The 25-member Santa Fe Singers will present the annual “Spring Is for Singing” choral concert, including selections from the recent production of “West Side Story,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 23, 2015, in the Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College, 3000 NW 83 Street, Gainesville.
Tickets are $15 main floor and $12 balcony for adults; $9 for seniors, children and University of Florida students; and free for Santa Fe College faculty, staff and students with college identification cards. For ticket information, call the Box Office at 352-395-4181 or visit the Fine Arts ticket website at:
http://www.sfcollege.edu/finearts
Music Professor Lynn Sandefur, who directs the singers, has planned a varied program that includes “O Fortuna” from Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” songs by The Beatles, songs from the 1940s, American spirituals, and a soul medley.
The actors who portrayed Maria (Valerie Torres-Rosario), Anita (Corinne Danielle Gonzalez), Riff (Christopher Miller), the Sharks and the Jets in SF College’s first production of a Broadway musical, “West Side Story,” will perform the “Tonight Quintet,” “I Feel Pretty,” “Gee, Officer Krupke” and “America” (music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim in his Broadway debut).
Special guest Elvis Gomez, a former SF College vocal student who sings opera and has a following in Gainesville, will sing “Nella Fantasia” with Santa Fe’s “Il Divo” men’s group. “Nella Fantasia” (“My Fantasy”) is based on a theme from the film “The Mission,” music by Ennio Morricone, lyrics by Chiara Ferraù.
The Santa Fe Jazz/Soul Band and The Santa Fe Rhythm & Blues Band, under the direction of Dave Becker and Steve Bingham, will provide musical accompaniment.
Joan Freese, a former SF College student, will be spotlighted on stage using American Sign Language to interpret the concert for people with hearing impairments. “Having a sign language interpreter is a nice thing we do for all our concerts,” Sandefur explained. “What makes Joan so beautiful is that she is a musician and a singer first, so when she interprets, she emotes warmth like the candlelight parade at Disney World!”
Santa Fe College offers special course tracking for students who are interested in voice training while working toward their Associate of Arts degrees.
For more information about the Santa Fe Singers, call Lynn Sandefur at 352- 381-3639. For more information about the Fine Arts Hall or the Fine Arts Department, call Alora Haynes at 352-395-5296.
-End-