Welcome to The Michael Bonanomi Foundation's 2018 Brighter Sun Benefit Online Auction site. Please take a minute to browse all of the items that are available. The online auction begins on Friday, March 2nd at 9:00 am Pacific Time and ends Sunday, March 18th at 8:00 pm Pacific Time. New items may be added daily!  

What you see here represents the hard work of many wonderful friends and family. With all of these amazing donations, you are bound to find something that interests you or someone you love.  In doing so, you are helping to support our 2018 Goals.

The Michael Bonanomi Foundation was established in memory of Michael Spencer Bonanomi, who was tragically taken from us by a hit and run driver on August 17, 2013. He was only 35 years old. Michael loved all music and believed in the profound positive effect music has on society. The Foundation aims to encourage children and adults to pursue their musical talent, through donations, scholarships and financial assistance to those programs or individuals who demonstrate both a financial need and a commitment to music. Through your generosity, our Online Silent Auction will help us reach our goals for 2018 and beyond.  

In 2016/2017, The Michael Bonanomi Foundation funded the inaugural University of California, Santa Cruz Visiting Artist/Scholar of Popular Music and Jazz program. This innovative new program is designed to bring experts in popular music directly to UC Santa Cruz as visiting professors, and will contribute to a growing emphasis on popular music in academia. In its inaugural year, the program is focusing on the music of the iconic American band, The Grateful Dead. This is especially relevant to UC Santa Cruz, as it currently houses the Grateful Dead Archive, a collection representative of the individual and collective creativity of the band, artists, photographers and fans. For those of you who knew Michael, you know how much he loved the The Grateful Dead! Our goal for 2018 is to be able to continue to fund the Visiting Artist/Scholar of Popular Music and Jazz Program at UCSC and support more local music programs here in the Los Angeles area. We simply cannot do it without you and because of your past generosity, this year we have been able to bring Michael’s vision of making the world a better place through music a reality.

Since its inception in 2014, The Michael Bonanomi Foundation has proudly supported the following worthy programs and individuals:

Visiting Artist/Scholar of Popular Music and Jazz inaugural program at the University of California, Santa Cruz 

Music4Sight@SweetRelief

The Jazz Ensemble program at HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles)

The Conor Lynch Foundation

Farragut Elementary School Music Education

Music scholarships, including two scholarships for UC Santa Cruz students

On Saturday, March 10th, we will hold the 2018 Brighter Sun Benefit Concert at the El Rey Theatre. The event will begin at 7:30 pm. This event is open to the public. This year’s concert is headlined by The Dustbowl Revival. The band’s vibrant mix of vintage Americana sounds brings an energizing vein of soul and funk and roots-infused rock that evokes the work of Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin and classic Stax recordings, and fits the band alongside such contemporaries as Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats and St. Paul & the Broken Bones. Opening the show will be Simon Petty. Simon is an English singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles whose husky vocals and confessional lyrics rise from a stylistic foundation of American blues, country and soul and a lifelong love of literature. He was Michael’s dear friend and longtime collaborator.

You may purchase tickets for the benefit at www.mikeyssong.org 

If you would like to donate to The Michael Bonanomi Foundation, please go to: http://mikeyssong.org/donate/

The Michael Bonanomi Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation. Your donations are tax deductible.

Please feel free to contact us at michaelbonanomifoundation@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thank you all for helping make this year's fundraiser a success!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT DONATED TO OUR ONLINE AUCTION AND A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR BRIGHTER SUN BENEFIT CONCERT SPONSORS:

ACOUSTIC GUITAR: 

David & Trish Wilson and Sue Woodyard 

BASS GUITAR:

The Robert Bonanomi Family 

UKELELE:

The Conor Lynch Foundation 

Eastman 

Elizabeth and Bill Kelly 

Natalie Mansour, D.M.D, Pediatric Dentistry 

The Vinettes 

AIR GUITAR:

Champion Construction 

The Mayberry Family 

The Panagiotis Family 

The Silva Family 

Mr. and Mrs. Alan Young