World-renowned bass baritone Simon Estes will bring his “Roots and Wings” benefit concert tour to Wartburg College Sunday, Oct. 14.
Estes, a Wartburg distinguished professor and artist in residence, will sing 10 solos during the concert — part of the college’s Artist Series — at 3 p.m. in Neumann Auditorium. The concert will fund scholarships for Bremer County high school students.
The concert also will feature young artist Marie Sorenson, a Wartburg senior vocal performance major from Cedar Rapids; and the Wartburg Choir and a 70-member Bremer County high school choir, both under the direction of Dr. Lee Nelson, Wartburg associate professor of music. The concert is being held on the college’s Family Weekend and is in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the Wartburg Choir and the college’s Family Weekend.
Estes will perform operatic arias, Broadway standards and Negro spirituals at the concert, which will conclude with all performers joining in his signature rendition of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Tickets for the concert, sponsored by State Bank & Trust, are $15-25 and can be purchased online at www.wartburg.edu/artist or by calling 319 352-8691 or 800 772-2085 ext. 8691 between noon and 4 p.m.
Estes plans to hold Roots and Wings concerts in each of Iowa’s 99 counties, raising money for the Simon Estes Foundation, which provides scholarships for Iowa high school seniors. During the past two years, he has performed in 30 counties, raising $150,000 and establishing 70 scholarships to students who attend 33 colleges and universities — including Wartburg — and are pursuing 51 different majors.
“My roots are in Iowa. I was born here,” said Estes, a Centerville native. “I want to give these young people the opportunity to develop their own wings and fly off to whatever they want to be.”
The Roots and Wings tour fulfills a dream he has had since he was a “dirt poor” student, struggling to make ends meet at the University of Iowa and then the famed Julliard School of Music in New York City.
“I thought if I ever become blessed, I want to help out kids financially because I worked every year I was in Iowa City, sometimes 40 hours per work. I often didn’t have enough food. Sometimes I had to drop out after half a year because I had to work,” Estes said.
At Iowa he caught the attention of Professor Charles Kellis, who heard Estes perform with the Old Gold Singers on campus and steered him toward opera. Kellis became Estes’ first voice teacher and recommended he apply to Julliard, where Estes received a full scholarship, but still had to work several jobs to make ends meet.
Estes has another goal for the concerts — to promote the talents of young artists.
“I hope to introduce many of these counties to Broadway, classical and other types of music,” he said. “I’m hoping that the counties will start a concert series, bringing in these young artists and paying them to perform. A lot of these young people have performed already, and the audiences went bananas. In fact, they are bringing them back to perform. They include violinists and pianists — many different instruments — as well as singers.”
Estes who lived part-time in Switzerland for 27 years, began his philanthropic efforts by raising money on behalf of a children’s hospital in Zurich and has aided child health care and education in Bulgaria and South Africa. After speaking to a predominantly African-American high school in Tulsa in 1980, he began the Simon Estes Educational Foundation there, raising more than $3 million, which has provided 330 scholarships.