The Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University announces its seventh Galaxy of Stars Series with a lineup intended to take audiences down memory lane.
Individual tickets for the 2011-12 series went on sale Aug. 16. Prices are $20 for adults; $15 for WCU faculty and staff; $10 per person for groups of 20 and more; and $5 for students and children.
The 2011-12 season lineup follows:
Masters of Motown, 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11. There will be dancing in the aisles with this celebration of the music and style of artists including the Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Four Tops, Diana Ross & the Supremes, the Jackson 5 and Stevie Wonder. Masters of Motown features stylish costumes and fully choreographed tributes backed by a live band.
The Grascals: “Dance ‘Till Your Stockings Are Hot and Ravelin,” 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9. The Grascals, named the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainers of the Year in 2006 and 2007, pay musical tribute to “The Andy Griffith Show” with their trademark take on traditional bluegrass and classic country. The Grascals built a reputation performing with Dolly Parton and have shared the stage with Brooks & Dunn, Dierks Bentley, Patty Loveless, Mac Wiseman, J.D. Crowe, Charlie Daniels, Kenny Rogers, Steve Wariner and Vince Gill.
Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and the Pied Pipers, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9. One of the most popular groups of the 1940s, backed by one of the 20th-century’s most popular big bands, delivers a program filled with classics from the era, plus favorite holiday songs. This show will bring back memories of music from the years of World War II and holidays spent with family and friends.
Neil Berg’s “100 Years of Broadway,” 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27. In this revue of Broadway’s most beloved songs, five stars of Broadway, backed by a live band, re-create the finest moments from the greatest musicals of the century. The production features treasures from Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber from shows including “Phantom of the Opera,” “Les Misérables,” “Jersey Boys,” “Chicago,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Jekyll & Hyde.”
The Vienna Boys Choir, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6. Founded in 1498, the Vienna Boys Choir is one of the oldest, most famous boys choir in the world, with a repertoire that includes medieval, contemporary and experimental music. Long a fixture in Austrian musical life, four choirs of boys ages 10-14 now perform hundreds of times a year worldwide.
“That Mancini Magic,” 3 p.m. Sunday, April 29. The renowned pianist Mac Frampton and Cecil Welch, Henri Mancini’s solo trumpeter for 20 years, bring the great American composer’s cherished melodies to the stage. Supported by the Moon River Orchestra, an ensemble of violins, saxophone and rhythm, “That Mancini Magic” includes “Moon River,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “Charade,” “Peter Gunn,” “The Pink Panther Theme” and “Baby Elephant Walk.”
The Galaxy of Stars series debuted in 2005 with the opening of WCU’s Fine and Performing Arts Center. Since then, FAPAC has marked more than 100,000 visitors and has earned a position as a premier arts and entertainment venue in Western North Carolina.
To purchase tickets, or for more information about Galaxy of Stars events or the Fine and Performing Arts Center, contact the FAPAC box office at 828-227-2479 or go online to www.fapac.wcu.edu.
