International Tango Star Nelson Avila to Perform at Vanderbilt Museum Centennial Celebration

Elegant Evening of Cocktails, Dinner, Jazz, Dancing Set for September 25

Nelson Avila, a legendary Argentine tango star, will perform on Saturday, September 25, when the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium celebrates its centennial with a gala evening and benefit auction to support the museum's wide-ranging education programs in the arts and sciences. The festive night will begin with cocktails from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the elegant courtyard of William K. Vanderbilt II's Spanish-Revival mansion and waterfront estate, "Eagle's Nest."

Avila, who starred in the world-renowned Broadway show Tango Argentino, will dance with his wife and partner Madalyn Klein and will give mini-lessons to guests. The Avilas performed on September 11 and July 31 to near-capacity Vanderbilt audiences that gave them rave reviews.

Also on the program will be Andy Farber, a leading New York City musician who has played with many jazz greats and noted orchestras. His sextet will perform jazz standards and hits from the American Popular Songbook by artists that include Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Rodgers and Hart. Farber, a Huntington native, released his latest CD, "This Could Be the Start of Something Big," on September 1.

The event offers the rare opportunity to dine at a sprawling, landmark American estate and to experience some of the glamour of the era when the Vanderbilt family lived at Eagle's Nest and entertained guests that included Hollywood stars, captains of industry and European royalty. The evening will include dinner and dancing from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.

The gala will observe the one-hundredth anniversary of William K. Vanderbilt II's purchase of the land for his estate and mansion—now home to the Vanderbilt Museum—in May 1910.

The Vanderbilt's 2010 honoree is the Honorable Jon Cooper, majority leader of the Suffolk County Legislature. Long a champion of the Vanderbilt, Cooper has been instrumental in helping the museum to secure capital-program support.

Tickets, at $100 per person, may be purchased by calling the Vanderbilt at 631-854-5579, or on the museum's website: www.vanderbiltmuseum.org. Proceeds will benefit the Vanderbilt's education programs.

Sponsorship tickets also are available: Circumnavigator at $10,000; Explorer at $5,000; Adventurer at $2,500; Geographer at $1,000; Voyager at $500, Tourist at $100 and Stowaway at $50. (The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum is a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt organization. All donations in excess of $60 per ticket may be tax-deductible to the extent of the law.)

Vanderbilt's Legacy of Exploration and Education

A century ago, the global explorer, adventurer and railroad heir William K. Vanderbilt II found a beautiful rolling hillside on Little Neck above Northport Harbor. He bought 20 acres of that hill on May 27, 1910, and hired a noted architecture firm to design and build a bachelor's bungalow, a long wharf and the foundation for a boathouse. Vanderbilt's summer home, expanded over the years to 24 rooms, became one of the grand, historic Long Island Gold Coast estates. 

The Vanderbilt— built in three stages from 1910 until 1936—is a unique combination of historic estate and mansion, marine and natural-history museum, planetarium and park. The spectacular mansion, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and home to the Vanderbilt Museum, annually welcomes 100,000 visitors and 50,000 schoolchildren.

William K. Vanderbilt II circumnavigated the globe twice in the 1930s in his ocean-going yacht, and brought back significant collections of natural-history specimens—birds, fish and invertebrates—as well as ethnographic artifacts from Africa and Asia. He pioneered auto racing in the United States, established the Vanderbilt Cup Races, spurred the development of the American auto industry, and built the prototype for the first toll road, the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway on Long Island. 

Suffolk County acquired the museum in 1947 and opened it to the public in 1950. Vanderbilt's mansion was designed by the New York architectural firm Warren & Wetmore, whose Grand Central Terminal in New York City (1903-13) was designed and built for the New York Central Railroad, one of several Vanderbilt family enterprises. Later additions to the mansion and other estate buildings were executed by the architect Ronald H. Pearce.