Broadway stars to join YSO to honor composer Hamlisch

If you go

What: The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Powers Auditorium

Tickets: Available at the DeYor Performing Arts Center box office, by phone at 330-744-0264 and online at youngstownsymphony.com.

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra will pay homage to late composer Marvin Hamlisch at its opening pops-series concert this Saturday at 8 p.m. at Powers Auditorium.

Conductor Randall Craig Fleischer and the YSO will be joined by special guest vocalists Donna McKechnie, Christiane Noll and Doug LeBrecque.

All three singers are veterans of major Broadway musicals who worked with Hamlisch.

McKechnie was an original cast member of “A Chorus Line,” while Noll was in “Ragtime” and LaBrecque was in “The Phantom of the Opera.”

In addition, West Branch High School vocal and theater-department students will perform several Hamlisch songs from Broadway and film, including “The Way We Were,” “Nobody Does it Better” and “Through the Eyes of Love.”

Hamlisch, who conducted the YSO in December 2006, was an Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Pulitizer Prize and Golden Globe award winner.

McKechnie won a Tony award for her starring role in the original “A Chorus Line” cast and is widely regarded as one of Broadway’s foremost dancing and singing leading ladies.

In addition to her role as Mother in the Kennedy Center revival of “Ragtime” on Broadway, Noll starred as Emma in “Jekyll and Hyde.”

LaBrecque has appeared with Hamlisch both at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony and with the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Tickets for the concert are available at the DeYor Performing Arts Center box office, by phone at 330-744-0264 and online at youngstownsymphony.com.

On Sunday, Fleischer and the YSO will present its second Stained Glass Concert Series performance at 2 p.m. at Temple El Emeth, 3970 Logan Way, Liberty. The free concert will include Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5, “Autumn” of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” and excerpts from “Peter and the Wolf,” “The Nutcracker” and “Carnival of the Animals.”