Lucy Christine Leininger Keana Sarahi Rubio Moreta Emmetis Malik Dominic Joseph Levy Ashley Eileen Price Brandon Samuel Crocker Danica Lynn Hein Zakia Atiano Leslie Amelia Diana Esteves Vincenzo Ronald Earl Lopez Amanda DeRosa Staff Matthew Gabriel Mariano Justin Mitchell Chen Devon Abdullah Sughiarto Sarah Zower Ethan Velis Matthew Tonatiu Del Valle Alessandro Giovanni Guarnaccia Graham Charlotte Beatty Singh Dosange Andre Alexandrovich Juryovitz Seth David Brockman Brooke Nicole Kemper Maxim Povolaev Rowan Rose Ramus Tristan Horrorsanula Aeson Ava Riley Elgazar Nicholas Missao Otoshi Chloe Elizabeth May Brower Taylor Faith Golden Mia Boleyn Hernandez Marguerite Jolie Messier Suhaila Ariba Peyton Irene Hall Roman Rudinsky Sarah Jessica Eddie Phoebe Regan Spence Donna Lisette Rivera Mundo Sophia Joy Walls Kathy Barojash Shariari Baron Porshikurick Jewel Melanite FC Ahie Karen Palu Hueva Maake Hayden Alexander Augustu Saluni Caleb Bizwayehu Ephraim.

Natalia Mariella Gallon.

Brandon Christopher Johnson.

Christina Rose DiMateo.

Jacob Wilford Bremhorst.

Isabella Ava Boych.

Maxwell Tierran Lee.

Brianna Marie Lucese.

Ito Levy Marouk.

Mina Mula Ishman.

Tomas Ugarte.

Sadie Rose Hansel.

McKenzie Elizabeth Lois Hudson.

Ollie Basel O'Day.

Sarah Mercado Modensky.

Ethan Anton Lewis.

Aidan Heath Cooper.

The final three coming to the stage tonight, Kathy Lee, Debian I Batra, and Ola Juni Akinsola.

Hello, everyone, my name is Kathy Lee and I'm your senior class president.

I'm Viviani Butra, and I'm your senior class vice president.

I'm Ola Dunia Sola, and I'm your senior class Secretary Treasurer.

Three years ago, I told myself that there were a lot of bad days, but the good ones outweigh the bad.

Class of twenty twenty-five, please remember the good days because they're all that matters.

As we move forward, I want you guys to remember the lessons, the laughters, and the friendships.

We can't wait to see you all at our reunions in the future and see how far you come.

And as David Harris once told me, your limit is exactly what you make of it.

So class of twenty twenty-five.

Let's celebrate.

So bring your good times.

Hello, I'm Metal Matt.

I'm at the Toyota Pavilion at Concord for a very special moment.

The pavilion's turning fifty.

It's amazing.

This venue in the foothills of Concord.

I've had many great moments, including my graduation from high school in 1983, and I produced CC Rock and hosted it in this facility for 10 years with lots of great bands like Bad Company, The Scorpions, Motley Crew.

I've got a lot of great historical footage of this venue, including the Reconstruction back in the mid-90s, and some great sound bites from the key members of the staff back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

So sit back and relax.

It's going to be a great walk down memory lane at the Toyota Pavilion at Concord.

The summer festival demonstrated the need for a larger permanent performing arts facility in Concord.

In 1973, a joint venture between the city of Concord and the Mount Diablo Unified School District was made.

The city asked numerous architects to develop and present plans for the Concord Pavilion.

Frank Gary was selected to be the architect.

And on May 16th, 1975, the pavilion opened its doors for the first time for a benefit concert, sponsored by the Concord Jazz Festival, featuring Henry Mancini and Sarah Vaughn.

Carl Jefferson was there, and he remembers it well.

It's an exciting night, and the I'm from Concord where the pavilion is, and so forth.

Everybody's proud of something good.

John Toffelly Jr.

Director of Leisure Services for the City of Concord helped the funding and building of the pavilion and became the general manager.

And it certainly succeeded in that over the past 15 or 16 years.

Well, when you work for John Toffley, I mean, you know, John was hired from Richmond, and he was brought over here to to form an arts department.

Because Concord didn't have that.

So Bud Stewart, who's a city manager then, brought brought John over, and that was his job.

And he did.

But little did we know he was this dreamer, this person with great ideas.

And he didn't want to be bothered with the small stuff or he would develop an idea and then throw it out all of us in the department and leave it up to us to try to make it happen.

You know, that happened not only with the jazz festival, we did swim meets, uh we did uh softball uh tournaments, major tournaments, uh, but we did golf tournaments.

We did all kinds of stuff because of him, because he was this visionary, and I think that's why him and and Carl Jefferson hit it off so well because uh Jeff was the same thing.

He was a visionary as well.

This is a remarkable feat for City of Concord for John Chopley and his staff that this place was so cleverly done, and uh what was by an adult, an architect.

Everything about it with John.

John's responsible for what exists up here.

I had something to do with promoting it.

Credit is due to John and staff for operating that.

So it's amazing, really.

Oh, I know it's just trying to agree.

That commercial cost me a lot.

But what what John wanted, he wanted to have everything that he could possibly have here, uh, so that so the community would at least have a chance to see it, to see something.

And believe me, we did everything you can imagine here here.

I mean, we had one ring circus.

We had uh professional wrestling, boxing, uh, we did Broadway plays, the symphonies, the ballets.

And what happened was as we evolved after a couple of years of operation, we saw that the dynamics were changing on City Council because you're always subject to the council's opinion, right?

Uh and uh so we started seeing that the finances became a little more important.

Concord wasn't really interested in underwriting these these special events.

So John found himself in an awkward position that he's gonna have to start doing shows that maybe he didn't like, like hard rock and roll acid.

I mean, he didn't like that stuff, right?

But but we had to start creating a balance that those shows would pay for some of the shows like the symphony.

I mean, when we we would have the San Francisco Symphony here, it would cost a bloody fortune.

And quite frankly, sometimes they didn't do very well.

And and even the Concord Jazz Festival didn't do as well as it did in the park because now it was competing uh with with some of the major pop shows, the the middle of the road or what or what have you.

The original Concord Pavilion was designed as a symphony hall, and it also hosts the Concord Jazz Festival.

So when the money for the symphony wasn't bringing enough revenue in to support the operation, concerts were starting to be brought in, and subsequently a lot of the shows that arrived would come up with their van or their truck and try to figure out how to put this equipment into a symphony hall.

It was a challenge.

And so my job was sort of straighten that out.

I had a lot of road experience, a lot of traveling.

Prior to come to the pavilion, I did seven years on the road traveling with various groups, so I knew it from the artist's perspective coming in and try to help them understand how to fit their show into this building.

So it was it was a it was a tough time, and ultimately we had to change.

Otherwise we're gonna those artists weren't gonna come back.

So that's what caused the expansion or the remodel of the building to occur.

It's pr it's pr it's really exciting, and I think the most important thing is is that the pavilion didn't change that much.

It uh it's still intimate, it's still it's still what it was in the the 21 years before.

There's still sometimes you come in here and it it rumbles around a little bit.

You can still hear the guitar solo from last week's concert floating around inside of here, but it's it's for amphitheater, it's fantastic, and uh it's a model amphitheater for the country.

It's uh it's it's quite an honor for for Concord to have a building like this.

Uh there's a lot of cities that would die to have a pavilion in their in their city with the attention that it brings to the community.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this historical look at the Toyota Pavilion at Concord.

An amazing amphitheater here in the foothills of Contra Costa County.

It was a community built uh theater, it's a beautiful uh outdoor venue.

Uh that um uh uh Frank Yuri helped design and uh it had a great uh blend of top concert acts coming to perform here and community event.

And on that warm summer night, uh it's just a great place to see a concert and get out on top of the line and see Mount Diablo and beautiful Diablo Valley.

The original Conquer Pavilion was designed as a symphony hall, and it also hosts the Conquer Jazz Festival.

So when the money for the symphony wasn't bringing enough revenue in to support the operation, concerts were starting to be brought in, and subsequently, a lot of the shows that arrived would come up with their van or their truck and try to figure out how to put this equipment into a symphony hall.

It was a challenge, and so my job was sort of straighten that out.

I had a lot of road experience, a lot of traveling prior to coming to the pavilion.

I did seven years on the road traveling with various groups, so I knew it from the artists' perspective coming in and tried to help them understand how to fit their show into this building.

So it was it was a it was a tough time, and ultimately we had to change.

Otherwise, we're gonna those artists weren't gonna come back.

So that's what caused the expansion or the remodel of the building to occur.

It's really exciting, and I think the most important thing is is that the pavilion didn't change that much.

It uh it's still intimate, it's still it's still what it was in the the twenty-one years before.

It's interesting.

I was just reading the other day, Live Nation's building in Michigan, I believe, a new amphitheater, a hundred and forty million dollars to build amphitheater.

The original building here in 75 was four point two million, and we spent another eighteen million remodels.

So for three for roughly twenty five million dollars, you have an amphitheater that's worth over a hundred and fifty million dollars.

It's pretty good return on your investment in my book, and plus what it does for the wealth of the community and adds popular music.

So it was fun to do the remodel.

We did it without missing a season, which was impressive.

Um it was it was challenging.

The first opening show was tough.

Um we were doing the House of Blues tours with Joe Cocker as a trial run just to see if all the bathroom toilets flushed and make sure people could get in the parking lot okay and such.

And I had called the manager about two weeks before and said we're not gonna make it.

And we 11 days before the first show, there was no concrete in the lower bowl here.

None of even the seats were in.

I mean, it was it was they were still pouring concrete.

And the day we opened up the show to come in, there was still bolting chairs on when the audience was coming into the into the venue.

And so I later on I was talking to the tour manager of the, and she said well my uh you can't cancel the show because my um my family lives in that town I'm down in LA at the House of Blues but we're doing this tour you can't cancel it because I my I come from Concord and I said oh well I think we may have to he said we're okay just put us up on the holiday in down the street for dressing rooms if we don't have dressing rooms and we can do the show so we did the show and then a year later they came back and I saw the woman again and she said you know what's interesting story is that uh my sister came to the show and she met the guy who was installing the seats now they're married wow amazing what happens at the pavilion you know a lot of friendships and a lot of uh great times and that's I think that's probably the best thing about the pavilion is that the friendships and the and the audiences the the staff was fantastic a lot of close friendships came about a lot of marriages came about now the kids are working here it's uh it's it's quite an honor for for Concord to have a building like this there were some artists that really liked coming back here I think James Taylor was one um where they just enjoyed the I think the vibe of the of the facility again being that outdoor amphitheater uh some artists prefer doing the indoor arena shows but I think there are some artists that really enjoy uh the outdoor the night before I got a call at like 3 a.m in the morning at my house where I'm sleeping in bed woke me up and it was the tour manager for the blues brothers and they just he said hi Doug, we're down in LA we just finished the show and I'm thinking to myself oh my God are they gonna cancel am I gonna be pulling the plug and and he goes no we just finished the show and it went very well but John was having a really tough time John Bellushi was having really tough time with the catering and I need a few things on the catering to be fixed and I said what's what is it he says make sure that he's going on a diet he wants diet guacamole dip make sure the guacamole dip is diet okay I'm like okay I can do that and hung up the phone I went cheetah death I thought I was gonna the show was going to cancel and here we was all I had to worry about was the catering so we never knew what diet uh guacamole dip was but we labeled it guacamole dip when I'm on the on the bowl but uh it was fun you know he was and I've never I never knew that John Belushi could be aerobic you know he was he he could do backflips on the stage and so he ran up in the old stage all the way down the hall and started doing backflips across stage and then landed it was quite impressive I he was an amazing it was an amazing show if you were here you saw one of the best shows of of the pavilion's history.

John saw the need.

Once again, his vision he he saw that the arts was not going to be able to support, be supported in this facility.

And we were going to have to take this this other direction into the middle of the road music, rock and roll music so we he he had to find some way to uh create a uh a mechanism that would support the arts.

So a nonprofit organization that he worked with, Scott Belding was the executive director, and it was their job to keep the arts alive, so they wouldn't get lost.

So the original concept was to keep the arts alive.

And they did that.

I mean, they provided volunteers, they had fundraisers, they were they get they had grants.

And even at one time when uh when we lost the concession contract, the pavilion associates actually ran the concessions here to carry it along until we got somebody else.

So they were really a great tool to help us.

Come on the road.

Coming on to California.

Bill Graham and John Toffe and I met many times in his office, and once he started coming out here and so forth.

So we had many interactions, and for three years, the second, third, fourth year of the pavilion, they were rented the building more than any other promoter to put these shows.

And after that year, as we had this lawsuit, James Taylor, and we realized we're trying to book an act at the pavilion, and then one or two promoters were trying to book the same act in the same place.

And you know, Bill Graham called me one time, we were booking Andy Gibb.

And he called up and he was screaming in the phone.

He said, How could you pay that kid thirty-five thousand dollars?

And I said, Bill, I don't know that much, but Andy Gibb is the concert pavilion.

I mean, you put the picture in the dictionary, he fits our audience, the suburban audience, and so forth.

And he sold out in like two or three days.

The night we booked uh the city council voted to have Bill Graham start in the 1986 season is the sole booker.

We went to uh dinner afterwards after the city council meeting at T.

Artist Restaurant, which is now our Congressman Mark DeSalmi's restaurant.

And I was sitting right next to Bill Graham, and I said, you know, Bill, we got to get the grateful dead here.

Uh we'd had their bands when they'd split up, but we never had the grateful dead, and of course they had quite a reputation.

And uh Bill says, not gonna happen.

He he realized that he was taking too much of a chance to have the grateful dad and their audience come out to the pavilion.

So that that actually never happened.

Such a trail.

Uh we were sitting up in the conference room.

Uh John and I'm not sure if uh Jay Bettercray was there, but uh I was there and it was raining and it was bad weather, and uh Bill, we said, Bill, you can't, and he arrived in a helicopter, and he said, You can't leave here.

I mean, my understanding was that his pilot did not have instrument uh training.

So the low ceiling, you can't fly home.

He lived in Marin.

And he said, no, no, no, I trust.

His pilot's name was Killer.

Uh so uh, so uh he said, no, I I trust killer.

I mean, I I know he can he he can get me home safe.

So we said, no, no, let's we'll get you a limo, he will drive you home.

Well, you know what happened.

You know, he was killed.

I mean, the pilot was following uh Highway 37, I think, and just ran into the tower.

But I'll never forget that as well.

So the next morning, you know, I get a call that what it happened.

And we one thing we found is that we the we were the summer home of the San Francisco Symphony before Davies Hall was built for about three or four years.

And they would book, they'd call up and say, Hey, we booked Maserat Cabaye, he was the most famous soprano in the world at the time.

And I'm thinking, who's gonna come out to Concord to watch that?

And sometimes no one did.

And we used to John Toffley's analogy was that you look through a telescope and you look at the small end and it goes out to the big thing, you see the stars.

And he says, you know, people in Concord look through the small end of the telescope, they look out, there's San Francisco.

You're gonna go in there for dinner to go to a concert, go to a giant skein, 49er skiing.

People in San Francisco look through the big end of the telescope and they look out, and here's Concord at the small end.

And you have to go across the bridge.

You had to go across the Bay Bridge.

Can you drive all the way out to Concord?

So we realized that a lot of acts that were big box office acts weren't gonna play in Concord.

And conversely, some things that wouldn't work in San Francisco would be a smash in in Concord.

So I live in the promise.

You can still hear the guitar solo from last week's concert floating around inside of here.

But it's it's for amphitheaters, it's fantastic and uh it's a model amphitheater for the country.

It's uh it's it's quite an honor for for Concord to have a building like this.

Uh there's a lot of cities that would die to have a pavilion in their in their city with the attention that it brings to the community.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this historical look at the Toyota Pavilion at Concord, an amazing amphitheater here in Contra Costa County.

Thank you very much to Live Nation and Polo Loco for making this video possible.

I enjoyed making it was a labor of love.

So I'll see you at the show.

Bye bye.

Okay.

Welcome to At the Theater.

I am Matt Bolunder for Walnut Creek Television.

Tonight we have a very special show with George Winston.

This Piano Virtuoso.

We've played several numbers from the Leisure Center for the Arts in Warner Creek.

We'll also sit down and talk to George about his career and about his newest piece of work coming out soon.