Mill Mountain Theatre launches its 2015 Season with the all-new Mill Mountain Music concert series and in a venue that’s newly equipped with the region’s most up-to-date sound system. The combination will be an evening of familiar piano music that’s an extraordinary audio feast.
The premier evening is Saturday, March 28. The place is MMT’s Trinkle Main Stage/Wells Fargo Auditorium. Piano Man is a one-night-only concert featuring the music and songs of Billy Joel, Elton John, Barry Manilow, Stevie Wonder, Neil Sedaka and Ray Charles. It was conceived and arranged by Matthew Glover, MMT’s Associate Artistic Director. It is the first of two concerts this season, followed on June 6 by Opry Divas.\
The concert has been designed specifically for Mill Mountain Theatre and performers include Katie Emerson (previously in MMT’s 2013 production of The Marvelous Wonderettes) and Jeff Ostermueller, who has performed nationally. They will invite the audience to sing along to “Piano Man,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Isn’t She Lovely,” “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” and “Copacabana.”
“The music is familiar but the sound will be unlike anything Mill Mountain Theatre has ever before produced,” said Ginger Poole, MMT’s Producing Artistic Director. “Beginning immediately after Christmas, we dismantled the 30+-year-old analog sound system and replaced it with the newest digital equipment. This $90,000 overhaul is the first phase of modernizing and upgrading the stage technology systems in the Trinkle Main Stage. Audiences who know our venue will be overwhelmed by the difference the new equipment makes in their enjoyment of both music and spoken word.”
The new sound system was funded by donations and major grants to Mill Mountain Theatre in 2014 by the Roanoke Women’s Foundation, the Helen S. and Charles G. Patterson Jr. Charitable Foundation Trust and Norfolk Southern Foundation.
“Mill Mountain Theatre’s new sound system is unique in the Roanoke region,” said Reid Henion, president of Stage Sound, Inc., the Roanoke company that designed and installed the new equipment. “The system design allows several operation modes to optimally handle the wide range of shows and events MMT is known for staging.”
Henion will be at the sound board for the March 28 concert, personally mixing the output for the system’s first public run.
Tickets for Piano Man are on sale at the Center in the Square box office and available by calling 540-342-5740 and online at www.millmountain.org.
Piano Man is the first of two events in MMT’s new concert series. It is underwritten by Bank of Floyd; Downtown Roanoke, Inc., and Jefferson Surgical Clinic. Additional support for MMT’s programs is provided by Actors’ Equity Assn., Center in the Square, National Endowment for the Arts and Virginia Commission for the Arts.
The second concert will be on Saturday, June 6. “Opry Divas” will pay tribute to women artists who changed the face of country music in America. Music will include hits of Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Carrie Underwood and Shania Twain.
