Songs by Percy Wenrich, other Missouri composers to be featured at 2-day concert
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Apr. 8—As part of Joplin's sesquicentennial celebrations, two days' worth of ragtime and barbershop music will be performed in tribute to Joplin-born Percy Wenrich and other Missouri composers on Friday and Saturday, April 14-15.
Friday events
Bobby Gray, one of the producers of the events, said: "Wenrich's songs that we all know ... these are all standards songs that barbershop quartets sing. There are really close ties between the Wenrich style and barbershop quartets."
A concert with performances by barbershop quartets Quorum and Duly Noted will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, April 14, in Taylor Performing Arts Center at Missouri Southern State University. Admission is free and open to the public.
Quroum, the reigning international champion of the Barbershop Harmony Society, consists of Gary Lewis, bass; Chris Vaughn, lead; Jacob "Puck" Ross, tenor; and Nathan Johnston, baritone.
Duly Noted, the seventh-ranked quartet in Sweet Adelines International, consists of Madison Riviere (Slamka), lead; Emily Ellsworth (Hitt), bass; Raegan Stauffer, tenor; and KaleyAnna Raabe, baritone.
Friday night's event also will feature many barbershop quartets from Joplin, Springfield and the surrounding region, in a mass chorus of barbershop-style singers, under the direction of Jeff Veteto of Springfield's Show-Me Statesmen Chorus.
Also to be performed Friday are selections studied earlier in the day during "Acapellooza," a youth vocal clinic that will involve several hundred area high school students.
Saturday event
A tribute to ragtime, with particular focus on Wenrich, will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 15, also in Taylor Performing Arts Center. Limited reserve seating is available for $15; general admission seating is free.
The concert will highlight some of Wenrich's most famous songs, including "Moonlight Bay," "When You Wore a Tulip," "Red Rose Rag," "Where Do We Go From Here," "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet," "Rainbow" and "L'Inconnu."
The music of fellow Missouri ragtime artists Scott Joplin, James Scott, Eddie Kuhn and "Ragtime Bob" Darch will also be honored. Quorum and Duly Noted will return to perform.
Steve Spracklen and Robin Braun will portray Wenrich and his wife, Dolly Connolly, in the vaudeville fashion the couple was known for in the early 1900s. Spracklen is a veteran piano player who previously honored Wenrich at Joplin events in 1968 and 1973. Braun is active as a vocal artist with the Ozark Festival Orchestra, based in Monett.
The grand finale will include songs by Wenrich and a patriotic medley performed by the Celebration Chorus, made up of area barbershop quartets, community singers and others.
Saturday's event is sponsored by the Stanley family, descendants of Eddie Kuhn.
