A group of Bay of Plenty performing arts students are lending their voices to help raise money for disaster-stricken Christchurch, after their studies in the garden city were cut short by the earthquake.
The concert, at Baycourt in Tauranga tomorrow, was conceived by several students who returnedhome to the Bay after their accommodation in Christchurch was badly damaged in the quake and their courses at the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art were postponed.
Performers taking part in the show include Dave McMeeking, a Bay of Plenty singer who has understudied the role of Phantom in Phantom of the Opera in Sydney, with Carol Storey, Natalie Lunson, Barry Spedding, Matthew Roderick, Adam Spedding, Brayden Jeffery, Kelsey Henderson and Luke Wilson, who perform in a dance troupe from the Dance Education Centre.
Academy students including Tauranga's Dylan Frewin, and Kaitlin and Hannah Spedding, will perform solos and duets, while other acts are being finalised.
The 7.30pm concert will be compered by Tauranga personalities Liam Hagan and Greg Brownless, who has witnessed the effects of disasters while helping in aftermaths of the Asian tsunami and more recently, Australia's Christmas Island boating tragedy. Mr Brownless said he had registered to travel to Christchurch as a volunteer, but meantime was pleased to help with fundraising.
Tickets at $15 each are available from Baycourt, which has been hired for the evening by the Legacy Trust, and by phoning (07) 577 7188. All proceeds will go to the Red Cross Fund for Christchurch.
