Beethoven to Bernstein performance set Aug. 20

In its final presentation of the summer season, Concerts at the Beach will welcome the return of three outstanding artists in a program of wide-ranging music from Beethoven to Bernstein. The performance will be held at 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 20,  at St. Martha’s Episcopal Church in downtown Bethany Beach at Pennsylvania and Maplewood avenues.

The splendid voices of two well-known Washington, D.C. operatic veterans, soprano Debra Lawrence and tenor Paul McIlvaine, will be accompanied by popular pianist Francis Conlon presenting music by Beethoven, Brahms and Johann Strauss. The program will also include four Irish songs, along with the songs of Harold Arlen and Vincent Youmans and selections from Bernstein’s "West Side Story."

Lawrence has performed extensively throughout the Washington area and on the East Coast. Equally at home in opera, oratorio and recital work, she has sung with the Washington Opera, Northern Virginia Opera, Maryland Opera, Wolf Trap and the Washington Savoyards. In choral works, she has performed as soloist with the Cathedral Choral Society, Washington Oratorio Society, New Dominion Chorale and Opera Camerata. Her orchestra performances have included the National Symphony, Maryland Symphony, Fairfax Symphony, Panama National Symphony and Knoxville Symphony.

McIlvaine has been featured in roles with numerous opera companies, including the Washington Opera, the Greater Buffalo Opera Company and the Opera Orchestra of New York. The Wagner Society of New York awarded him a coveted study grant and featured him in its Gold Book of Recommended American Wagner Singers. A versatile performer, he has appeared in musical theater and performed as soloist with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, the Chattanooga Symphony, the Handel Choir of Baltimore, the Annapolis Symphony and other oratorio groups.

Conlon,a piano virtuoso, has performed in most of the college and concert halls in the Washington area and in many cities throughout the United States, Canada, Central America, Europe, India and Japan. He has played at the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City, the Gardner Museum in Boston and the Robin Hood Dell in Philadelphia. In Washington he has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery, the Phillips Collection and the Corcoran Gallery.

Concert tickets are $18, $5 for students, and include a meet-the-artist reception following the concert. Reservations are available by calling 302-539-2963.