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Uptown Music Collective announces upcoming season

WILLIAMSPORT — In April of 2020, the Uptown Music Collective will hit its 20th year of serving the local community. In honor of this important milestone the school plans on celebrating throughout the coming year with one of the most spectacular and exciting performance seasons to date.

Over the years, the school’s performance program has become the public face of the organization, presenting major performance events that have provided the community with professional-level entertainment, at an affordable ticket price. While also clearly demonstrating the success of the Uptown Music Collective’s high-quality music education programs.

With this 20th Anniversary performance season though, the staff and the students of the school have made it their mission to take it even further. Delivering a series of shows that will be truly epic, and usher in a whole new era of performance, musicality, and production for the Uptown Music Collective’s next 20 years.

The 2019-2020 performance season will kick off on Nov.15 and 16 at the Community Arts Center in Williamsport with “Walk This Way: The Music of Aerosmith.”

As the Uptown Music Collective hits its 20th year in existence “America’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band,” Aerosmith, will be hitting its 50th. In honor of the bad boys from Boston, the Collective will present this epic tribute featuring all of Aerosmith’s greatest hits like “Sweet Emotion,” “Dream On,” “Love in an Elevator,” “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” “Last Child,” “Back in the Saddle,” and many, many more.

On Jan. 25, 2020, for one night only, the students of the UMC will come together again on the stage of the Community Arts Center to present “Captain Fantastic & The Piano Man: The Music of Elton John and Billy Joel.”

In this one night only concert event, the students will pay tribute to both of these giants with a spectacular performance of their greatest hits. All proceeds from this concert will support the school’s scholarship fund and free class and workshop initiative.

The concert will include powerful performances of “Piano Man,” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “Just the Way You Are,” “Big Shot,” “Candle in the Wind,” “Your Song,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Bennie and the Jets,” and many more classics hits.

On Feb. 27, 28, and 29, 2020 the Collective will once again return to Williamsport’s Community Theatre League to present “Time in a Bottle: Singer/Songwriters of the ’60s & ’70s” for four performances.

The 1960s and ’70s saw an explosion of “Singer/Songwriters,” including artists such as James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel, America, Jim Croce, Joni Mitchell, Carol King, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and more, releasing hit after hit on American radio. This performance will feature some of the greatest hits of that genre.

In April of 2020, as the organization’s birthday arrives, the nonprofit school of music will present its most ambitious and exciting weekend of music to date, when it presents the 20th Anniversary Celebration. Featuring 100 returning alumni performing alongside current students, and bringing to the stage, not just one great concert event, but four over two nights.

Each 75-minute performance will be centered around an iconic album, and include other classic hits by the same artist. On Friday, April 24th the first performance of the night will be Fleetwood Mac Rumors, followed by a thunderous presentation of Led Zeppelin II. On Saturday, April 25th the Collective will return to its roots, performing Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, just as they did in 2004 with their first-ever major performance. The grand finale of this two-night experience will be the greatest hits of her royal majesty of rock and roll, Queen.

“It has been an amazing 20 years, filled with great music, great students, and the incredible opportunity to build a unique organization with a truly outstanding and highly dedicated staff, who don’t know how to back down from a challenge,” said Dave Brumbaugh, UMC Founder & Executive Director. “With this 20th Anniversary Celebration, we are going to hit a new high watermark for creativity, planning, implementation, and performance, that will challenge and inspire our organization for years to come. I can’t wait to get started!”

The Collective is in the process of seeking sponsorships for this performance season from businesses, organizations, or individuals in the community. Sponsorship dollars underwrite the cost of UMC performances; including theater rental, stage build-outs, in-house technical and stage crew labor, costumes, equipment costs, and more. Allowing the show’s ticket sales to go directly to help fund the programs that teach these 10-18-year-old students the musical skills, confidence, and showmanship so clearly displayed on stage. If you have any interest in becoming a performance season sponsor, please contact the Uptown Music Collective.

New this year, tickets for the Collective’s Community Arts Center performances will be made available for purchase exclusively through the CAC’s website, as well as their mobile app. Advanced tickets for the 2019-2020 performance season are on sale now on the Community Arts Center website (www.caclive.com), app, and box office, as well as the Community Theatre League’s website (www.ctlshows.com), and box office. For further details about these shows visit uptownmusic.org or call 570-329-0888. Also, visit the Collective’s official Facebook page, as well as other Collective social media outlets for teasers, previews, behind the scenes info and more throughout the 2019-2020 performance season.

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