supper club.
“I always say America may be the greatest place to realize your dreams but Canada is the greatest place to be from. I will continue to call Victoria my home,” he said, prompting wild applause.
An early highlight was when Foster was presented with the college’s inaugural Legend Award, honouring individuals who have made significant contributions to Canadian culture.
After welcoming guests to “our modest living room,” Mariash reflected on how homegrown talent such as Foster has changed the way Canadian artists are perceived.
He said accomplished performers like Foster have helped dispel old jokes about the difference between American and Canadian celebrities: “The U.S. celebrity needs bodyguards and the Canadian performer needs a name tag.”
Guests paid $300 apiece for an elegant dinner and show benefiting the national performing arts college founded in 1998 by Janis Dunning and Jacques Lemay.
An estimated $328,000 was raised, including $135,000 in ticket sales and sponsorship, and about $193,000 through event donations.
Highlights included a $100,000 cheque from Mariash, whom CCPA board chair Marguerite Rowe described as “a wonderful patron of the arts” and a pleasure to enter into an “essential” partnership with.
“We couldn’t do what we’re doing without Ken and Patricia,” said Rowe, marvelling at a mezzanine Mariash had built in the Roundhouse in just six days to accommodate more guests.
Another surprise was a $5,412.21 cheque presented by event chair Mel Cooper, the Telus Victoria Community Board chairman who spearheaded the ambitious fundraiser for the college, which is owned and operated by The Canadian Heritage Arts Society.
Live-auction proceeds totalled $52,000, including a $20,000 bid on a VIP package for the David Foster Foundation’s 30th anniversary gala after Foster leapt onstage to sweeten the pot.
Nine CCPA alumni and special guests Ken Lavigne and Stephanie Greaves, reuniting for The Prayer, and Duncan Meiklejohn, performing the Skylark hit Wildflower, delivered several Foster hits.
Seated in front of a stage with giant video backdrops, a smiling Foster high-fived performers after watching their renditions of songs including You’re The Inspiration, the Whitney Huston megahit I Will Always Love You and Unforgettable.
“This school’s clearly doing what it’s supposed to be doing, nurturing good talent and trying to turn it into great talent,” Foster said in an interview at a lively after-party in the Bayview One penthouse.
“It was nice just being able to listen and enjoy, but I have to admit there was more than one time I just wanted to get up there and play. It’s in my blood.”
Although weary from a hectic schedule, Foster was in a playful mood, poking fun at Mariash for his standup comedy aspirations.
“I thought if I filled in for Sinbad no one would notice,” said Mariash, referring to the comedian who often appears at David Foster Foundation fundraisers.
Foster also got comic mileage out of recurring references to the mistaken assumption that he wrote Celine Dion’s Titanic theme song, which he says he loathed and advised her not to record.
“I did all her other hits, but I didn’t write that song,” said Foster, noting most people just assume he wrote it.
“Now when people say, ‘I really like that song, I just say, ‘thank you,’ ” said Foster, who even introduced himself to a potential donor onstage as “Hi, I’m David Foster. I wrote the Titanic song.”
Ferdinand Smith, who managed Skylark from 1973 to 1976, flew in from Rochester, New York with his wife Elaine, for the event and a Thursday night 75th birthday party for singer-songwriter B.J. Cook, Foster’s first wife.
He said he always knew Foster would achieve musical greatness and recalled telling the skeptical head of Capitol Records that Foster should produce the band’s second album.
“I predicted it [Foster’s success],” said Smith, who told a friend who had lunch with the former recording executive two years ago to remind him about that prediction.
“He called me and said: ‘Yeah, yeah, you were right.’ ”
Foster reminisced about career highlights, including how he discovered Josh Groban when he was 17.
He recalled how filmmaker Joel Schumacher was unaware the origins of Foster’s title tune for St. Elmo’s Fire was inspired not by the Brat Pack classic but by Man in Motion Rick Hansen.
“I just stuck the words St. Elmo’s Fire on at the end of that song, but it means nothing,” he said.
He said it was clear that, like himself, the talented CCPA performers onstage weren’t buying into the outdated theory that as Canadians “we could go for the bronze” rather than compete with the Americans.
“The feeling that America had its thumb on us just made me more determined to conquer everything,” Foster said, acknowledging his career hasn’t been without its failures.
“Failure is such a great teacher, and I’ve failed so many times,” he said. “I’ve had 50 hits but I wrote 1,000 songs so do the math.”
