Lakewood Area Choral Society Concert to Benefit Thornapple Arts Council
One of the many reasons Hastings was named one of the Best 100 Small Towns
in America is its thriving arts programs and the ways the various arts groups
support one another. One such group is the Lakewood Area Choral Society
(LACS), which is holding a benefit concert for the Thornapple Arts Council (TAC)
on Sunday, June 25, at 3PM at the Family Life Center, Church of the Nazarene,
1716 N Broadway St., in Hastings.
TAC provides many services to area residents from the recent successful threeday
14th Annual Jazz Festival to coordinating many different types of free music
concerts throughout the summer season including the Hastings City Band
Concerts, the Community Concert Series, Fridays at the Fountain, and Playing at
the Plaza, a special concert series for kids and families. Also provided are many
opportunities for local residents to participate in visual arts from arranging bus
tours to Grand Rapids Art Prize, Arts and Eats, art exhibits in other communities,
and arranging for space in local businesses for local artists to exhibit their work.
In addition, due to budget cuts in the schools, TAC has an Art Pantry to
supplement local schools with art supplies, and TAC also provides the Sue
Drummond Scholarship program, which offers assistance to local students to go
to summer camp programs for the arts. For more information about the TAC, go
to www.thornapplearts.org.
LACS is happy to have an opportunity to help support the programs of TAC. The
concert will feature a variety of pop, patriotic, and even operatic music. Robert
C. Oster, founder and artistic director of LACS, wrote a special arrangement of
the Drinking Song Finale from Ten Daughters and No Husbands, a comic opera
by Franz von Suppe. This rollicking song features soprano, Cindy Olson. The
choir will also perform One World by Mark Hayes. Over the Rainbow by Harold
Arlen, arranged by Teena Chinn features soloists Ronni O’Toole and Elaine
Caswell. Unforgettable, arranged by Kirby Shaw, will feature father, Neal
Johnson, and daughter, Heather Lewis, as soloists. Jon Cleveland will be the
soloist in Ain’t Misbehavin’ by Thomas “Fats” Waller. Wish Upon a Star by Leigh
Harline, arranged by Dr. Oster for LACS, will feature Jill VanZyl as soloist. LACS
will also perform a Choral Medley from My Fair Lady which features an octet
consisting of Lisa Sterkenburg, Cathie Ott, Mary Kuhlman, Jodi Rzepecki, Jon
Cleveland, Joan Hasselback, Scott Taylor, and Larry Ott singing Wouldn’t It Be
Loverly. Larry Ott will be featured soloist on I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her
Face.
Patriotic music to be performed includes a special a cappella version of the StarSpangled
Banner, This Land I Love, by John Carter, Song for the Unsung Hero
by Joseph M. Martin, and For Spacious Skies by Paul Short, arranged by David
L. Brunner, featuring Kristen Kennedy, soloist. The Lakewoood Area A cappella
Choir (LAAC) will perform the first movement of a Cole Porter Jazz Trio, You Do
Something to Me.
This concert has something for everyone. Come out and support the arts in
Hastings and Barry County; enjoy the concert and support the Thornapple Arts
Council. For more information about LACS visit their website at
www.lacsmusic.org. Doors open at 2:30, in lieu of tickets, a freewill offering will
be taken.