If you’ve got talent, you’ve got to find a place to flaunt it, and for chamber musicians, that place is the annual Ames Town and Gown musicale.

Over the past 10 years, the Ames Town and Gown Music Association has taken advantage of Ames talent during the association’s annual fundraising musicale. Saturday, the Town and Gown association will celebrate its first decade of musicales at St. John’s Episcopal church.

Artistic Director Paula Helmuth originated the idea of creating musicales 10 years ago to give Ames residents a chance to appreciate local talent.

“It had occurred to me that we have an immense amount of wonderful musical talent in Ames, both at the university and in the larger community,” Helmuth said. “We were trying to raise more funds and consciousness about chamber music, and I thought it just might work to create an evening celebrating chamber music and its true community roots.”

Helmuth said when she was gathering ideas for the first concert 10 years ago, she wanted the concert to be unlike a regular concert but more like a home soiree where friends gather to hear other friends perform.

With the help of the Ames Town and Gown board of directors, Helmuth formulated a list of people who lived in the Ames and surrounding communities who would be able to perform quality chamber music.

“The first year, I asked about seven or eight people — or ensembles — to join us for this new event,” Helmuth remembers. “Everyone agreed to perform, and the ticket sales were so good that we had to change to a larger venue — Green Hills. Since that time, the Musicale has taken on a life of its own.”

Helmuth said she used to think it was an imposition to ask the musicians to participate, but now she feels many of them enjoy being asked. In fact, some even ask her months in advance if they can play at the event.

Among the roster of artists who have played in the past are Iowa State faculty ensembles such as the Ames Piano Quartet and Basically Baroque.

“The faculty have been exceedingly generous in giving of their time to this event,” Helmuth said. “Conversely, I think the Musicale also introduces the community to the musicians both of ISU and of the larger community, and this exposure is great for everybody.”

The exposure is especially great for ISU music students who are just getting started with their music careers.

Ryan Schweers, junior in music performance, and Amy Anderson Maifield, Town and Gown student representative and senior in music and chemical engineering, will perform at Saturday’s concert.

Other performers will include Chamber Music America Rural Residency artists the Skyline Brass, soprano Margaret Lloyd, mezzo-soprano Pat Moline, flutist Elizabeth Sadilek, pianists Paul Ferrone, Larisa Kanevski and Helmuth and percussionist Barry Larkin.

Since the group of performers is apt to play such a wide variety of musical styles due to its backgrounds and instruments, every year Helmuth has created a theme and a list of guidelines for the performers to follow when they choose their music for the performance.

This year, the performers were asked to play music that was composed around the turn of the century.

“As the new century approaches, Town and Gown thought it would be fun to program music from the early part of the century,” Maifield said. “For example, I am playing the Debussy Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano.”

The combination of great music, interesting company and mouth-watering deserts after the concert is an agenda that is sure to provide pleasure for all who attend.

But it is also expected to provide a relied-upon portion of the Town and Gown’s annual budget.

Anita Beal, president of Town and Gown, said money that is made from this concert is essential to programming for the 1999-2000 50th anniversary year of Town and Gown.

“The musicale helps to pay for hall rental, publicity, printing costs and artists’ fees,” Beal said. “It provides about five percent of the budget annually.”

Supporters of the event number from about 100 to 125, with most of the event’s audience comprised of people in the community.

The Ames Town and Gown annual musicale will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 2338 Lincoln Way. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by calling Marilyn Keller at 232-1282.