MONROE — Pour a beverage and settle in for four nights of outstanding music. The Monroe Arts Center will offer four virtual concerts throughout the spring. The concerts will be available the second weekend of each month, March through June, free of charge to all participants.
The Red Hot Chilli Pipers will kick off this virtual concert season March 12-14 with a blazing rock show so hot, it carries its own health warning. The Red Hot Chilli Pipers — (NOT the Peppers) — are a 9-piece ensemble consisting of pipers, guitarists, keyboards, and drummers — who have been rocking the world from New York to Beijing to Melbourne and everywhere in between with musicianship of the highest order and a passion for pipes that will leave you breathless. The band has four music degrees from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and all the pipers and drummers have played at the top level in bagpiping.
With over 2.5 million views on YouTube and over 350,000 followers on Facebook and sold-out tours in the UK, USA, China Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Ukraine, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and India, The Chillis have never been more in demand for their infectious style of feel-good music which appeals right across the age range to people all over the world. There has never been anything quite like The Red Hot Chilli Pipers!
Naturally 7 will light up MAC screens April, 9-11, 2021 with fan favorites, hand selected by fans the world over. A Capella group” so vastly underplays what they create onstage that they had to coin a phrase — “Vocal Play” — to more accurately depict what they do. Naturally 7 is more than a tightly orchestrated collection of great singers. They transform their voices into actual human instruments, effortlessly producing music of any genre. Their vocal choreography is so perfectly interwoven that they compelled the musical maestro himself, Quincy Jones, to declare them, “The best a cappella group in the world.” Their sonic mastery was on full display in a series of unforgettable performances on “The World’s Best” TV show, which premiered on CBS immediately following Super Bowl LIII. Hosted by comedian and “Car Karaoke” collaborator, James Corden, Naturally 7 reigned supreme as the world’s “Best Group”, and cemented their singular status among the planet’s musical elite.
American Idol judge Lionel Richie recently told Samantha Sharpe she had master control of her voice. The Sharpe Family Singers will take the MAC virtual stage May 7-9. Broadway performers and producers Ron and Barbara Sharpe first met onstage in the original Broadway production of Les Miserables, where they played the romantic lead roles of Marius and Cosette. After being married onstage over 1,000 times they decided to do it for real.
Now years later with two grown children, a pair of identical twin boys, and three “adopted” family members (the boyfriend, the best friend, and the lovable uncle) this group has formed The Sharpe Family Singers to bring their love affair with Broadway to stages across America. In “Married to Broadway,” The Sharpe Family Singers share their love of Broadway musicals by performing the big show stopping numbers that are audience favorites around the world.
Their repertoire includes songs from new hit Broadway shows like Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen, blockbuster movies like The Greatest Showman, hits from Disney On Broadway and Broadway’s Rock & Roll musicals as well as classic show tunes from Phantom, Cats, Evita, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Carousel, Fiddler, Les Miserables and more.
From June 11-13, The Hit Men will take viewers back to a time when Rock was King. Relive Rock’s greatest hits with The Hit Men — the real guys who performed with legendary artists including members of Foreigner, Journey, Styx, The Hooters, Steely Dan, Cheap Trick, The Rascals, Alan Parsons, 3 Dog Night, Cream, Grand Funk, and The Who. In their exciting multi-media concert, The Hit Men celebrate their associations with these mega-stars, share their first-hand experiences as eyewitnesses to rock history, and perform classic hits you know and love… “Layla”, “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “I Want to Know What Love Is”, “Feels Like The First Time”, “Eye in the Sky” and many more.
In 2019, members of The Hit Men were recognized by the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville with the organization’s first-ever “Road Warriors Award”, given to honor “their years of dedication to the music and the countless miles they have traveled in delivering so many hits throughout the world.” With backstage stories, multi-media and top of the charts classic rock hits from so many different rock legends, a performance by The Hit Men is like being at 10 concerts in one show. Hear the soundtrack of your life and see The Hit Men.
All concerts are free of charge and can be accessed through the Monroe Arts Center website at monroeartscenter.com/performances.