The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra presents Play it Again, Marvin! A Marvin Hamlisch Celebration - Friday, April 28th at 8pm in WMU's Miller Auditorium

    KALAMAZOO, MI, April 11, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra is proud to present the final concert in its 2016-17 Special Event Series, Play It Again, Marvin! A Marvin Hamlisch Celebration.

The life and legacy of Broadway's legendary composer, pianist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, Pulitzer Prize, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award-winner, Marvin Hamlisch, is celebrated in this multimedia concert. Experience Marvin Hamlisch in the company of J. Ernest Green, conductor, Kevin Cole, pianist/host, his closest musician friends, and his widow, Terre Blair-Hamlisch.

In addition to the concert, there are several special events to celebrate Hamlisch's life and work. The public is invited to enjoy a photography exhibit, readings of Hamlisch's children's book and a Gala Evening with friends of Marvin Hamlisch.

Kalamazoo Valley Museum Exhibit and Lecture
In conjunction with the KSO's concert, Play it Again Marvin! A Marvin Hamlisch Celebration, Kalamazoo Valley Museum has also planned a special exhibit: Remembering Marvin Hamlisch - The People's Composer which will be open to the public April 15, 2017 through May 14, 2017. In conjunction with this exhibit, KVM will be offering a special Meet the Photographer experience as well. Len Prince will be at the Museum on Saturday April 29th from 1-3pm, to meet visitors to the exhibit.

Museum visitors are also encouraged to take part in Kalamazoo Valley Museum's Sunday Afternoon Lecture Series on April 23rd at 1:30pm as they host "A Conversation with J. Ernest Green, Music Director of Play it Again, Marvin!." J. Ernest Green is the Artistic Director of Live Arts Maryland and the Music Director of the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra and Annapolis Chorale. He will be the KSO's guest conductor for the Special Event concert on Friday, April 28th at Miller Auditorium.

*The exhibit, Meet Len Prince, and lecture are free and open to the public.
For details go to KalamazooMuseum.org

Marvin Makes Music - Community Reading
The community is invited to join the KSO as they explore Marvin Hamlisch, the children's author! "Marvin Makes Music" tells an inspiring and humorous autobiographical story from Marvin's own childhood in this beautiful children's book. Marvin completed this book just before he passed away in 2012, and we are honored to share this story through multiple public readings in Kalamazoo.

April 13th @ 10am - Bookbug (3019 Oakland Dr, Kalamazoo, MI 49008)
April 18th @ 10am - Portage District Library (300 Library Ln, Portage, MI 49002)
April 21st @ 10:30am - Kalamazoo Public Library - Central Branch (315 S Rose St, Kalamazoo, MI 49007)
April 27th @ 10:30am - Ransom District Library (180 S Sherwood Ave, Plainwell, MI 49080)
April 29th @ 11am - Kalamazoo Valley Museum (230 N Rose St, Kalamazoo, MI 49003)

Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra League Spring Gala
The KSO League Spring Gala, MARVIN! MUSIC! MEMORIES!, will feature Marvin Hamlisch's wife of 29 years, Terre Blair-Hamlisch. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet Terre in person, and hear stories about her life with Marvin and his thrilling musical career. The Gala will take place at 5:30pm on Thursday, April 27, 2017 at the Kalamazoo Country Club. The evening will include a champagne and hors d'oeuvres reception; dinner with wine and desserts; Hamlisch's music provided by a KSO ensemble; and, social time with friends. The KSO League will also be selling Len Prince's coffee table book: Remembering Marvin Hamlsich The People's Composer, signed by Terre Blair-Hamlisch!

Tickets are $100 per person.
Information and tickets available at KSOLeague.com.


ABOUT THE ARTISTS

J. Ernest Green
J. Ernest Green is the Artistic Director of Live Arts Maryland and the Music Director of the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra and Annapolis Chorale. He served as a Cover Conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he worked with such artists as Metropolitan Opera star Denyce Graves, Sir James Galway, and Pinchas Zuckerman among others.

As a Pops Conductor, he regularly worked with and conducted for the late Marvin Hamlisch. Mr. Green conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's tribute to Mr. Hamlisch (2013), featuring Idina Menzel, Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz, Maria Friedman, Brian D'Arcy James and Klea Blackhurst. He was the Musical Advisor for the Memorial Concert for Mr. Hamlisch at The Juilliard School (2012) where he worked with Mike Nichols, Liza Minnelli, Aretha Franklin, Chris Botti, Kevin Cole, Maria Friedman, Lang Lang, and Barbra Streisand.

Mr. Green was the Music Director and Conductor for "One Singular Sensation" (2013) a Broadway celebration honoring Mr. Hamlisch at the Hudson Theatre featuring, in addition to the artists listed above, Donna McKechnie, Marissa McGowan, Matthew Morrison, John Lloyd Young, Stephanie J. Block, Teal Wicks, Capathia Jenkins, Michael Douglas, Bernadette Peters, and Joel Grey. Recent engagements include concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Adrian Symphony, and Opera Naples.

Known for his adventurous and creative programming, Mr. Green has created several "fusion" programs combining standard concert repertoire with popular and contemporary music. He has conducted with orchestras both here and abroad, including The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra with Marvin Hamlisch, The National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, The Tuscia Festival Orchestra (Italy), and The Queen's Orchestra (at the Aaron Copland School of Music).

Mr. Green is an avid advocate for the arts and an active fundraiser for community organizations. In 2002, he was given the Performing Arts Award by the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County and, in 2012 was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sylvia McNair
Two-time Grammy Award winner, Sylvia McNair, lays claim to a three-decade, stellar career in the musical realms of opera, oratorio, cabaret and musical theater. Sylvia earned a Master's degree with Distinction from the Indiana University School of Music where she now serves on the faculty, she received honorary doctorates from Westminster College (1997) and Indiana University (1998), the Ohio Governor's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Arts and Entertainment (1999), and the Indiana Governor's Arts Award (2011).

Having appeared as a soloist multiple times with nearly every major opera company and symphony orchestra in the world, this songbird has flown the classical coop. She's retracing her star route now with Gershwin, Porter, Bernstein and Sondheim. Sylvia's newest recording: SUBJECT TO CHANGE!, a cabaret show about her life in music, will be released this year. Ms. McNair has over 70 recordings ranging from Mozart arias with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, to the music of Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen with pianist Andre Previn.

Ms. McNair has made Pops appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony performances. Highlights of Ms. McNair's career include invitations to sing the Bach B-minor Mass with the Vienna Philharmonic for Pope John Paul II at The Vatican (2000) and a recital for the U.S. Supreme Court by special request of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (1998).

But her engagements of the past decade are what her dreams are made of: ten seasons at the Ravinia Festival performing with Broadway legends John Raitt, George Hearn and Brian Stokes Mitchell, a three-season national tour of Gershwin's 'Here To Stay' with pianist Kevin Cole and many of the country's top orchestras, musical theater productions of 'Most Happy Fella' (Ravinia 2007), 'Camelot' (Ravinia 2009), 'A Little Night Music' (Indiana Repertory Theater 2013) and performances of her one-woman show 'Subject To Change!' from New York to San Diego and Chicago to Palm Beach.

Judy Harrison
Judy is thrilled to be working once again with the ultra-talented Kevin Cole! Previous work with Kevin includes The World Goes 'Round, RSVP Jerome Kern and Always, Patsy Cline with the Michigan Ensemble Theatre and The Bay City Players. She considers it a great honor to be performing for the first time, with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Having performed the role of Cassie in A Chorus Line twice, this opportunity to honor the amazing works of Marvin Hamlisch is especially exciting.

Owner at High Impact Productions, Inc. Judy is the creator of SwingShift and the Stars Dance-Off for Charity, a fundraising & awareness platform for non-profits around Michigan. SwingShift and the Stars has facilitated the fundraising of over $2 million dollars in direct donations for 60+ charity organizations. She is also the lead singer with High Impact's 7-piece country/classic rock band ReBooted and 10-piece swing band, SwingShift. Judy's extensive voice-over career includes radio, television commercials and industrial training videos across the country. She can frequently be heard singing the National Anthem at the Traverse City Beach Bums Baseball games.

For seven years, Judy produced the entertainment for the American Heart Association's Athletic Black Tie fundraising events held at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. She received her Bachelors of Science in Dance from Indiana University. After college, she traveled with a USO show performing in both Germany and Iceland, became choreographer for King's Productions in the US & Canada and then, after moving to Northern MI, joined the faculty of Interlochen Arts Academy in 1998. Judy spent a fantastic twelve years at IAA teaching Musical Theatre Dance and choreographing many musicals such as Chicago, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cabaret, Seussical, Carousel, A Christmas Carol, Fiddler On The Roof and many more.

Judy and her family reside in Interlochen, MI. She has been married to her amazing husband, Brad, for 33 years. Together they have twin sons, Mitchell and Cory, currently living in Brooklyn, and daughter, Marlee, currently studying dance at Interlochen Arts Academy!

Doug LaBrecque
Doug LaBrecque is one of the most prolific concert singers of his generation. He has been a soloist with some of the world's finest orchestras, including Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra. He has appeared with more than 125 orchestras worldwide and most major Pops orchestras in America including Philly Pops, Boston Pops and NY Pops at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. LaBrecque thrilled theater audiences as The Phantom and Raoul, in The Phantom of the Opera. He starred in the original cast of the Harold PrinceBroadway revival of Showboat and toured nationally with Les Miserables. He was also featured in Oscar Hammerstein's 100th birthday celebration at the Gershwin Theatre. Regionally, Mr. LaBrecque has played leading roles in Candide, A Chorus Line, Man of La Mancha, and many others. A graduate of The University of Michigan, he appeared in the musical adaptation of It's a Wonderful Life and starred in the premiere Revival of Kurt Weill's Love Life.

International engagements have included Korean National Symphony, Shanghai Radio Orchestra in China, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, The Jerusalem Symphony, and numerous return engagements with Israel Philharmonic. He appeared in Alba, Italy as the guest soloist in an all Bernstein concert and performed at the International Music Festival in Cesky-Krumlov, Czech Republic. He also performed with acclaimed pianist Lang Lang in Beijing and was a frequent soloist with the legendary Marvin Hamlisch. He recently performed with London's acclaimed BBC Orchestra in an all Gershwin program that will be broadcast worldwide in August of 2017.

Kevin Cole
Kevin Cole is an award-winning pianist, vocalist, musical director, arranger, composer, and archivist who garnered the praises of Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, Hugh Martin, Burton Lane, Stephen Sondheim, Marvin Hamlisch and members of the Jerome Kern and Gershwin families. Engagements for Cole include: sold-out performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall; National Symphony at the Kennedy Center; San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra (London); Hong Kong Philharmonic; Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Australia) Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra; New Zealand Symphony and many others.

Kevin was featured soloist for the PBS special, Gershwin at One Symphony Place with the Nashville Symphony. He wrote, directed, and co-produced a multimedia concert for the Gershwins called HERE TO STAY-The Gershwin Experience as well as YOU'RE THE TOP-Cole Porter's 125th Celebration which premiered with Chicago Symphony at Ravinia Festival. Kevin made his Carnegie Hall debut in May 2013.

Adrian Daurov
Cellist Adrian Daurov, a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, made his debut as soloist with the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra at the age of 15. Subsequently, he earned top honors at three international competitions: Bulgaria's 1st International Music Competition "Coast of Hope" (First Prize, 1996); The Netherlands' Peter De Grote International Music Competition (Grand Prix, 2002); New York City's L.I.S.M.A. International Music Competition (First Prize, 2004).

After studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Daurov was awarded the Jerome L. Greene Scholarship for advanced studies at The Juilliard School with the renowned cello pedagogue David Soyer (of the Guarneri Quartet). He completed Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Juilliard in 2009. He was appointed principal cellist of The Chamber Orchestra of New York (2007) and a year later formed his own ensemble - now the award-winning Voxare String Quartet, with which he still tours. Mr. Daurov has collaborated in chamber music programs with pianists Alexander Ghindin, Olga Vinokur and Di Wu, violinist Mark Peskanov and flutist Eugenia Zukerman. In 2012, he teamed up with the award-winning pianist Spencer Myer to form the Daurov/Myer Duo.

Mr. Daurov has toured as soloist with the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, performing in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw and throughout Germany, and was appointed to the dual position of principal cellist and soloist with the Bayreuth Youth Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Peter Gulke. He was a featured participant in a gala Carnegie Hall concert celebrating Russia's Independence Day, a program that included the distinguished Russian singers Yelena Obratztsova and Vladimir Galouzine.

Passionately devoted to the music of our own time, Adrian Daurov has already presented the world premieres of two important works. Fountains of Fin for flute, violin and cello by the Persian composer Behzad Ranjbaran and The Epistle - Concerto for Cello & Chamber Choir by the Siberian composer Yuri Yukechev, written for Mr. Daurov and the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York, Nikolai Kachanov, Artistic Director. Mr. Daurov performs on a magnificent 1989 cello crafted by John Terry in Florence, Italy.

Terre Blair-Hamlisch
Terre Blair Hamlisch is proud to be a part of Kalamazoo's tributes to Marvin Hamlisch, her beloved husband of 23 years, for which she feels makes her "the luckiest gal in the world." Terre is currently working in partnership with Bloomberg Media on her series " Big Problems/Big Thinkers," a program that Marvin was enthusiastic about and showed great support for, before his untimely death. He felt it was an important project that would hopefully influence and elevate thought in the world.


CALENDAR LISTINGS
Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra presents
Special Event: Play It Again, Marvin! A Marvin Hamlisch Celebration
J. Ernest Green, Conductor; Sylvia McNair, Judy Harrison & Doug LaBrecque, Vocals; Kevin Cole, Piano/Host; Adrian Daurov, Cello; Terre Blair-Hamlisch, Special Guest

The life and legacy of Broadway's legendary composer, pianist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, Pulitzer Prize, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award-winner, Marvin Hamlisch, is celebrated in this multimedia concert. Experience Marvin Hamlisch in the company of J. Ernest Green, conductor, Kevin Cole, pianist/host, his closest musician friends, and his widow, Terre Blair-Hamlisch.
Program to be announced from stage

Friday, April 28, 2017
Miller Auditorium

Tickets: $60 - $24
Student & Veteran discounts available.
$5 Student Rush tickets available at the box office the night of the concert.


ADDITIONAL MARVIN HAMLISCH CALENDAR LISTINGS:
Kalamazoo Valley Museum Exhibit and Lecture Series
Special Exhibit: Remembering Marvin Hamlisch - The People's Composer (open to the public) April 15, 2017 through May 14, 2017
Sunday Afternoon Lecture Series: "A Conversation with J. Ernest Green, Music Director of Play it Again, Marvin!" April 23, 2017 @ 1:30pm
Meet the Photographer: Len Prince will be at KVM on Saturday April 29th from 1-3pm
More information at KalamazooMuseum.org

Marvin Makes Music - Free Community Readings
April 13th @ 10am - Bookbug - 3019 Oakland Dr, Kalamazoo
April 18th @ 10am - Portage District Library - 300 Library Ln, Portage
April 21st @ 10:30am - Kalamazoo Public Library - Central Branch - 315 S Rose St, Kalamazoo
April 27th @ 10:30am - Ransom District Library - 180 S Sherwood Ave, Plainwell
April 29th @ 11am - Kalamazoo Valley Museum - 230 N Rose St, Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra League Spring Gala - Marvin! Music! Memories!
Thursday, April 27, 2017 @ 5:30pm - Kalamazoo Country Club
Tickets are $100 each and available at KSOLeague.com

For concert tickets, visit www.kalamazoosymphony.com, call the KSO Box Office at (269) 349-7759 or call Miller Auditorium Ticket Office at (269) 387-2300.

Visit www.kalamazoosymphony.com for up-to-date information, details and schedules. Prices, artists, dates, time and program are subject to change without notice.

The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra receives major support from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra also receives generous support from other local, state and national foundations, as well as private and corporate support. For more information, visit www.kalamazoosymphony.com.

ABOUT THE KALAMAZOO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1921, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra is Southwest Michigan's premier musical organization, providing musical enrichment to over 80,000 adults and youth per year. The third-largest professional orchestra in the state, the KSO has won numerous awards and grants, including the Met Life Award for Arts Access in Underserved Communities, the National Endowment for the Arts for its extensive education programs, and a major Ford Foundation grant to found its innovative Artist-in-Residence program.

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