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   January 18, 2002


Jo Anne Worley to accompany USMA Concert Band in performance tonight

By Staff Sgt. Christopher D. Jones
USMA Band

Celebrity Jo Anne Worley will perform with the USMA Concert Band at 8 p.m. tonight at Ike Hall.

The United States Military Academy Concert Band will perform with Jo Anne Worley at its third Bicentennial Concert tonight starting at 8 p.m. in the Eisenhower Hall Theater. She will perform several parodies, including "If I Had a Rich Man," and "Worley’s Grand Opera;" and will show a more serious side with Irving Berlin’s "God Bless America." The concert is free and open to the public.

Worley’s brand of humor landed her a four-year stint on the Emmy-winning television show "Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In." Her instinctive comedic timing and irrepressible laugh made her a favorite of audiences.

Since then, she has accumulated a list of stage credits, starring in the national companies of "Annie," "Carnival" and "The Pirates of Penzance;" and touring extensively with "Mame," "Hello, Dolly!," "Once Upon a Mattress," "Anything Goes," "Call Me Madam," "Nunsense," "Steel Magnolias" and "Gypsy," for which she won her fifth Drama-League Award. Recently, she starred in the West Coast premiere of "Moon Over Buffalo" at the Pasadena Playhouse; and performed as the witch in the New York and Los Angeles productions of "The Wizard of Oz."

Worley’s work covers everything from television, movies and stage productions to game shows, talk shows, commercials, cartoons and opera. Worley is the voice of the "Wardrobe" in Walt Disney’s Acadmey Award-winning movie "Beauty and the Beast." On television, she has been dishing up tasty treats on the Food Network, doing "Ready, Set, Cook!" and "Chef du jour;" and has guest-starred on "Mad About You," "Boy Meets World," "Caroline in the City," and "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch." Worley serves on the Board of Directors for Actors and Others for Animals, a charitable organization that promotes humane treatment for all animals.

The Academy Concert Band will open the performance with the Quincy Hilliard bicentennial work "Fanfare for Freedom." The ensemble will also premiere the band transcription of Nancy Bloomer Deussen’s "Reflections on the Hudson – An American Poem," conducted by retired Lt. Col. Virginia Allen (former deputy commander and transcriber of the work). Staff Sgt. Troy Messner, on horn, will interpret "Bride of the Waves," by Herbert L. Clarke. Also slated are the new bicentennial work "Valor," by James Barnes and "In a Cause Called ‘Glorious,’" by Stephen Melillo.

Concert-goers should allow extra travel time for the 100 percent vehicle and photo I.D. inspection at Stony Lonesome and Thayer Gates. Backpacks, bags, packages or large purses are not allowed in Eisenhower Hall theater. Due to changing security requirements at West Point, call the Academy Band’s hotline at 845-938-2617 or check www.usma.edu/special before leaving for the concert.