AT OVERLAND PARK CONVENTION CENTER ON APRIL 9-10, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

(Overland Park, KS – March 2, 2010) 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 9 from 5 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 10 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 2010 Region #7 Chorus and Quartet Champions.

This year’s two-day event culminates with a special Show of Champions Party showcasing the top winners from each contest on Saturday, April 10 starting at 8 p.m. All events are open to the public. Tickets for each event are $20 and are available at the door. Deeply discounted ‘Student Rush Tickets’ will be available to students aged 13-25 with a valid student ID 15 minutes prior to the start of each event, providing seats are available.

In addition to the competition events, this year’s convention will honor the 2010 Sweet Adelines International Quartet Champions, from Kansas and Oklahoma, ZING! This group, consisting of tenor Michelle Hunget of Lenexa; lead Susan Ives of Topeka; bass Melynnie Williams of Newton; and baritone Mary Rhea of Norman, OK; was named “2010 Queens of Harmony” at the 63rd SAI Convention and Competition in Nashville, TN October 21-24, 2009. Zing! will open the quartet competition Friday, April 9 at 5 PM and will be featured Saturday night October 10 at the Show Of Champions Party beginning at 8 PM.

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, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden, 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 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, the fastest growing firm in the public assembly facility management field with more than 50 facilities throughout the United States and Canada, manages the Overland Park Convention Center in Overland Park, KS, and Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MO. The Philadelphia-based company is part of one of the world’s largest sports and entertainment firm Comcast-Spectacor, which also owns the Wachovia Center and Wachovia Spectrum, 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, 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. Comcast-Spectacor owns three minor league baseball teams - the Bowie Baysox, the Delmarva Shorebirds and the Frederick Keys - all affiliates of the Baltimore Orioles.
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Event Contact: Jane Tham
Marketing Coordinator
Midwest Plains Region 7
Sweet Adelines International
jltham@aol.com
515-225-8352 – home
515-556-6748 – cell

Facility Contact: Kelly O’Hagan
Marketing Manager
Global Spectrum-managed Overland Park Convention Center
(p) 913.339.3067
(f) 913.339.3098
kohagan@opconventioncenter.com

Tuesday, March 02, 2010