“Bonnie and Friends’’ back for 15th concert

By The Daily Progress Staff

Published: August 8, 2008

From staff reports
Soprano Bonnie Samuel is presenting her 15th annual “Bonnie and Friends’’ concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at Crozet Baptist Church.
She will be joined by soprano Mary Sproles Martin, tenor David Collyer, lyric tenor Ken Ellis and pianist Nancy Fleischman.
Featured will be “Letter Scenes and Songs’’ from “The Ballad of Baby Doe,’’ “La Perichole’’ by Offenbach, “Eugene Onegin’’ by Tchaikovsky and Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro.’’ Audience members will hear solos, duets and group numbers that will display the singers’ talents.
All selections will be sung in English.
Fleischman is organist and choir director at Second Presbyterian Church in Waynesboro.
Martin, from Waynesboro, has sung in numerous Gilbert and Sullivan production and with area choral groups.
Collyer is associate pastor at Crozet Baptist Church and conducts the Bell Choir.
An original “friend’’ in the “Bonnie and Friends’’ series, he returns after a seven-year hiatus.
Ellis performed with the group most recently in 2004. He has appeared in many local theater productions as a singer, choreographer and director, and he plans to appear in a November production with Play On! — A New Virginia Theatre.
Samuel is a voice student of Edmund Najera. She sings in Crozet Baptist Church Choir — along with Martin and Collyer. Over the years, she has sung with the Charlottesville Vocal Arts Society and the Crozet and Charlottesville Lions Clubs. She also sings at various nursing homes and assisted living sites as a soloist and with the Crozet Crooners.
The church is at 5804 St. George Ave. in Crozet.
Admission is free. For directions or information, call the church office at 823-5171, Ext. 100.