A List
3/27/06

LAURENTIAN SINGERS CONCERT BENEFITS POTSDAM CS 'FRIENDS'

CANTON - The Laurentian Singers of St. Lawrence University will perform a "pops" concert on Sunday, April 2, at 2 p.m. in the Potsdam High School Auditorium. The event is a joint benefit with the Potsdam Central School Music Friends. Tickets, at $5 per person, are available at the door.

The concert will feature the full ensemble, with pianist Barbara Phillips-Farley, in choral arrangements of a wide variety of American popular music from 1920 to the present, as well as solos by several Singers. Composers from the Tin Pan Alley era, such as George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter and Frank Loesser, will be featured, as well as works from contemporary artists including Billy Joel, Carole King, Elton John, Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys. Songs from Broadway hits, including Rent, Wicked and Aida will also be performed, along with standards, such as "Blue Moon," "I Got Rhythm," "Autumn Leaves" and "St. Louis Blues."

The Laurentian Singers, a select coeducational choir of 32 undergraduate singers at St. Lawrence University, celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. The group has won wide acclaim since the ensemble was founded in 1946. In addition to their many performances on campus and in the community, the ensemble has toured extensively throughout the eastern United States, Canada, Europe, Central and South America, Romania and the former Soviet Union. In recent years, they have toured in Puerto Rico and New Orleans, singing for enthusiastic, packed audiences and meeting with other choirs. Their wide-ranging repertoire, drawn from musics of many styles and countries, reflects the spirit of the liberal arts experience at St. Lawrence.

Among the University's best - and best-known - ambassadors, the Laurentian Singers have performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City and were the first choral group invited to sing in the Canadian Parliament. They have also performed at the White House, Chartres Cathedral in France and the Royal College of Music in London. In addition, the Laurentian Singers have given coast-to-coast broadcasts over the ABC, CBS and NBC radio networks and appeared on television. In the fall of 2004 the Laurentians were invited to sing for U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY).

A portion of the proceeds of the concert will go to the Laurentian Singers Tour Fund. In celebration of their 60th anniversary, the Singers toured Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland during spring break.

For information, call 315-265-2000, extension 768.

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