The upcoming Carolina Community Chorus concerts highlight three area musicians in solo performances. Join us in the Polk County High School auditorium on Friday, April 23, at 7 p.m. or Sunday, April 25, at 3 p.m.

Connie Fry-Cedervall began singing at the tender age of four (with a hairbrush for a microphone). She had musical training throughout her school years in Portsmouth, Va. By the mid-1970s, Cedervall had her own band which travelled the East coast, once even performing a month-long gig at the Guantanamo, Cuba naval base.

Since moving to Landrum, Cedervall has been very active with the local band, Soap N Whiskey. About singing, Cedervall muses, Theres an apt saying, old musicians never die; they just decompose. Guess Ill have to wait and see about that!

Cedervalls solo contribution to the CC concert program is a Jimmy Webb tune, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. One of Webbs most poignant songs, the ballad has been recorded by numerous artists including Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt and Glen Campbell.

Barbara Tilly received a BA in music performance and education from the University of South Carolina – Columbia. She then was awarded a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship for study at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, Belgium, where she received a premier prix in flute and chamber music in 1980.

Tilly has studied with Constance G. Lane and William Alexander and has participated in master classes given by Robert Delaney, Julius Baker, and Ransom Wilson. A frequent performer locally for Community Chorus concerts, Tryon Little Theater musicals, and other groups, she has also performed with the Papageno Quintet of Greenville, S.C., the Converse Wind Ensemble in Spartanburg, the All-American College Marching and Show Band at Disney World, The Augusta Symphony in Georgia, the Columbia Philharmonic in South Carolina and as soloist with the Greenville Concert Band.

Tilly will perform Claude Debussys Syrinx, written in 1913 as incidental music for Psyche, a play by Gabriel Mourey that was never completed. The haunting, evocative solo for unaccompanied flute has since become a standard in the flutists repertoire. Debussy originally wrote the piece without bar lines or breath marks to allow for completely free interpretation by the performer. Marcel Moyse later added bar lines and other interpretive marks, and it is his version that is most often published.

Lori Corda graduated from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Vocal Pedagogy, focusing her studies on classical music and performed leading roles in numerous opera productions. After university, Corda moved to New York City to pursue a career in musical theatre and traveled widely, performing such iconic roles as Eva in Evita and Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun.

Shortly after re-locating to Tryon, Corda performed the role of Audrey in the Tryon Little Theatres production of Little Shop of Horrors. Currently, she sings in the band Ride with Daddy, which appears monthly at Zenzeras in Landrum. Corda acknowledges her deep gratitude to her voice teacher, part-time-Tryonite Sonja Karlsen, with whom she has studied for the past 18 years.

Concert director Crys Armbrust comments that concert-goers are in for a delightful treat both by Loris vocal presence and the musical sensitivity of her musical renditions. Both of her selections selections are from Broadway musicals. The first is Its Gonna Be Another Hot Day from 110 in the Shade by Tom Jones. The second is the ever-popular Cant Help Lovin that Man of Mine from Showboat by Kern/Hammerstein II.

Community Chorus tickets are available from Tryon Rotary members, the Tryon Daily Bulletin and The Book Shelf. For further information, see www.carolinacommunitychorus.org.