The concert

The precious night of the concert has finally arrived, first time live in the US.  The venue was held in a smaller concert hall in Grand Praire area.  I was happy to see that the theatre was basically full and the audience seemed to be mainly middle-aged, I assume it was because of this particular line-up.

Soon after everyone was seated, a very cheerful opening greeted the crowd.  (And of course it contained the theme song from the TV series Dallas...lalalallaaallla...I know you are singing it already in your head.)  Then the orchestra first played the Hungarian dance from Brahms! What a great start, really came as a surprise for me! I have to tell you, my Hungarian pride was clearly written on my face at that certain time.  Followed by the Pointers Sisters, the 3 lady has rushed blood into our feet, we all got SO Excited!  This excitement continued with a Waltz and the amount of couples getting up to dance was pretty impressive. We also got to see the good-looking Kenny Loggins. (At least from the reaction of the women he seemed like an American hero on stage.)  The funny Natalie Choquette amazed us with her incredible voice and not just her voice was big but her mouth too, you should have seen how much spaghetti she could eat while performing.  And then we had the greatest John Miles and Michael McDonald, even singing together.  My favorite part was definitely Nile Rodgers and his Chic dance, Le Freak, who wouldn't remember that song?!  And we certainly all had Good Times!! He invited people up on stage and I managed to count around 60 people dancing up there with the full orchestra, it was already fun just watching it and being part of it!  At the very end all performers sang the 'We are family' together and I couldn't resist to take a picture with my phone, hope a little vibe comes through with this image, too.  As a closure, Carmina Burana finished off the venue, a stylish ending of this night.

In summary, had a super entertaining evening, 3 hours live performance.  I greatly appreciate the opportunity to be part of it, was certainly a once in a lifetime experience.

My connection with the venue

Lots of people asking how I got connected with the venue.  Well, great question.  Let me start with a little introduction about myself:  I am originally from Hungary, have lived most of my years there.  Also lived in London, England for 2,5 years and same period in The Netherlands.  I have currently moved back to NL, was living in the US before, including Las Vegas and Alaska.  I am always searching for great entertainment opportunities and have already heard about the Night of the Proms while living in Hungary. When I moved to the Netherlands, I came across the venue through a TV commercial in 2011 and have checked their website.  It sounded amazing, with all those great singers like Angie Stone, James Blunt, Mick Hucknall (Simply Red), John Miles performing in Rotterdam with the symphonic orchestra.  I absolutely love special events which stand out from the mass and this is certainly something different then a concert itself.  I booked my ticket straight away and was curious to see how can classical music meet pop.  It was an amazing and outstanding experience, though I was little sad that Seal has only performed in Belgium and not in the Netherlands (we always long for more, aren't we?)  Since then, I am always curious to check the line up for the next event and that's exactly what happened this time too...on the website stood the little article stating the opportunity to be an Ambassador and win a trip to the USA as this will be the first time they appear on stage in the States.  Because I am still a little "homesick" , this sounded like a fantastic opportunity to go back to my latest homeland, so I had to give it a go.  Look, where it took me!  I am flying over tomorrow to enjoy the Premier of the Night of the Proms in Dallas, Texas.  Really can't wait.
What did I learn again?  Never give up your dreams! You can fail or loose if you try but if you don't try, you don't even have the chance to win!