Roy Singer, Iola High School class of 1963, will be in town this weekend for his class’s 60-year reunion, where he’s certain to be greeted by scores of friends and acquaintances.
But he also understands if even more folks will want to meet his wife.
Donna Singer, renowned jazz vocalist, is accompanying her husband to Iola, and as part of her husband’s reunion weekend, has agreed to sing at a free concert at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
Backing Donna will be the Kansas All-Star Big Band, consisting of some of the state’s best jazz and big-band musicians and educators for a medley of songs from such icons as Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey.
Roy Singer, a pre-eminent concert pianist and songwriter in his own right, will join in the fun for a song or two as well.
Donna, who performed a similar free concert in Iola in 2015, said Saturday’s show, “just kind of fell into my lap.”
The reunion committee, knowing the Singers would be in town, asked Donna if she’d be willing to perform while she was in town.
One problem — she has an 18-piece band backing her performances closer to her home in Florida, and the logistics of getting all of the bandmates to Kansas were slim to none.
That was when she connected with the Kansas All-Star Band, with whom she’s never played before.
“I told my husband, and he got excited,” Donna said. “He told his classmates, and they were very excited.”
The reunion and concert will make for a jam-packed weekend.
The Singers will gather for a dinner Friday night with other 63’ers before she meets up with the band Saturday morning for a rehearsal “to work out all the kinks,” she said.
The 1 p.m. concert will be followed by other reunion events.
“I felt bad, because I’d had several people contact me, who all remembered me, and asked if I’d remembered them, and I couldn’t,” she said. “That’s not going to happen this time. I have every intention of getting to meet Roy’s classmates, and get some one-on-one time.”
DONNA’S career has taken her across the globe for recordings and live performances at festivals, concert halls and jazz clubs. She has performed at the Metropolitan Opera Guild Recital Hall in Lincoln Center, Central Park’s Naumburg Bandshell and The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach.
Growing up in upstate New York, Donna and her twin sister, Dawn, were raised in a family of jazz enthusiasts who listened to the music of great jazz artists.
