Quartet features the 'Power of Song'

“The Power of Song” a concert featuring The Great Pretenders, a male vocal quartet of the Glacier Symphony and Chorale, will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12, at the Museum at Central School,

This marks the first time The Great Pretenders have organized a full-length concert. Previously, they have performed at various events throughout the valley and as a special feature during Glacier Chorale concerts. The four Pretenders are Terry Comstock and Jonathan Bruce tenor, Greg Naive, baritone, and Brad Seaman, bass.  Their accompanist is Dan Kohnstamm, who will also play three short original piano compositions for the show. 

Many male vocal quartets are strictly of the barbershop variety, but The Great Pretenders perform repertoire that varies from classical and operatic to folk and spirituals to jazz and contemporary, Glacier Chorale conductor James Stanard, the Pretenders director, said.             

“They have worked very hard these past months preparing new music. One of their newest selections is ‘The Cold and Fugue Season,’ a hilarious arrangement of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor that the four singers try their best to perform while plagued with flu symptoms,” Stanard said.

Other new selections range from Stanard’s own arrangement of the familiar American folk song “Shenandoah,” and “The Sponge Bob Theme Song,” an operatically styled and amusing arrangement of the theme song from the “Sponge Bob Square Pants” cartoon series. 

The repertoire will also include old favorites such as “Ol’ Man River,” “Ghost Riders in the Sky” and the quartet’s namesake piece, “The Great Pretender.”

Doors open at 7 p.m. for socializing and a no-host wine bar.  Seating is limited in the recital room on the third floor of the Central School Museum, so audiences are encouraged to buy tickets early. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for seniors and may be purchased from the GSC Box office, 407-7000, 69 N. Main. St. Kalispell or at the website www.gscmusic.org.

The museum is located at 124 Second Ave. E. in Kalispell.