event will include a seated dinner and dancing to the sounds of the orchestra all to benefit Shreveport Opera. The event starts at 6 p.m. at Sam’s Town Casino & Hotel Shreveport. Table sponsorships are available. Individual tickets are $100 per person. Call 227-9503 or emailboxoffice@shreveportopera.

“My mother had a friend from France so I was able to spend my 16th summer in a little town called Villard Sur-Bien in the eastern part of France in the district of Jura. It was a town of only about 100 people, but I got to travel from there to Paris where the exposure to the great artists in the great museums inspired me to be an artist.