West Michigan Symphony Opens New Season with Pops Program

Aug. 24, 2011 - PRLog -- Muskegon, Michigan, August 24, 2011 – Jukeboxes, skinny ties and smooth sounds will welcome audiences to “Oh What a Night” as the West Michigan Symphony opens its 2011-12 concert season on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 16 and 17.

Music Director Scott Speck will return to the conductor’s podium in Muskegon for his ninth season with WMS, one of the Midwest’s leading regional orchestras.  He will be joined by three of Broadway’s hottest leading men – Ron Bohmer, Tituss Burgess and Bradley Dean – for an evening focused on the works of The Beatles, Smokey Robinson, The Four Seasons, Bobbie Darrin and other standard bearers from the 1960s.

Concerts will be held on both nights at 7:30 p.m. in the majestic Frauenthal Center for Performing Arts in downtown Muskegon.  Season and individual tickets for the eight-concert series, which concludes June 2012, are now on sale.

“With summer still in the air, we decided to start the Symphony’s 72nd season with a high-energy Pops performance that would be guaranteed to have our audience on its feet,” Speck said.  “Our guest artists are amazingly talented vocalists, and their performances both on Broadway and around the country with regional orchestras like ours have earned stellar reviews.

“We have a particularly wonderful season of classical and popular music in store for listeners – as well as a few fun surprises along the way.”

The Frauenthal stage will also feature two vintage-style jukeboxes donated for the concerts from AMI Entertainment in Grand Rapids.  

The program will feature Billboard Chart toppers from the 1960s, including  “The Tears of a Clown,” “Cherry, Cherry,” “Let the Sunshine In,” “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” and others.  Bohmer, Burgess and Dean have performed this program with orchestras in New Jersey, Ohio and Massachusetts, promoting one symphony to comment that the “entertainers were a slam dunk.”

Bohmer has held numerous starring roles on Broadway, most recently as The Father in “Ragtime.”  He has also toured nationally as the Phantom in “The Phantom of the Opera” and the hapless but well-intentioned Joe Gillis in “Sunset Boulevard.”  His career as a concert soloist includes performances at Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center and with symphonies and pops orchestras around the country.

Another Broadway luminary, Burgess most recently starred as Nicely Nicely Johnson in the Broadway revival of the classic “Guys and Dolls.”  Other Broadway credits include “Disney’s The Little Mermaid,” “The Jersey Boy” and “Good Vibrations.”  In addition to his regional work, Burgess has performed as a soloist with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, in the 2009 Tony Awards and with Academy-Award® winning composer Ennio Morricone.

Dean completed a successful Broadway run earlier this year in “A Little Night Music” with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury.  He has also had Broadway roles in “Spamalot,” “Man of LaMancha” and “Jane Eyre.”  He has toured both nationally and internationally with diverse shows, from “Evita” to “The Rocky Horror Show.”  He has also appeared in concert with Barry Manilow.

Season and individual tickets can be purchased by calling the West Michigan Symphony ticket office at 231.726.3231. Several subscriber plans are available including the full series, masterworks series only, pop series only or flexible ticketing that allows concertgoers to create their own experience.  For more information or to receive a 2011-2012 season brochure, contact 231.726.3231 or info@westmichigansymphony.org.

Single tickets may be purchased online at www.westmichigansymphony.org; in person at the West Michigan Symphony Ticket Office, Suite 409 (4th floor) in the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, 425 W. Western Ave., Muskegon; or by calling 231.726.3231.

The eight-concert series, which concludes in June 2012, will feature such diverse guests as acclaimed Swedish pianist Per Tengstrand and his wife and duo partner Shan-shan Sun, violin sensation Timothy Fain from the Academy® Award-winning “Black Swan,” and the always amazing acrobats from Cirque de la Symphonie.

About West Michigan Symphony
As one of the few professional regional orchestras in Michigan, West Michigan Symphony has played a leading role in the region’s cultural community for more than 70 years.  Founded as the West Shore Symphony Orchestra, WMS now serves a regional audience with eight pairs of concerts annually, along with dozens of educational and outreach activities for children and adults. WMS oversees operations for the West Michigan Youth Symphony.  For more information, visit www.westmichigansymphony.org.

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