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SCHOOL OF MUSIC PRESENTS "RICHARD RODGERS: A CELEBRATION OF AMERICAN SONG"


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Lincoln, Neb.-The School of Music presents the third annual Celebration of American Song at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29 in Kimball Recital Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln city campus. The American composer Richard Rodgers will be celebrated in an evening of song performed by the School of Music's voice faculty.

Faculty performers include Alisa Belflower, Kate Butler, Ariel Bybee, Kevin Hanrahan, Donna Harler-Smith, William Shomos and Therees Hibbard (choral). Also performing will be UNL's advanced vocal students and returning alumni.

Hixson-Lied Endowed Dean Giacomo Oliva will serve as piano accompanist for a range of both familiar and unfamiliar tunes, including "Blue Moon," "People Will Say We're in Love," "You'll Never Walk Alone," "My Funny Valentine," "Some Enchanted Evening," and many more.



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Richard Rodgers is most well-known for his movie musicals: "The Sound of Music," "The King and I," "Carousel," "Oklahoma," and the Pulitzer prize-winning "South Pacific," which together reflect only a small fraction of his award-winning compositions for both stage and screen. Through graceful and powerful melodies, Rodgers told stories of love sought, found, and sometimes lost.

His songs have been recorded by America's most beloved vocalists, including Judy Garland, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, and Harry Connick, Jr., just to name a few. Along with his collaborating lyricists, Larry Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, Rodgers is credited with creating revolutionary musicals in which the characters were poignantly vivid and the stories' drama of equal artistic integrity with his glorious music.

UNL's Coordinator of Musical Theatre Studies and host of this celebration, Alisa Belflower, will guide the audience through the evening of song with colorful stories from Rodgers' life and work.

"Come out to hear melodies that soar, tunes that tug at the heart, and songs that make your spirit dance," Belflower said.

Tickets are $5 for general admission and $3 for students and seniors and are only available at the door. The show is presented in two acts with an approximate running time of 90 minutes.

For more information, call the School of Music public relations office at (402) 472-6865.