ety Scholarship Fund.
An earlier start and no admission charge mark the July 13 program featuring artists from North Country Public Radio's UpNorth Music. This concert, a partnership between TIPAF and NCPR, begins at 3 p.m.
The concert showcases three artists from NCPR's UpNorth Music Project: Scott Shipley, Wreckloose and Cullen's Cross. UpNorth Music is a project NCPR created to help north country musicians reach wider audience exposure. This concert is one of four such events taking place over the course of the summer. In conjunction with the concert, there will be a craft fair by local artisans on the third floor of the opera house.
The Buskers are back on July 20. The group is well known to Northern New York audiences with its blend of folk, jazz, energy and humor.
On July 27, The River Rat Rhythm Project Steel Drum Band, a community group from Watertown, Fort Drum and the Thousand Islands under the direction of music educator Dan Hammond, will give its opera house audience a Caribbean experience. Alexandria Bay native Maria Argyros, an alumna of the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam, will perform the songs of George Gershwin and Cole Porter, as well as Italian favorites and selections from operetta and musical theater, on Aug. 3. Ms. Argyros resides in New York City, where she performs and teaches voice. She is chairwman of the voice department of the Turtle Bay Music School in Manhattan and is an adjunct associate professor of voice at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College. She is also on the teaching staff of the McClosky Institute of Voice in Boston.
On Aug. 10, the band 2 or More will play rhythm and blues and Christian rock.
String students of all levels from the Trillium Music Center will perform a classical violin repertoire, as well as folk tunes, fiddle tunes and reels, on Aug. 17.
On Aug. 24, Diamond Someday, a Syracuse-based group, returns with its spirited approach to traditional, original, gospel, and bluegrass music.
Original blues from singer/songwriter Rick Bates, with keyboardist Chip Lamson, will take the stage on Aug. 31. Hymns & Hers and AGES, the Antique Gospel Evangelical Singers, will appear on Sept. 7. Hymns & Hers sing popular, contemporary Christian music; their director is Vicky Connor. Members hail from churches in Chaumont, LaFargeville, Alexandria Bay and Chaumont. AGES, led by John Pecor of Clayton, will perform a repertoire of Christian songs in four part harmony. On Sept. 14, Northern Blend Chorus, Watertown's all-female barbershop group, will serve up a variety of musical styles.
