AT OVERLAND PARK CONVENTION CENTER ON APRIL 4-5

(Overland Park, KS – March 19, 2008) Nearly 40 choruses and quartets around the region fine tune their voices for the Midwest Plains Region #7, Sweet Adelines International chorus and quartet competition at the Overland Park Convention Center on Friday, April 4 from 5 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 5 from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Celebrated annually since 1957, this event features more than 570 contestants from Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska competing to be named 2008 Region #7 Chorus and Quartet Champions.

This year’s two-day event features a special Show of Champions “Afterbash” showcasing the top winners from each contest on Saturday, April 5 starting at 8 p.m. This culminating event will also include some fun and unique surprise performances. All events are open to the public. Tickets are $20 and are available at the door for each event.

Sweet Adelines International is a worldwide organization of women singers committed to advancing the musical art form of barbershop harmony through education and performances. This independent, nonprofit music education association is one of the world's largest singing organizations for women. "Harmonize the World" is the organization’s motto.

The international membership of nearly 30,000 women, all singing in English, includes choruses in most of the fifty United States as well as in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden, Wales and the Netherlands. In the Kansas City metro area there are three chapters of Sweet Adelines, the Kansas City Chorus, the City of Fountains Chorus and the Northland Chorus. For more information, please visit www.sweetadelinesregion7.com.

The OPCC sits on a 26-acre site in the heart of Overland Park, the largest suburban city in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the second largest city in Kansas. The mid-sized convention center features a 60,000 square-foot exhibition hall that connects to the 25,000 sq. ft. Edwin C. Eilert Ballroom. Additionally, the OPCC provides an additional 15,000 sq. ft. of event space and 40,000 sq. ft. of pre-function space that proudly houses a collection of selected works of art created by renowned midwestern artists.

Global Spectrum (global-spectrum.com) is the fastest growing firm in the public assembly facility management field with more than 70 facilities throughout the United States and Canada. The Philadelphia-based company is part of one of the world’s largest sports and entertainment companies, Comcast-Spectacor, which also owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League, Flyers Skate Zone, a series of community ice skating rinks, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, a regional sports programming network, Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage services provider, New Era Tickets, a full-service ticketing and marketing product for public assembly facilities, and Front Row Marketing Services, a commercial rights sales company and 3601 Creative Group, a full-service in-house advertising agency. In a partnership with Disson Skating, Comcast-Spectacor annually produces 10 nationally televised figure skating spectaculars on NBC.
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Contact: Kelly O’Hagan
Marketing Manager
Global Spectrum-managed Overland Park Convention Center
(p) 913.339.3067
(f) 913.339.3098
kohagan@opconventioncenter.com

Wednesday, March 19, 2008