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"Song's Nothing Conservatory About It" Series Presents Great American Songbook: The Music of Cole Porter

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Great American Songbook: The Music of Cole Porter Sunday, April 10, 2005 Proceeds to Benefit Mercy Corps Tsunami Relief Efforts

BOSTON, MA — Song, Delta Air Lines' low-fare subsidiary, and Berklee College of Music are pleased to present “Song's Nothing Conservatory About It," an exciting, eight-concert series, featuring a wide variety of music styles. The next concert of the series is the Great American Songbook: The Music of Cole Porter, Sunday, April 10. The concert begins at 8:15 pm at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA. Berklee welcomes WGBH-FM 89.7 as the series media sponsor. The evening will be hosted by Ron Gill of WGBH's Jazz Gallery. A pair of roundtrip Song airline tickets will also be given away to one concertgoer.

General admission tickets are $20 ($15 for seniors). There is a 10% discount on all tickets for WGBH members. Originally scheduled for January 27, this concert was postponed due to weather. All tickets for the original date will be honored. Refunds are available at point-of-purchase. Please contact the Berklee Performance Center Box Office at 617-747-2261 or http://www.berkleebpc.com for tickets or more information.

Berklee's Great American Songbook concerts are presented annually to pay tribute to songwriters who contributed to the compendium of mid-20th century popular song. This year, the college honors Cole Porter, who is widely recognized as one of America's greatest composers. Porter began studying violin and piano at a very early age, and then attended Yale, where he wrote the enduring fight songs “Bingo Eh Yale," and “Bulldog." He began to achieve success on the Broadway stage by the end of the 1920's, and his style soon became recognizable as sophisticated, literate, and charming.

The Great American Songbook concert will feature Berklee faculty vocalists Donna McElroy and Maggie Scott, student vocalist Jeremy Ragsdale, and featured arranger and instrumentalist Larry Monroe, performing with the Berklee Great American Songbook Orchestra, a 40-piece all-star band of faculty members and top students. Musical Director for the concert is Richard Evans, known for his work producing and arranging for Natalie Cole, Woody Herman, Ahmad Jamaal, and Buddy Rich, among others. Faculty arrangements in the lush, swinging styles of the pop song's golden age will showcase a variety of Cole Porter tunes spanning the length of his career, including “Begin The Beguine", “Night And Day", and “What's This Thing Called Love". McElroy is known for her vocal work on albums by wide ranging artists, including Al Green, Tom Jones, Amy Grant, Billy Joel and Patty Loveless.

Cole Porter had a string of hit shows in the 1930's and 1940's, including The New Yorkers, Gay Divorce, Anything Goes, Red Hot And Blue, and Something For The Boys. During this period he also scored several Hollywood musicals, such as Born To Dance and Rosalie. “What Is This Thing Called Love," “Anything Goes," “You're the Top," and “Count Your Blessings," are only a few among Porter's impressive and expansive song list. Porter scored his greatest triumph in 1948 with Kiss Me, Kate, which ran for over 1000 performances and is still widely performed today. He had several more hit shows in the 1950's, including Can-Can, Silk Stockings, and High Society, before passing away in 1964. His legacy lives on through numerous anthologies and songbooks.

Proceeds from the Great American Songbook concert will benefit Mercy Corps tsunami relief efforts in Southeast Asia. Mercy Corps arrived in Banda Aceh within 24 hours of the tsunami and its emergency relief team is playing a lead role in humanitarian response in the region. Large-scale distributions of emergency food supplies are underway to feed over 100,000 survivors. The agency is also providing emergency aid in Sri Lanka and India. To date, Mercy Corps has allocated more than $2.4 million to the region with a goal of $15 million for Southeast Asia tsunami relief. Mercy Corps is providing emergency relief and is beginning strategies for long-term reconstruction and recovery efforts.

Says Berklee president Roger H. Brown, “Mercy Corps has become one of the world's preeminent relief and development organizations — they are fast and nimble, and also committed to staying with this work for the long haul. I have never met a more professional group of experienced international talent than the leadership of Mercy Corps."

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music. For over half a century, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing over 70 countries, and a music industry “who's who" of alumni, Berklee is the world's premier learning lab for the music of today — and tomorrow.

Song is an innovative low-fare service, which provides non-stop flights between the Northeast and key Florida leisure destinations, plus Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Juan, with over 142 daily flights on 36 Boeing 757 aircraft. All Song flights are operated by Delta Air Lines. Song tickets can be purchased by visiting flysong.com.

Mercy Corps alleviates suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided more than $830 million in assistance to people in 80 nations. The organization's 2,000 staff worldwide currently reach 6 million people in more than 35 countries. Mercy Corps allocates more than 91 percent of its resources to programs that assist people in need. How to help: visit www.mercycorps.org, call 1-800-852-2100, or write Mercy Corps, Southeast Asia Earthquake Response, Dept. CR02, PO Box 2669, Portland, OR 97208.

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