VOCAL GROUPS PRESENT SPRING CONCERTS FROM GERSHWIN TO MAROON 5

The Ashland University Department of Music presents its final choral concert of the year featuring three vocal groups performing popular favorites from Gershwin to James Taylor and Stevie Wonder on Sunday, April 29, 4:00 p.m. at the Jack and Deb Miller Chapel.  The concert features the Ashland University Chamber Singers, Women's Chorus and is free and open to the public.

Under the direction of Stephanie Sikora with assistance by pianist Holly Allan and a jazz combo with D R Haught, Ben Schnell and Aaron Hill, the Women's Chorus will perform Pat Ballard's 1954 Billboard chart hit Mister Sandman, Bobby Darin's classic hit Beyond the Sea as arranged by Holly Allan, Rsephanye Powell's spiritual Still I Rise, and Ron Jeffers I Have Had Singing. The Women's Chorus also will feature senior members Alaina Bosak, Helena Marshall, Laura Huntington, and Lindsay Hartke on the Gershwin for Girls Medley.

The Chamber Singers, directed by Rowland Blackley, will present Gene Puerling's arrangement of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square which was made famous by the Manhattan Transfer, James Taylor's Lonesome Road, Icarus by Ralph Tower, and Ysaye Barnwell's Wanting Memories.

The concert will also introduce the student-led a capella ensemble Surround Sound as they perform three popular songs including Neil Diamond's I'm a Believer, Stevie Wonder's Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours, and This Love as performed by Maroon 5.  

Surround Sound also will present a late evening concert with an extended program on Sunday, April 29, 8:30 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The 10-member ensemble will present a program of Billboard chart hits and an original composition which have been arranged for a capella by Deke Sharon or Surround Sounds' Brandy Riha. Songs to be performed include Stevie Wonder's Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours, Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten, Neil Diamond's I'm a Believer as performed by The Monkeys, I'm Yours/You Belong with Me as performed by Jason Mraz and Taylor Swift, This Love as performed by Maroon 5, I Want You Back as performed by The Jackson 5, and Precipitation, an original song by Brandy Kay Riha and Kirstan Orgel. 

Performers in Surround Sound are Adam Stuart Beckwith (Vermilion High School, Vermilion, Ohio); Julie Bontempo (North Olmsted High School, North Olmstead, Ohio); Michael Kahle (Pandora-Gilboa High School, Pandora, Ohio); Brandy Riha (Geneva High School, Geneva, Ohio); Emily Springer (River Valley High School, Marion, Ohio); Caleb Stout (North Adams High School, Winchester, Ohio); John Fielding (Glen Oak High School, Canton, Ohio); Marisa Carafelli, Don Haught and Andrew Shaffer (Wooster High School, Wooster, Ohio).