Keene State Salutes Benny Goodman

KEENE, NH, 3/18/02 - Keene State College’s Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond will salute the King of Swing with a concert by The Royal Swing Orchestra, Friday, April 12, at 8 p.m. The concert, featuring many of Benny Goodman’s timeless hits and selections from musicians associated with him, is sponsored by The Keene Sentinel.Tickets, available through the Brickyard Pond box office at 603-358-2168, are $19 and $16 for the general public, $17 and $14 for seniors and KSC staff, $10.50 and $9 for youth 17 and younger, and $5 for KSC students with ID. Tickets are also available through Brickyard Pond’s web site, www.keene.edu/racbp/.The 16-piece Royal Swing Orchestra and vocalists is led by Richard Lowenthal. At the Brickyard Pond concert they will play over 20 hits from the 1930s, 40s and 50s, including “Let’s Dance,” “Memories of You,” “Sometimes I’m Happy,” “Don’t Be That Way,” “In the Mood,” “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” “Two O’clock Jump,” and “In the Mood.”Lowenthal’s over-30-year career as a professional musician has found him performing with or conducting such artists as Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson, Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Rosemary Clooney, Clark Terry, Billy Eckstine, and Cher among others.In the sixties Lowenthal was a full-scholarship student in trumpet at the Julliard School of Music. It was at this time he began a freelance career, performing at Radio City Music Hall, with the Ice Capades, the Ringling Brothers Circus, Broadway shows, and the New York Jets Band. Eventually he developed an undergraduate and graduate jazz degree program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he served 18 years as its chairman. During his tenure he directed the school’s Jazz Orchestra, which recorded three albums. All three won the Down Beat Magazine Award for best college jazz ensemble.In addition he founded and conducted the New Jersey Jazz Repertory Orchestra, an ensemble devoted to performing the legendary music of the bandleaders from the late 1920s to the early 1980s. He also conducted special European engagements of the famed Glenn Miller Orchestra throughout Europe and Asia.The Royal Swing Orchestra was formed because of Lowenthal’s passion and desire to present the legendary Swing Era music to as diverse an audience as possible. Each concert is noted not only for the authenticity of its musical arrangements, but also for Lowenthal’s lively and entertaining narration of the music’s history.

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