Catawba News Service

The Catawba College Department of Music will present its annual Singular Voices concert on Sunday, February 28, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. in the Florence Busby Corriher Theater on the Catawba College campus. The concert is free and open to the public.

Singular Voices showcases some of Catawba's most accomplished song-writing students, including Derek Daisey, Dusti Kempf, and Blakley Leonard. In 2007, Daisey placed second in the national John Lennon Songwriting Competition. Kempf garnered third-place honors in 2009. Daisey recently returned to Catawba after taking a semester's leave to perform as the featured artist on a Carnival Cruise Lines ship. His songs have been heard on the Today Show and on the Food Network.

In recent years, Catawba students have excelled in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, an international event that draws thousands of entries. Over the past four years, Catawba students have placed either first, second, or third in the competition, a showing unequaled by any other college or university in the nation.

In addition to Daisey and Kempf, recent Catawba graduate Dennis Reed, now the college's "Young Artist in Residence," has achieved high honor in the same competition, winning first place in 2006. Reed can also be heard performing on not one but two CDs that received Grammy Awards earlier this month:  Heather Headley's "Audience of One" and the gospel compilation "Oh Happy Day."

Reed currently directs the Urban Sol Vernaculars ensemble that will open the Singular Voices program on February 28. Urban Sol features Rhythm and Blues, soul, and hip-hop. A second Vernaculars ensemble, Technophilia, will share in the opening of the concert.

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