PRESS RELEASE

Choral Music 1854-2004 is the theme of the Lawrence Civic Choir’s spring concerts. Among the selections to be presented will be compositions by Johannes Brahms, Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland and Z.Randall Stroope.

The featured work will be Phoenix of the Plains by Lawrence composer and Civic Choir accompanist, Geoffrey Wilcken. The work was commissioned by the Lawrence Civic Choir in celebration of the 2004 Sesquicentennial of the city of Lawrence The work is in three movements The first movement takes the title of the piece and traces Lawrence’s early history and the repeated destructive attacks the city endured. Remember Those, the second movement, urges us to honor those who paid the ultimate price so that we would have freedom. The final movement, Making a City, asks us to look at our actions and values in order to build a better Lawrence for the future.

Steve Eubank, the choir’s Artistic Director, will conduct two concerts; the first at Free State High School in Lawrence on Saturday, April 30, at 8:00 p.m., and the second at Grace Cathedral, 701 SW 8^th Avenue in Topeka, on Monday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for the Saturday concert are available at the Lawrence Arts Center and at the door. Prices are $10.00 general admission, $8.00 students and seniors and $5:00 for children under 12. The Topeka concert is free and open to the public.

Additional information about the concerts and the choir is available at www.lawrencecivicchoir.org

DRI

3/31/05