Past Internet Articles About Amy Grant

The Nashville Symphony continued a weekend of celebrations for its new home, The Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Sunday's "An Evening with Amy Grant" at times became an evening for Amy Grant.

The longtime symphony supporter was surprised during the show when symphony President and CEO Alan Valentine came to the stage and announced that it was being named the Amy Grant Performance Platform, in recognition of Grant's generosity. When the symphony was struggling to overcome a bankruptcy from the 1980s, Grant began pairing with the symphony and turning over net income, Valentine said.

"She single-handedly paid off the debt, which was about $1 million," he said.

"If that hadn't happened, I would dare say we wouldn't be here today."

As Valentine enjoyed the new $123.5 million building around show's end, he said Grant's support laid the foundation for where the symphony is today and that her contributions total about $2 million.

Grant was host to the second evening in three opening weekend galas for the new downtown center. Among her guests were her husband, Vince Gill, country singer LeAnn Rimes and contemporary Christian artist Michael W. Smith.

Gill came out during the last half of the show and sang three songs. The last was the title cut from his upcoming four-CD set These Days � a love song he wrote for Grant. "I haven't met a kinder soul," he said of his wife.

Smith also got a surprise onstage. During the show's first half, Valentine also announced that one of the center's two concert grand Steinway pianos would be named for Smith because it was bought with the $100,000 in proceeds from a pair of concerts he volunteered for last year.

Sunday's sold-out event turned up a wide variety of ages as the price and program became more accessible from Saturday night's $2,500-a-ticket white-tie gala. Sunday's was the first truly public performance in the Laura Turner Concert Hall, which has previously seen invitation-only shows and Saturday night's exclusive gala.

Before Grant took the stage with the symphony, singing hits such as "Takes a Little Time," concertgoers moved through the many lobbies and gathering places in the elegant new center, taking in country, gospel, Latin, jazz and classical music, depending on the room, and food with flavors to match.

Journalist John Seigenthaler returned to the symphony center Sunday, having attended Saturday's gala opening. Seigenthaler, 79, and a Nashville native, is chairman emeritus of The Tennessean, founder of the First Amendment Center and a longtime observer of the Nashville cultural landscape.

"There are moments in Nashville history that are seminal, and that was one of them," Seigenthaler said, speaking of the Saturday opening. "There are moments that put the city on a level that it's never been before. This is unlike any other moment."