Published Thursday, April 16, 2009

Musical first Sunday at Centre

Special to The Times-Herald

Coweta will be treated to a musical first Sunday, when music from Irving Berlin's classic "Annie Get Your Gun" will be performed at the Centre for Performing and Visual Arts at 2:30 p.m.

The concert will feature New York opera baritone Lawrence Harris, Broadway vocalist Klea Blackhurst, and more than 100 local adult and student performers -- all led by Broadway conductor Aaron Gandy.

Tickets can be purchased at the Centre, Scott's Bookstore in downtown Newnan or Morgan's Jewelers at Ashley Park. Tickets are $5 for students, $12 for seniors age 55 and over, and $15 for general admission.

The performance will be the first time the music of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical has been presented in concert style.

The performance is being sponsored by the Centre, the Centre Patrons and the Masterworks Chorale, and has been produced in part through receipt of a Grassroots Arts Program grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts.

The performance will mark the return of Gandy and Harris to Coweta and welcomes vocalist Blackhurst to the Centre stage for the first time. Blackhurst -- a well-known Broadway personality -- is appearing in a national touring show of "Everything the Traffic will Allow," based on the life of Ethel Merman.

Harris -- a celebrated New York opera baritone who was formerly an offensive lineman for the Houston Oilers -- appeared at the Centre in September in a performance of Harris' "Football to Opera" program for students.

Gandy -- an accomplished New York musician, musical director and conductor, and the conductor of Disney's Broadway version of the "Lion King" -- has worked with students twice before at the Centre. He conducted a master class for Coweta musical theatre students during the Centre STAR student performance of "Into the Woods" in 2007, after working with and conducting STAR performers at the Centre in the 2006 production of "Les Miserables."