Aliso Viejo, CA – The Wonderful Wizard of Song is coming to Soka Performing Arts Center on Sunday, July 1, 2018, at 3:00 p.m. and Soka University is offering two free tickets to any active firefighter who shows their valid Fire Department ID as a thank you for their efforts in controlling the Aliso Fire. “They are our ‘Wonderful Wizards’ of firefighting,” noted Soka Performing Arts Center’s General Manager David Palmer, “and we wanted to invite them to a special afternoon of music to show our deep appreciation for the long hours they devoted to the safety of Soka University and our neighbors.”
The Wonderful Wizard of Song is a rousing musical revue of the works and life of The Wizard of Oz composer Harold Arlen. Arlen’s son, Sam Arlen, hosts the show along with co-creator, acclaimed singer/pianist George Bugatti, as they guide the audience through Arlen’s nostalgic and evocative melodies with the help of vocalist Grande Dame Karon Blackwell. The show travels from the Cotton Club with Arlen’s breakout hits “Get Happy,” “I’ve Got the World on a String,” and “Stormy Weather,” to the silver screen melodies “Let’s Fall In Love,” “That Old Black Magic,” and “The Man that Got Away,” to the Broadway stage compositions “Come Rain or Come Shine” and “Paper Moon,” to the Land of Oz with “Over the Rainbow,” “If I Only Had a Brain,” and “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.”
Firefighters may get two free tickets by showing their ID at the Soka Performing Arts Center box office. Regular general admission tickets are $15 for adults; and $10 for youth aged 18 and below.
Tickets are on sale now and are purchased online at PerformingArts.Soka.edu or by calling 949-480-4ART (4278).
Soka Performing Arts Center is located at 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo on the campus of Soka University of America. The 1,000-seat concert hall features world-class acoustics designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, acoustic designer of noted performance venues like Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Designed to truly reflect the university’s commitment to sustainability, the concert hall and adjacent Maathai Hall (featuring a black box theatre and dance studio) have been built to Gold LEED standards and feature vegetated green roofs.
Photovoltaic cells on the Soka Performing Arts Center roof generate approximately 15% of the facility’s electrical needs. Soka University of America is a private, non-profit, four-year liberal arts college and graduate program. The campus is rated in the Top 50 National Liberal Arts Colleges in US News and World Report’s “Best Colleges 2018.” The university is open to top students of all nationalities and beliefs and was founded upon the Buddhist principles of peace, human rights, and the sanctity of life.
For more information: www.soka.edu.
Wendy Harder
Director, Community Relations
Soka University
