Tickets for Brownlee/YSO show to go on sale July 5

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Tickets for tenor Lawrence Brownlee’s debut performance with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra start at $25 and will go on sale at 10 a.m. July 5 at the DeYor Performing Arts Center box office, downtown; by phone at 330-744-0264; and online at youngstownsymphony.com.

Brownlee – an international opera star and a native of Youngstown – will perform his “Spiritual Journey” on March 7 with the YSO at Powers Auditorium. Randall Craig Fleischer will conduct the orchestra.

“Spiritual Journey” is a narrative piece with text and music by Heidi Joyce and orchestration by Fleischer. It features excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches accompanied by visual images of the period, and the combined Singers Together and Simple Gifts Choirs and Youngstown Connection will provide vocals.

“Spiritual Journey” was premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center in 1991.

Brownlee, hailed as one of the world’s leading bel canto stars, will join the YSO in the first half of the program performing operatic arias, spirituals and other selections for which he is best known.

In the second half, Brownlee will narrate “Spiritual Journey.”

Brownlee was named “Male Singer of the Year” in 2017 by the International Opera Awards.

He has performed with nearly every leading international opera house and festival as well major orchestra in the world.