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National Endowment for the Arts Announces a Military Base Tour of Opera and Broadway Music"Great American Voices Military Base Tour: Unforgettable Melodies from Opera & Broadway" provides military families with high quality performances and educational activities
September 28, 2005 Washington, D.C. - Today, the National Endowment for the Arts announces Great American Voices Military Base Tour: Unforgettable Melodies from Opera & Broadway, a national initiative that will celebrate the best of American arts by bringing professional performances of opera and musical theater to military installations nationwide. More than 20 professional opera companies will conduct performances at 39 military bases around the country, including Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, and Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida. The tour, which runs from October 2005 through August 2006, will feature selections from popular operas such as Bizet's Carmen and Mozart's Don Giovanni, as well as highlights from classic American musicals including Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! Performances will be offered at no cost to the base or to audience members. Great American Voices Military Base Tour is presented in coordination with the Department of Defense and OPERA America. Great American Voices Military Base Tour is made possible by The Boeing Company. In addition to evening performances, participating artists will conduct school visits and pre-concert briefings to familiarize youth and adults with these musical genres. The NEA also has produced a compact disc with opera and Broadway excerpts and commentary, to be distributed to classrooms and audience members. "Through Great American Voices, the NEA is building bridges between the military and arts community," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "This tour gives singers a chance to perform for new audiences and brings great music in live performance to military families." "We're honored to support the National Endowment for the Arts and its work in bringing such outstanding programs to our servicemen and women and their families," said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Washington National Opera performs at launch event Today, the NEA introduces the tour with a special performance at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC. The event features a performance by soprano Harolyn Blackwell, and a preview performance by the Washington National Opera Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, which will visit the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, and Picatinny Arsenal in Wharton, NJ, as part of the tour. Great American Voices Military Base Tour is the latest in a series of groundbreaking partnerships between the NEA and the Department of Defense. The NEA's Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience has brought distinguished writers to 16 domestic military bases and offered an open call for writing submissions to troops worldwide. The initiative will result in a federal archive of troop writings and an anthology to be published in 2006. As part of the largest tour of Shakespeare in American history, the NEA presented the Shakespeare in American Communities Military Base Tour, which brought performances by four Shakespeare companies to 18 military bases. Great American Voices tour schedule Locations for Great American Voices Military Base Tour are subject to change. For the latest tour information and sample educational materials, visit www.greatamericanvoices.org Boeing is the world's leading aerospace company and the largest combined manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft. With additional capabilities in rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, rocket engines, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems, the company's reach extends to customers in 145 countries. In terms of sales, Boeing is one of the largest U.S. exporters. # # # The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts – both new and established – bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal
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