West U February 21st Anniversary event is an evening with Hoagy Carmichael
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West U Celebration Performance: 4:00 p.m., Sunday, February 21, 2016
West U Rotary will celebrate its 21st anniversary for February with BCCM as it pays tribute to Hoagy Carmichael with Heart & Soul: The Music of Hoagy Carmichael, February 20-22, 2016, at the Performance Centre of the Ensemble Theatre, 3535 Main. Join your fellow West U Rotarians to hear Carmichael’s greatest songs performed by Houston's most talented musical theatre performers, led by master of ceremonies Joel Sandel.
If you're a Baby Boomer, you probably remember Hoagy Carmichael as the sidekick in the television western, Laramie. If you're a bit older (or a movie buff of any age), you probably know him best as the piano player in classic movies like The Best Years of Our Lives and To Have and Have Not. If you're younger, you might just say "Hoagy...isn't that a sandwich?"
Make no mistake Hoagy Carmichael, for his all down-home manner on screen, was a master songwriter. Born in Indiana in 1899, Carmichael gave up a law career to play and write music. He played with jazz legends Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong. He wrote some of the most famous popular songs of all time, including Stardust, Georgia On My Mind, The Nearness of You, Skylark, and Heart and Soul. Alec Wilder in his book, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950 wrote that Hoagy Carmichael was "the most talented, inventive, sophisticated and jazz-oriented" of the hundreds of contributors to The Great American Songbook.
Heart & Soul: The Music of Hoagy Carmichael
The Performance Centre at the Ensemble Theatre
3535 Main (Performance Centre entrance: Fannin at Berry)
West U Celebration Performance: 4:00 p.m., Sunday, February 21, 2016
(Other performances: Saturday, February 20, and Monday, February 22, both at 7:30 p.m.)