Arts & Culture

UK Vocalists, Army Band to Present Patriotic Concert as Salute to Heroes

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 3, 2014) — Patriotic music from a live military band and a University of Kentucky chorus will help ring in Independence Day festivities at Lexington’s Fourth of July Patriotic Music Concert scheduled to begin 8 p.m. Thursday, July 3, on the Old Morrison lawn of Transylvania University. "A Salute to Heroes" is free and open to the public.  

The 202nd Army Band of the Kentucky National Guard will play an all-patriotic music program joined by singers from the UK Opera Theatre’s production of "It’s A Grand Night for Singing!"

The 202nd Army Band will be under the direction of Chief Warrant Officer 4 Greg Stepp, while UK Opera Theatre Director Everett McCorvey will conduct the singers from UK.   

The evening will also feature a special appearance from a member of the U.S. Soldiers’ Chorus, the premier military chorus in the nation. Staff Sergeant Charis Strange, who is a native of Campbellsville, Kentucky, will travel to Lexington to sing with the band and the UK vocalists. Strange is one of five graduates of UK School of Music’s vocal performance program to serve with the Soldiers’ Chorus. UK has the highest number of singers in the Soldiers’ Chorus of any university conservatory in the country. 

The all-patriotic concert will also feature UK Opera Theatre Artist-in-Residence and Metropolitan Opera tenor Gregory Turay and such "Grand Night" favorites as Alicia Helm McCorvey and Darian Sanders, among other cast members.   

The concert will take place on the steps of Old Morrison, with seating on the lawn and in nearby Gratz Park. The public is invited to bring lawn chairs and blankets and stake out spots from which to enjoy the concert. Food and drink will be available for purchase.

Heather French Henry, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, and Kevin Christopher, news anchor for WLEX-TV (Channel 18), will be co-hosts for the concert.

WLEX TV-Channel 18 and the Downtown Lexington Corporation are sponsoring the event this year, with assistance from Alltech and the Henderson Music Company.

The concert is a prelude to a full day of activities at the Fourth of July downtown celebration on Friday, July 4. The festivities kick off Friday morning with the Bluegrass 10,000 foot race, feature a large street festival and parade, and end with fireworks over downtown Lexington. Details on all these events can be found at: www.downtownlex.com/lexingtons-4th-of-july-festival/.

UK Opera Theatre is one of a select group of U.S. opera training programs recommended by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. The Tucker Foundation is a nonprofit cultural organization dedicated to the support and advancement of the careers of talented American opera singers by bringing opera into the community and heightening appreciation for opera by supporting music education enrichment programs.

The UK School of Music at the UK College of Fine Arts has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, composition, and theory and music history.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu