Contact: Ralph Derickson

Rosemary Clooney

Nick Clooney

Tickets are available from the ticket office at the Singletary Center and may be reserved by calling (859) 257-4929. Ticket prices are $25 for general admission and $10 for students.

April 10, 2003 (Lexington, Ky.) -- A Rosemary Clooney Tribute Concert with special guest host Nick Clooney will be performed by University of Kentucky students at 8 p.m. Friday, April 25, at the UK Singletary Center for the Arts.

The Rosemary Clooney Tribute Concert is a product of the UK School of Music under the direction of music professors Richard Domek and Miles Osland. It will feature many hit songs from the late Kentucky crooner’s storied music and movie career.

UK students and other special guest performers will sing, accompanied by the musical instrumentation of the Kentucky Jazz Repertory Orchestra.

Among the many songs to be performed at the concert are “Come On-a My House,” “White Christmas,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” “Peachtree Street,” “Hey There,” “I Got Rhythm,” and “Blue Rose” from the Blue Rose album Clooney made with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1956.

Tickets are available from the ticket office at the Singletary Center and may be reserved by calling (859) 257-4929. Ticket prices are $25 for general admission and $10 for students.

Domek said the tribute is being performed because Rosemary Clooney “was an absolutely extraordinary talent who was a terrific musician and a profoundly gifted singer.”

“With her music, her depth of feeling and her personality, she touched and enriched the lives of people worldwide, certainly including people in Kentucky,” Domek said. “She had an internationally celebrated career with a contribution of such magnitude – and especially because she maintained and cherished her Kentucky roots – it is only fitting that the university with the leading music program in her home state take time to honor her and shine the spotlight on her contributions.”

Domek said the concert will review Clooney’s musical output from her earliest professional days performing with the Tony Pastor Orchestra (late 1940s) with her sister, Betty, to her first work as a Columbia recording artist (early 1950s), including her association with such greats as Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Duke Ellington. Her later work, a great deal of which reflected more strongly her early love of jazz and jazz-influenced swing music, will also be a focus of the tribute.

Among the UK students who will perform are Brian Gill, a graduate student from Charlotte, N.C., and Teri Thomas, a graduate student from Fort Collins, Colo. Doctoral student Mark Gardner of Salvisa, Ky., is helping with the music preparation.

The featured singer during the first half of the concert will be Jennifer Zehnder, a native Lexingtonian and professional singer. The second featured vocalist is Mary Ellen Tanner, a native of Ft. Mitchell, Ky., and a resident of Covington. She is a long-time professional vocalist and is a friend of the Clooney family. She is an adjunct professor in the jazz department at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.