Tony Bennett Comes To Orange County Performing Arts Center 9/25

Tony Bennett, the epitome of cool, brings his smooth vocals and interpretive artistry
to the Orange County Performing Arts Center's Segerstom Hall on September 25 at 7:30 p.m. Bennett's fourth visit to the Center will feature all the great songs and that impeccable style that have earned him multiple Gold and Platinum albums, Grammy® and Emmy awards, Billboard's Century Award and a Kennedy Center Honor. Frank Sinatra called him "the best singer in the business."

Tickets to see Tony Bennett are $64 - $106 and available online at OCPAC.org, at the Center's Box
Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling 714.556.2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 15 or more, call the Group Services office at 714.755.0236. The TTY number is 714.556.2746.

Mercedes-Benz USA is the Premier Sponsor of the Orange County Performing Arts Center's 2009-2010 Season. Bennett is an artist who moves the hearts and touches the souls of audiences. He's not just the singer's singer but also an international treasure honored by the United Nations with its Citizen of the World award, which aptly describes the scope of his accomplishments. With worldwide record sales in the millions, and dozens of platinum and gold albums to his credit, Bennett has received fifteen Grammy Awards including the prestigious Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Bennett's big break came in 1949 when comedian Bob Hope discovered him working with Pearl Bailey in Greenwich Village and invited him to sing at Paramount. His initial fame came via a string of Columbia singles in the early 1950s, including such chart-toppers as "Because of You," "Rags To Riches" and a cover of Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart." He has placed two-dozen songs in the Top 40, including "I Wanna Be Around," "The Good Life," "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)" and his signature hit, "I Left My Heart In San Francisco," which earned him two Grammy Awards.

Bennett is one of a handful of artists to have new albums chart in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and into the new millennium. He introduced a multitude of songs into the Great American Songbook that have since become pop music standards. He has toured the world to sold-out audiences, winning rave reviews whenever he performs. In celebration of his unparalleled contributions to popular music, Columbia/Legacy assembled Forty Years: The Artistry Of Tony Bennett. The four-CD boxed set chronicled the singer's stellar recording career. Recently, the set has been updated and expanded, with the title changed from Forty Years to Fifty Years.

Bennett became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2005, and was named an NEA Jazz Master in January of 2006 and was also named the recipient of Billboard magazine's elite Century Award, in honor of his outstanding contributions to music. Bennett has also authored three books: What My Heart Has Seen, The Good Life and Tony Bennett In the Studio. Throughout his career, Bennett has always put his heart and time into humanitarian concerns. He has raised millions of dollars for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, which established a research fund in his name. His original paintings each year grace the cover of the American Cancer Society's holiday greeting card, proceeds from which are earmarked for cancer research. He is active in environmental concerns and has performed at fundraisers for both the Walden Woods Foundation and the Save the Rainforest Foundation. The Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta bestowed upon him their "Salute to Greatness Award" for his efforts to fight discrimination. The United Nations presented him with their 2007 Humanitarian Award.

In honor of one of his greatest friends and staunchest supporters, Bennett conceived and spearheaded the establishment of the Frank Sinatra School for the Arts, which opened its doors as a New York City public high school, offering an extensive arts curriculum. With his wife Susan, they founded Exploring the Arts, which supports the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts and provides support to arts education in public schools.

Orange County Performing Arts Center
The Orange County Performing Arts Center presents a wide variety of the most significant national and international productions of music, dance and theater to the people of Southern California. It is
committed to supporting artistic excellence on all of its stages and offering unsurpassed experiences, engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and an array of inspiring programs. As Orange County's largest non-profit arts organization, the Center owns and operates the 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall and intimate 250-seat Founders Hall, which opened in 1986, and the 2,000-seat Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, which opened in 2006 and also houses the 500-seat Samueli Theater, and the Lawrence and Kristina Dodge Education Center's studio performance space and Boeing Education Lab. These state-of-the-art facilities are united by a community arts plaza. The Center's Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and community plaza, along with facilities of the adjacent Tony® Award-winning South Coast Repertory and a site designated as the new home of the Orange County Museum of Art, are located at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The Orange County Performing Arts Center presents a broad range of programming each season for audiences of all ages from throughout Orange County, and beyond, including international ballet and
dance, national tours of top Broadway shows, intimate performances of jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family-friendly programming, free performances open to the public from outdoor movie screenings to dancing on the plaza and many other special events.

It offers many education programs designed to inspire young people through the arts. These programs reach hundreds of thousands of students of all ages with vital arts-in-education programs, enhancing their studies and enriching their lives well into the future. The Orange County Performing Arts Center is proud to serve as the artistic home to the region's major performing arts organizations: Pacific Symphony, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale.
For more information, visit OCPAC.org. The Center can also be found online at Blogger, YouTube,
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Flickr.

Tony Bennett
Orange County Performing Arts Center - Segerstrom Hall
Friday, September 25, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Orange County Performing Arts Center
600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA
Tickets: $64 - $106
In person - The Center Box Office
600 Town Center Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily
Online - OCPAC.org
Phone - 714.556.2787
Open 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily
TTY number - 714.556.2746
Group Services - 714.755.0236

 

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