Palm Beach Pops Guest Artists Lillias White & Longineu Parsons To Visit Area Schools In Honor Of Black History Month
In honor of Black History Month, Bob Lappin and The Palm Beach Pops has arranged for guest artists Tony Award Winner and Broadway superstar Lillias White and renowned trumpeter and vocalist Longineu Parsons to speak to students at two underserved West Palm Beach elementary schools. Ms. White and Mr. Parsons will promote The Great American Songbook in a fun and educational presentation designed to introduce grammar school children to the joys of music, America’s musical heritage and live orchestral performances. The pair will appear at UB Kinsey/Palmview Elementary School and Westgate Elementary School on Thursday, February 9, 2012.
The artists are in town to perform with The Palm Beach Pops in a rousing tribute to legendary jazz great Louis Armstrong. This concert series, entitled Wonderful World: A Salute to Louis Armstrong, will run February 6 & 7 at the Kravis Center, West Palm Beach, February 8, 10 & 11 at The Carole and Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium at FAU, Boca Raton and February 12 at the Eissey Campus Theatre at Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens.
Lillias White, a native of Brooklyn, New York, made her Broadway debut in Barnum in 1981. She earned a Tony Award for The Life and an additional nomination for Fela! White’s other Broadway credits include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Cats and Once on This Island. She also received an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Lillian Edwards on Sesame Street.
Longineu Parsons has been hailed by critics internationally as one of the world’s finest trumpet players. He is also a master of recorders, flute, percussion, and sings the blues. Over his 25-year career, Longineu has performed in some thirty countries and has shared the stage and recording studio with Cab Calloway, Nat Adderley, Doc Severinson, Herbie Mann, Archie Schepp, Sun Ra, Branford Marsalis and many others. Mr. Parsons is Associate Professor of Trumpet at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.
Bob Lappin and The Palm Beach Pops has a strong commitment to providing area school children with opportunities to learn about America’s rich musical heritage, the elements of musical composition (harmony, melody and rhythm), and different musical instruments. The orchestra’s programs include the Music & You In-School Youth Education Program, which has taught the fundamentals of music to nearly 90,000 underserved schoolchildren in Palm Beach County at no cost to the schools or taxpayers, as well as the Tickets for Children and Families Program which provides promising students who complete the In-School Youth Education class, maintain above-average grades and demonstrate a commitment to music with complimentary tickets to a Palm Beach Pops concert.
