CONWAY — The Conway Women’s Chorus will present an afternoon of music at 2 p.m. Dec. 2 at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, 3255 Prince St. in Conway. Admission is $5.
Billed as Glitz and Glam, the program will feature songs that have received a Grammy Award for Song of the Year, as well as traditional Christmas songs.
“We will present several Christmas songs and have our traditional Christmas singalong,” said Joan Hanna of Wooster, director of the Faulkner Academy of Arts, which supports the Conway Women’s Chorus and the Conway Dinner Theater.
“We will also cover music from the first Song of the Year Award of 1959 to last year’s mega hit,” Hanna said. “We’re not giving any titles because a special gift giveaway from the Conway Dinner Theater is awaiting the person who can best ‘Name That Tune.’”
Joining the chorus as soloists will be Conway Dinner Theater standouts Shannah Cummings of Conway, a music instructor at the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton who played Gertrude McFuzz last year in Seussical, the Musical; and from the summer production of Oklahoma!, Amber Welch of Conway, who works at Hewlett Packard and played Ado Annie; and Devin Pittinger of Bigelow, a junior music major at Henderson State University who played Judd.
“And just like the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, there will be an after-show party of food and drink with the ‘stars’ of the show,” Hanna said, adding that the refreshments will include punch and finger foods.
Tickets may be purchased at the door, or in advance at Faulkner Academy of Arts, (501) 339-7401; and Kordsmeier Furniture, 1023 Oak St. in Conway; and from any chorus member.
All proceeds benefit the Women’s Chorus, which was started in 2005 as part of the inaugural Earth Day celebration in Conway.
Hanna said the chorus now includes 20 members, including her, who give two public performances a year, plus special appearances when asked.
“We traditionally present shows at Christmas and in the spring,” Hanna said, noting that this year has been an exception as members of the chorus have put together a program of music representing the Civil War era. “We’ve presented that program at the Benton public library and at the banquet for the Bookcase for Every Child project here in Conway,” Hanna said. “The ladies dress in period costume and sing songs from that era.
“And we just recently presented a program of various songs at the Conway Senior Citizen Center. We try to perform for nonprofit groups as least once a year.”
Current members of the Conway Women’s Chorus are Liza Allen, Elizabeth Barnes, Anita Bayless, Judie Burnie, Mimi Carlin, Patricia Carlin, Bryan Cole, Virginia Douglas, Vicki Parish, Sharon Rapp, Barbara Sanders, Melissa Starkey, Cathy Wester, Dana Wise, Dee Woodrum and Teena Woodworth, all of Conway; BJ Fox and Kimberly Norris, both of Greenbrier; and Nancy Henderson of Wooster.
“New members are always welcome,” Hanna said. “We hold open auditions in January. I would love to have more people come.”
For more information on the Conway Women’s Chorus, call (501) 339-7401 or visit www.faulkneracademyofarts.org.