N.C. Symphony to Perform POPS GOES VEGAS, 5/15-16

The North Carolina Symphony will pay tribute to iconic music and lavish shows in the finale of its 2014-15 Pops series, Pops Goes Vegas, Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16, at 8 p.m. in Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh. The concert program, which features such classic numbers as "Luck Be A Lady," "Hey, Big Spender," "Viva Las Vegas," "My Way," and "Fly Me to the Moon," will be led by conductor Jack Everly, and will feature Martin Preston as Liberace, vocalists Scott Beck, Allison Briner, and Ted Keegan, and lead dancers Anne Nicole Beck and Jen Ladner.

Jack Everly is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Indianapolis and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa). He has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and appears regularly with The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. Mr. Everly will conduct over 90 performances in more than 20 North American cities this season. As Music Director of the National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth on PBS, Mr. Everly leads the National Symphony Orchestra in these patriotic celebrations on the National Mall. These concerts attract hundreds of thousands attendees on the lawn and the broadcasts reach millions of viewers and are some of the very highest rated programming on PBS television.

Martin Preston is an actor and musician who has devoted the past 18 years to re-creating the music and glamour of the late, great Liberace. Mr. Preston was bitten by the show business bug at the age of six when he began classical piano training. Always a Liberace fan, his piano style was frequently compared to that of the flamboyant showman, and in 1988, work began on a tribute to the great entertainer. Martin Preston as Liberace debuted in Boca Raton, Florida, in 1990 where it ran for a record-breaking 32 weeks. Since then, Mr. Preston has appeared as Liberace in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, in many of North America's finest theaters and showrooms, and on the Cunard, Holland America and Princess Cruise Lines. His performance has been authorized by the Liberace Estate and the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts.

Vocalist Scott Beck has appeared on Broadway in Saturday Night Fever and in Grease, playing the role of Doody, and has performed with the National Tour of Smokey Joe's Café. A recurring soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, he has sung in Pops Goes Vegas, Sandi Patty's Broadway and A Yuletide Celebration. He has also performed concert readings of Warm, A Tale of Two Cities and the original Broadway workshop Hairspray.

Allison Briner recently performed with the National Tour of White Christmas, following a stint playing the role of Rosie in Broadway's Mamma Mia! Other National Tour credits include Mamma Mia!, Titanic: A New Musical and LES MISERABLES. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in Forbidden Broadway, Listen to My Heart: The Songs of David Friedman, Pete 'n' Keely, Jacques Brel: The 25th Anniversary, Forbidden Hollywood, Song of Singapore and Return to the Forbidden Planet. She has also acted on the television shows Law and Order, All My Children and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

Ted Keegan holds degrees from Ithaca College and UNC-Greensboro. He has been seen as The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and the National Tour and in Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular. Mr. Keegan has the distinction of being the actor who has sung the role of the Phantom in front of the largest audience ever, when he made a spectacular flying entrance from the dome of Madison Square Garden singing "The Phantom of the Opera" during the half-time show of the NBA All-Star Game. Other Broadway and National Tour credits include Cyrano: The Musical, Mordred in Camelot, Herman in The Most Happy Fella and Kander and Ebb's And the World Goes 'Round.

Jen Ladner is the Director and Choreographer of the Indianapolis Symphony's A Yuletide Celebration and Baltimore Symphony's Holiday Spectacular. She has also choreographed Broadway Blockbusters, Leading Men of Broadway, A Cole Porter Celebration, The Beat Goes On: Music of the Baby Boomers, Sandi Patty's Broadway, Disco Days and Boogie Nights, Pops Goes Vegas, Guys and Dolls in Concert, Irving Berlin: From Rags to Ritzes, Ashley Brown's Broadway, Hello, Dolly!, Hairspray in Concert, On Broadway - The Music of Kander & Ebb and Anything Goes in Concert. An original Broadway cast member of Saturday Night Fever, Anne Beck has performed with Broadway touring companies in almost every major city across the United States. Her National Tour credits include Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Barbara Eden and The Who's Tommy as Sally Simpson. She has also played the roles of Cassie in A Chorus Line and Catherine in Pippin. Additional dancers include Melissa Schott, AnnaLee Traeger, Amy Owens, and Brooke Brown.

Tickets to the North Carolina Symphony's performance of Pops Goes Vegas range from $18 to $75. Student tickets are $15. For more information, go to the North Carolina Symphony's website at www.ncsymphony.org, or call 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.

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