The Jamestown Concert Association welcomes Soprano Sylvia McNair to open the 2014-2015 season. Two-time Grammy winner Sylvia McNair will perform with Kevin Cole, pianist and vocalist, on Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. in St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 410 N. Main St., Jamestown, N.Y.

McNair lays claim to a three-decade, stellar career in the musical realms of opera, oratorio, cabaret and musical theater. Her journey has taken her from the Metropolitan Opera to the Salzburg Festival, from the New York Philharmonic to the Rainbow Room, from the Ravinia Festival to The Plaza, from the pages of the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to the London Times and the cover of Cabaret Scenes. Having appeared as a soloist multiple times with nearly every major opera company and symphony orchestra in the world, she is retracing her star route now with Gershwin, Porter, Sondheim and Bernstein.

Numerous Pops appearances include the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Pittsburgh Symphony and others. It would be difficult to top Ms. McNair’s invitations to sing the Bach B-minor Mass with the Vienna Philharmonic for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican and a recital for The U.S. Supreme Court by special request of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Her Great American Songbook cabaret shows have been heard in New York at the Rainbow Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Savoy Room at Sheldon Hall, Aspen Music Festival, the famed Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel and other venues.

She has over 70 recordings ranging from Mozart Arias with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields to the music of Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen with pianist Andre Previn.

Ms. McNair earned a Masters degree with Distinction from the Indiana University School of Music, received honorary doctorates from Westminster College and Indiana University, the Ohio Governor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Arts and Entertainment and the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award. In 2007 she received the Gaudium Award from the Breukelein Institute for “extraordinary and distinctive contributions to the arts and public life.”

Pianist Kevin Cole is an award-winning musical director, arranger, composer, vocalist and archivist who garnered the praises of Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Marvin Hamlisch, Stephen Sondheim and members of the Jerome Kern and Gershwin families among others. He has shared the concert stage with such greats as Liza Minnelli, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Itzhak Perlman Lucie Arnaz and others. He was featured soloist for the PBS special, “Gershwin at One Symphony Place” with the Nashville Symphony. Cole has written, directed, co-produced and toured a multimedia concert called “Here to Stay The Gershwin Experience.”

Cole has performed sold-out performances at various venues across the nation including his Carnegie Hall debut with the Albany Symphony in May 2013.

The evening’s program will highlight pieces by Gershwin, Porter, Sondheim and Bernstein.

Tickets for this concert will be $20 adult, $17 senior ( 65+) $7.50 college student. Students 18 and under are admitted free with a paid adult. Tickets are available at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts Box Office, Germaine & Pappalardo, Trinity Guitars, Wright’s Music Shed and at the door.

JCA sponsors include Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, United Arts Appeal of Chautauqua County, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, Jamestown’s Rental Properties, LLC, Bodell Overcash Anderson & Co., Inc. and Lakewood Furniture Galleries.

For more information, call (716) 484-7070 or (716) 487-1522, or visit www.jamestownconcertassociation.org.