FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information or taped actuality, contact Norma Hammeke (620) 793-6759. CORKY SIEGEL OPENS COMMUNITY CONCERT SEASON The Golden Belt Community Concert Association will present the first concert of the 2008-2009 season, Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at the Great Bend Municipal Auditorium, Lakin and Stone.  The house will open at 6:30 p.m., with the concert open to members of the association.  Full-time students will be admitted to the concert for a $5 donation at the door.

Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues is the first of six concerts the season.  Siegel, a master of harmonica and piano, is bringing with him to our stage The West End String Quartet consisting of three violinists and a cellist; along with percussionist, Frank Donaldson.

Their concerts beckon audiences internationally, sweeping both young and old onto the blissful edge between Beethoven and B. B. King. For nearly four decades, institutions like Rolling Stone, Billboard, Jazziz, and The New York Times, have all recognized Corky Siegel as a blues genius and harmonica virtuoso.  Now with his creative genius, Siegel is bringing us a new innovative sound that blends sparkling classical music with melodic and emotional blues in an intimate setting.  He is a composer, pianist, and singer-songwriter who has 18 recordings and more than 35 reissues.  He has written and performed works for Arthur Fiedler and the San Francisco Symphony, the Grant Park Symphony, and the National Symphony Orchestra for the Kennedy Center performance.  His music has been choreographed by five different international ballet companies and has been used for many national television specials and motion pictures for numerous Olympic figure skating competitions. Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues moves easily between the complex and the more direct backbeat rhythms blending classical and blues styles in a chamber music setting.  Because of Siegelʼs fabulous creations on piano and harmonica and his groupʼs eloquent performance on violin, cello, and bongo, the Chamber Blues Band is remarkable, hot, joyous, and outrageously fun, a beautiful marriage of classical music and the blues. The next concert will be Pavlo, on Thursday, November 20, 2008.