THE TOWN HALL 2008 SEASON OF HEADLINERS!

THE TOWN HALL CONTINUES 2008 SEASON OF HEADLINERS
WITH EAST VILLAGE OPERA COMPANY

THURSDAY, MARCH 20 AT 8:00PM


Powerhouse Rock Band Transforming The Classics. Back By Popular Demand!

(February 6, 2007) – The Town Hall, Times Square’s landmark concert venue, continues it’s 2008 season with the powerhouse rock band the East Village Opera Company on Thursday, March 20 at 8:00PM. The popular nine-piece group returns to The Town Hall. Tickets for the show, priced at $40 & $35, are now on sale.

With fresh and bold contemporary “spins” on opera’s greatest hits, the East Village Opera Company is a powerhouse rock band that transforms classic opera opera arias into songs evoking everything from the golden age of rock & roll to hip-hop, makes a triumphant return
to The Town Hall. East Village Opera Company, an outfit comprised of two vocalists, a string section and a rock band, has released two albums. La Donna and Decca/Universal’s The East Village Opera Company. Audiences will thrill to hear the East Village Opera Company’s “take” on classics from La Traviata, Carmen, La Boheme, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Faust, Griselda, Pagliacci and others. Don’t miss the classics revived and electrified!

The East Village Opera Company is an integrated and dedicated band set out to rock opera and electrify the classics, as the ensemble has been doing to spectacular effect ever since its New York stage debut in the spring of 2004. EVOC was co-founded by lead singer Tyley Ross and arranger/multi-instrumentalist Peter Kiesewalter, and since then have assembled a full-on rock band, adding two guitars, bass, and drums to Peter’s keyboard’s, then synched it to a string quartet. A superb vocalist, AnnMarie Milazzo, was recruited for impassioned duets with Tyley Ross and soaring solos. “We have a profound love and respect for opera,” said Peter KIeswalter. “The pomposity of rock and the pomposity of opera, without demeaning or satirizing either form, the East Village Opera Company files where countless other ‘classical-crossover’ efforts have failed.”

“We’re very pleased to announce the return of the East Village Opera Company,“ said Lawrence C. Zucker, The Town Hall Executive & Artistic Director. “We’re certain this will be another great show for this terrific company and their ever-growing audience.”



The East Village Opera Company is part of The Town Hall Presents 2008 season, a program that includes Tamango’s Urban Tap, Klezmatics, The Nuyorican Poets Café Third Millennium Celebration, Miles from India, Judy Collins and the Broadway By The Yearâ series.

Built in 1921 by a group of suffragettes, The Town Hall began as a lecture hall and public forum for debates. Over the decades, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Billie Holiday, Igor Stravinsky, Bob Dylan and Miles Davis have graced the stage. Today the hall flourishes as a popular, affordable venue, boasting the hottest acts in rock, pop, folk, cabaret, world music, comedy and dance, including Billy Joel, Blondie, Elvis Costello, Natalie Merchant, Graham Nash, Liza Minnelli, Cyndi Lauper, Norah Jones, Andre Watts, Henry Rollins, Joe Jackson, Pink Martini, Regina Spector, Brian Adams, Aimee Mann and Dawn Upshaw. For over a decade, The Town Hall has hosted live broadcasts of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion. Over the past two-and-a-half decades, The Town Hall has produced a number of new and critically acclaimed musical series, which include The Century of Change, Not Just Jazz, Broadway By The Year® and The Broadway Cabaret Festival.

Tickets for EVOC are priced at $40 & $35 and available now through TicketMaster, 212-307-4100, or www.ticketmaster.com, or by visiting The Town Hall Box Office between noon and 6 PM (except Sundays) at 123 West 43rd Street, 212-840-2824. For more information, visit: www.the-townhall-nyc.org