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| Vince Gill. Download image |
Country music performer Vince Gill and London-based a cappella group The Swingle Singers will headline the second “Songs for Sight,” a unique musical celebration benefiting people in Alabama with low vision, March 4, 2011, in UAB’s Alys Stephens Center.
“Songs for Sight” was imagined and organized by Alie B. Gorrie, 18, of Mountain Brook, who was diagnosed as an infant with optic nerve hypoplasia, a genetic form of vision impairment. Gorrie, legally blind in one eye and with 20/80 vision in the other, wants to raise awareness and funds for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation and support research efforts for the Optic Nerve Imaging Center.
“Songs for Sight” entertains, educates and inspires others, while providing financial support for low vision rehabilitation and eye research. The first event raised $450,000.
“I am exceedingly grateful for all the hard work being done by the Low Vision Center, SightSavers and the researchers at UAB,” Gorrie says. “In the past year alone, I have seen so many lives changed by Songs for Sight programs like our support groups, and I cannot wait to continue these efforts.”
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| Swingle Singers. Download image. |
“Songs for Sight” will take place at 7:30 p.m. March 4 in the Alys Stephens Center Jemison Concert Hall, 1200 10th Ave. South. Keith Cromwell, executive director of Red Mountain Theatre Company, will direct the show. Visit www.SongsforSight.org for details.
General admission tickets are $75 and are available through the Alys Stephens Center Box Office at 205-975-2787 or online at www.AlysStephens.org. Corporate sponsor packages for “Songs for Sight” are available in four package levels from $1,000-$10,000. For more details on sponsor packages, contact Lindsay Knox at 205-325-8526 or lknox@uab.edu.
The “Songs for Sight” event is a partnership among the UAB Department of Ophthalmology, the Eye Sight Foundation of Alabama and a group of community volunteers dedicated to supporting their mission.
About the “Songs for Sight” performers
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Vince Gill has sold more than 26 million albums and has earned 18 CMA awards, including Entertainer of the Year in 1993 and 1994. Gill has received 20 Grammy awards, the most of any male country artist, according to his press bio. Gill also is regarded as one of country music's best known humanitarians, participating in hundreds of charitable events throughout his career. Gill is a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and in August 2007, the Country Music Association inducted Gill as a member of the coveted Country Music Hall of Fame. He’ll perform an acoustic set.
The Swingle Singers are an international a cappella phenomenon with more than 50 recordings and five Grammy awards. What started with eight jazz session singers in 1963 Paris has become an international voice sensation. For more than 40 years, the unmistakable sound of “Swingle singing” has defined the art form: virtuosic vocal agility and blend demonstrated by their signature close-microphone technique, with high-level entertainment that has thrilled audiences around the globe, according to the group’s website. The latest lineup of young and talented voices — as heard on the popular television show “Glee”— represents the group’s transformation from pioneering classical/jazz crossover artists to contemporary vocal super-group.