The popular Summer Festival Chorus of Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts will perform its 12th annual concert, "Summer Romance," on Saturday, July 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Quick Center.

The varied program features music by John Lennon, Daniel Pinkham's "Wedding Cantata," Johannes Brahms' "O Schöne Nacht," "Somewhere" by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and a medley from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera." Special guest artists are Joe Utterback, a popular jazz performer and conductor, and accompanist Beth Palmer.

Auditions were held in June for the talented chorus, which often plays to standing-room-only audiences. The Summer Festival Chorus is popular with local singers because it offers a rare summer singing opportunity, as many other choruses and church choirs take a summer break. Past choristers have traveled from as far away as Southbury, Conn., and Brewster, N.Y., to participate in the Quick Center program.

Dr. Carole Ann Maxwell, director of Choral and Liturgical Music at Fairfield University, will conduct. Dr. Maxwell is also the artistic director and conductor of The Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut and a chorus master of The Greater Bridgeport Symphony. She has conducted choruses for the Prague Radio Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Orchestra and the Yale Opera Ensemble.

Dr. Maxwell was guest conductor of the Gregg Smith Singers at the Adirondack Music Festival, principal conductor of both the National Pastoral Musicians Convention and the National Council of Churches Workshop on Christian and Jewish Relations. She has shared the stage with Dave Brubeck, Marilyn Horne, Stephen Sondheim and many other musical legends.

Tickets are $15, $12 for senior citizen and children. For tickets, call the Quick Center box office at (203) 254-4010 or toll free at 1-877-ARTS-396.

Posted On: 06-30-2005 10:06 AM

Volume: 37 Number: 287