University Singers Ready for March Concerts in Portland, Orono
Contact: Dennis Cox, (dkcox@maine.edu), Jack Burt, (207) 581-1773 (jburt@maine.edu)
ORONO — Back from a five-day, four-state New England tour, the University of Maine’s University Singers are preparing for several concerts in Maine — March 15 at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, and March 19-20 in Orono.
At Merrill Auditorium, the Singers, with about 80 members, will share the stage with the UMaine Jazz Ensemble for a free 7:30 p.m. concert. Music professors Dennis Cox and Jack Burt, respectively, lead the Singers and Jazz Ensemble. Among the Singers and performing will be the Maine Steiners and Renaissance. Assistant music professor and pianist Laura Artesani will accompany the vocalists.
The jazz ensemble performance also will include a solo performance by award-winning trumpeter and recording artist Trent Austin, a Maine native now of the Malden, Mass. area. In high school, he was selected to play at the opening of Euro-Disney and was also a featured performer at the 1992 Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland. In addition, he was selected as the first trumpet of the Maine All-State festival while attending Nokomis Regional High School. Austin also was the featured trumpet soloist with the Artie Shaw Orchestra for 11 years and continues to perform in the Boston area.
Austin is scheduled to perform with the Jazz Ensemble also on April 21, at 7:30 p.m. at Minsky Recital Hall, Class of 1944 Hall at UMaine.
Also at Minsky Recital Hall, the Singers will perform two concerts, at 7:30-9:30 p.m. Saturday, March 19, and Sunday, March 20, at 2 p.m. Admission for the UMaine concerts is $7; students with a MaineCard are admitted free.
The Singers’ recent New England tour included concerts at Orono High School, Dexter Regional High School, the University of Maine at Farmington and Mt. Blue High School in Farmington and Cony, Oxford Hills and Gorham high schools. They performed also in Andover, Mass., Redhook, N.Y. and in Kinnelon, N.J.