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AMERICAN CLASSICS ANNOUNCES 2009-2010 SEASON
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Season of Celebrations with Luck Be a Lady - Songs by Frank Loesser. A hundredth birthday celebration of one of America’s most creative songwriters with “Goody Goody” - singers Mary Ann Lanier, Valerie Anastasio and Heather Peterson, and Robert Humphreville on piano. Friday, November 12, 2010 at 7:30pm, Follen Community Church, 755 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, Massachusetts Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 7:30pm, Pickman Concert Hall, Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” at 100. The classic Berlin song was published on March 18, 1911 and American Classics honors it one hundred years later to the day - featuring stars of Boston’s musical theatre community! Friday, March 18, 2011 at 7:30pm, Pickman Concert Hall, Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 3:00pm, Follen Community Church, 755 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, Massachusetts
Rags and Songs by Scott Joplin. The Great Master of Ragtime in his piano music and selections from his opera Treemonisha. Friday, May 6, 2011 at 7:30pm, Follen Community Church, 755 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, Massachusetts Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 7:30pm, Pickman Concert Hall, Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Tickets: $20, $15 for students/seniors. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * American Classics announces their 2010-2011 season featuring two exciting centenary celebrations - songwriter Frank Loesser and the one hundredth birthday of the classic Irving Berlin song Alexander’s Ragtime Band. Rounding out the year is a program of Scott Joplin and Ragtime, featuring selections from his opera Treemonisha. A highlight of last season was the female trio “Goody Goody” (Mary Ann Lanier, Valerie Anastasio and Heather Peterson, with Robert Humphreville on piano), this year singing the songs of Frank Loesser in Luck Be a Lady. Loesser, who wrote words and music for the Broadway classic Guys and Dolls (1950) was born one hundred years ago in June. His early career was in Hollywood, working solely as a lyricist with Two Sleepy People and Heart and Soul amongst his early hits. As early as 1939 he had written both music and lyrics with the title song of the film Seventeen, but it was not until 1942 with Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition that he began consistently writing both words and music. Other Broadway successes include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961, to be revived this season on Broadway) and Where’s Charley (1948), an adaptation of Charley’s Aunt starring Ray Bolger. Luck Be a Lady will feature Adelaide’s Lament, A Bushel and a Peck, I’ll Know, and Luck Be a Lady Tonight! (all from Guys and Dolls), Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition, I Wish I Didn't Love You So, Junk Man, and Never Will I Marry, and more. Performances are Friday, November 12, 2010 at 7:30pm, at Follen Community Church, 755 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, Massachusetts and Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 7:30pm, at the Pickman Concert Hall of the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Irving
Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band
took the musical world by storm after its publication on March 18, 1911,
and remains one of the most popular songs in American music to this
day. Song duo and Berlin specialists Benjamin Sears & Bradford Conner,
with Mary Ann Lanier and Margaret Ulmer, are the featured performers,
joined by Valerie Anastasio and Peter Miller, along with leading members
of Boston’s musical theatre community and other
American Classics regulars in
a gala celebration. Berlin did not expect much of the song when he
first released it, but singer Emma Carus had a great success with it in
the spring of 1911 and suddenly it was being sung everywhere. The song
was featured in two Irving Berlin films,
Alexander’s Ragtime Band,
sung by Alice Faye, and There’s No
Business Like Show Business where it received a major
production treatment with Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Johnny Ray, Mitzi
Gaynor, and Donald O’Connor. Classic recordings include those by Billy
Murray, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, and Bessie Smith, and in more recent
years both Mandy Patinkin and Michael Feinstein included it in Broadway
concerts. Sears & Conner performed it on their first concert in 1989
and it has been a staple of their repertoire ever since, and
American Classics featured it
in their ragtime concerts in 2005 and 2006. (For more information on
the history of Alexander’s Ragtime
Band go to
http://benandbrad.com/ Performances are Friday, March 18, 2011 (the “birthday” itself) at 7:30pm at the Pickman Concert Hall of the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 3:00pm at Follen Community Church, 755 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, Massachusetts. Keeping the ragtime theme to round out the season is an concert of piano and vocal music by Scott Joplin. His piano rags are now considered the pinnacle of the form, but his vocal music is not as well known. The program will be built around his opera Treemonisha, which languished until the 1970s when it was revived with great success. No Joplin program is complete without his piano music, and his rags and other works will be included. American Classics members Mary Ann Lanier, Benjamin Sears & Bradford Conner, and Margaret Ulmer will be joined by others on this concert.
Performances are Friday, May 6, 2011 at 7:30pm at Follen Community Church, 755 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, Massachusetts and Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 7:30pm, at the Pickman Concert Hall of the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. For further information about this special season, contact American Classics at 617-254-1125 or ac@amclass.org. Be sure to visit our website, www.amclass.org. - END -
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