LOCAL TALENT HELPS SINGERS TAKE TRIP THROUGH MUSIC HISTORY

The Kawartha Lakes Singers are taking a trip through music history and they're taking on a few extra passengers.

The choir, under the direction of Arlene Gray and pianist Gael Morrison, will welcome local guests Eric Smeaton, Graeme Morrison and Jeff Lawrence for their Music of Our Time: Hits Through the Decades concert on Sunday (March 26). The program features the work of such hit-makers as Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon,

Peter Paul and Mary, Carole King, Irving Berlin, the Rankin family, Oscar Peterson,

Manhattan Transfer, Louis Armstrong, and Emmylou Harris.

Smeaton is a percussionist who has worked on cruise ships, freelanced and enjoys all of his playing in the Kawarthas and Peterborough, including the Peterborough Symphony in the past. Bassist Graeme Morrison was born and raised in Lindsay. He has been an active member of the Kawartha Lakes music community for more than 20 years, playing in pit bands for local musical productions, participating in a variety of community bands — including the Kawartha Lakes Concert Band, Odyssey Project and Kinsmen

Band — and teaching private bass and guitar lessons. Morrison attended Humber College, where he spent two years in the jazz program before graduating from the public relations program. After spending nearly a decade in Toronto, he and his wife moved back to Lindsay in 2018.

A teacher in Durham region for 30 years, Peterborough guitarist Jeff Lawrence has participated in musicals at the Academy Theatre in Lindsay, including "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat," "A Christmas Carol, the Musical" and "I've Heard That Song Before," since retiring in 2007. He has sung with the Peterborough Singers for 16 years and for the past eight years has performed twice monthly for the residents at St. Joseph's at Fleming Nursing Home.

Music of Our Time: Hits Through the Decades takes place at Cambridge Street United Church in Lindsay starting at 2:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25 for adults, $10 for children, and are available at klsingers.ca or the door.

For more information email kawlakesingers@gmail.com.