Benefiting Palm Springs Unified School District Arts Education

THE CONCERT
This annual fundraising concert celebrates four musical legends who influenced the worldwide musical scene in a new production created by the celebrated Michael Childers with Frank Goldstin. Grab Your Seat: Icons & Idols pays homage to Janis Joplin (performed by Mary Bridget Davies), Freddie Mercury (performed by Von Smith), George Michael (performed by Jake Simpson), and Prince (performed by Rogelio Douglas, Jr.). These four singing sensations will bring new life to classic and cherished songs originally performed by these entertaining legends.
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All proceeds from this concert will benefit Palm Springs Unified School District arts education programs.
Michael Childers
THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Todd Schroeder (musical director/pianist) is a brilliantly talented pianist, composer, director, producer, arranger, songwriter and certainly one of the hardest-working music directors in the world of show business today, working with such celebrities as Jason Alexander, Leslie Odom Jr., Tom Jones, Sam Harris, Rita Coolidge, Brielle Von Hugel and the legendary Angela Lansbury to name a few. Todd is also the music director and pianist for the superstar retro-pop group “Postmodern Jukebox” and has performed with them around the world including directing their debut at Radio City Music Hall in October of 2016. He can be seen in many of their viral videos including the mega-hit “My Heart Will Go On", which has garnered over five million views. In January of 2017, Schroeder was awarded the prestigious L.A. Stage Alliance “Ovation Award” for “Best Musical Direction” and BroadwayWorld.com named him their “Musical Director of the Year”.
THE PRODUCER
Michael Childers is one of the desert’s most successful producers of charitable fundraisers. He has raised more than $13 million dollars for AIDS charities, museums, performing arts, and social services in Los Angeles, Santa Fe, and Palm Springs.
Michael created the mixed media work for the Off-Broadway musical Oh! Calcutta! He was a founding photographer for Andy Warhol’s Interview and After Dark magazines. Other magazine covers include GQ, New York, TV Guide, Esquire, Los Angeles, Elle, Life, London Sunday Times Magazine, and Vogue. Michael’s photographic work is in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Palm Springs Art Museum, Chiat Day, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, Laguna Art Museum, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Las Vegas Art Museum, the Marion Center for Photographic Arts in Santa Fe, the National Portrait Gallery in London, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, the Chicago Public Library, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the USC Doheny Library, Scripps Museum of Photography and the Seattle Art Museum. Michael produced his first Broadway show, Tradition: The Jewish Legacy of Broadway at the Gerald Lynch Theater in New York for the Actors Fund, which also played at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. His Author, Author show was exhibited at Harvard University in 2015. On February 12, 2018, the Palm Springs Art Museum will present a large exhibition of his work entitled “Having A Ball”.
He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Hollywood Photography at the Temecula, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and Provincetown Film Festivals, and a Distinguished Photographer Award from the Palm Springs Art Fair. He received the JFS Humanitarian Award from Lily Tomlin. Michael’s star for his humanitarian work is located in front of the Palm Springs Art Museum.

THE PRODUCER
For almost 30 years, Frank Goldstin has designed and produced thousands of events worldwide. From spectacular fundraising galas, strategic corporate events, elaborate entertainment concepts, lavish parties and luxe celebrations, his Palm Springs-based MOMENTOUS has done it seamlessly and with style.
As a veteran within the events industry, Frank has designed and produced some of the most prestigious and original event productions and certainly some of the most elaborate and luxe parties ever seen. Many have attended his highly acclaimed events created for a myriad of local valley organizations such as The Mizell “Stars Among Us Gala,” The Living Desert’s “Zoobilee” Gala, “The Passions Ball” for Cancer Partners, Modernism Week’s “Opening Night Gala,” as well as a multitude of other special events for a roster of local clients including Desert AIDS Project and The Palm Springs Art Museum; to name just a few.
Frank is thrilled to be working alongside his dear friend Michael Childers to bring “Icons & Idols” to the stage to benefit The Foundation for the Palm Springs Unified School District.