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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE_** *

Contact: Suzanne 
Grady                                                                          
December 1, 2010

(845) 257-3245

*/Note to editors/*/: Photos related to this release may be downloaded 
from the SUNY New Paltz web site at 
//_http://www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/MusicTheatre.html_///

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*New Paltz **Music Theatre Singing Ensemble performs Tony Award-winning 
musicals*


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*NEW PALTZ *– The Music Theatre Singing Ensemble, conducted by Stephen 
Kitsakos, will present their Winter 2010 concert on Friday, December 10 
at 7:00 p.m. in McKenna Theatre on the campus of the State University of 
New York at New Paltz . Sponsored by the 
college’s Department of Theatre Arts  
the concert is free and open to all.

With 75-voices strong, the sizable ensemble shines with powerful vocal 
performances from contemporary blockbuster musicals that were winners of 
the Tony Award for Best Musical. The exciting program features music 
from such shows as /Les Miserables/, /The Phantom of the Opera/, /Rent/, 
/A Chorus Line/, /Titanic,/ /Hairspray/, /Sweeney Todd/, /Billy Elliot 
/and many more.

The Music Theatre Singing Ensemble is comprised of New Paltz community 
members, faculty, staff and students who meet weekly to learn and sing 
through the repertoire of songs from the musical theatre including such 
composers and lyricists as Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, George & 
Ira Gershwin, Kander & Ebb, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber, 
Maury Yeston and many others. The selections come directly from the 
original Broadway conductor scores or arrangements from four to 
eight-part harmony created by faculty and/or theatre students.

Stephen Kitsakos has been involved in a variety of roles in the 
professional and academic theatre for the past 30 years. A permanent 
member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop and a graduate of New York 
University, he received training as a theatre composer and lyricist. A 
writer member of ASCAP, he has received commissions from the BMI 
Foundation, Catskill Watershed Corp, Episcopal Diocese of NY, Fourth 
Wall  Musical Theatre and was the recently commissioned librettist for 
the UConn/2007 Sackler Prize in Opera winner, Sheila Silver. He has 
worked as a music director, conductor and vocal coach for a string of 
musicals from /Annie Get Your Gun/ to /Zorba/. At the State University 
of New York at New Paltz he conducts the large show choir, “Music 
Theatre Singing Ensemble”. He also works closely with theatre arts 
alumni particularly with The Clockwork Theatre Company–resident at 
Theatre Row in NYC–

where he is serving his fifth year as their Board President.

For additional information about arts events at the State University of 
New York at New Paltz visit www.newpaltz.edu/fpa 
 or call (845) 257-3860.

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/Located in the heart of a dynamic college town, ninety minutes from 
metropolitan New York City, the //State University of New York at New 
Paltz/ / is a highly selective college of 
about 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students. /

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/One of the most well-regarded public colleges in the nation, New Paltz 
delivers an extraordinary number of majors in //Business/ 
/, //Liberal Arts/ 
/, //Sciences/ 
/, //Engineering/ 
/, //Fine and Performing Arts/ 
/ and //Education/ 
/. /

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/New Paltz embraces its culture as a community where talented and 
independent minded people from around the world create close personal 
links with real scholars and artists who love to teach. ///

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