Penn Singers honor founder on 25th anniv.

Penn Singers will pay tribute to its founder and director Bruce Montgomery this weekend as they perform his light opera Sprindrift. "Monte started Penn Singers 25 years ago as a light opera company and this being the 25th anniversary, we want to honor him by doing a show that he wrote all the music and lyrics for," said student director Eric Schinfeld, a College freshman. Montgomery wrote Sprindrift during the summer of 1962 when he was living in Canada. He encountered a copy of Irish playwright John Millington Synge's Riders to the Sea and fell in love with the work. It inspired him to write Spindrift, which is based loosely on Synge's play. Sprindrift has only been performed twice before, once in 1963 by Penn Players and once in 1981 by the Penn Singers. Nursing sophomore Bonnie Renner explained that the members of Penn Singers decided to do this show last year. "We wouldn't have done Sprindrift just to honor Monte if we didn't think his work was an amazing show," she said. Penn Singers President and College senior Alexis Bennett stressed the important role that Montgomery has played for the group. "What he means to Penn Singers is 25 years of dedication -- usually every spring we do a Gilbert and Sullivan light opera, but we chose to do his show," she said. Rehearsal conductor and College junior Daniel Gorelick-Feldman, who is playing the lead in the show, explained that "it is great to do an original show because the cast can perform new music that the audience has never heard before. "It's a great thrill to work with the writer of the music as the conductor and director," he added. College freshman Deborah Sager agreed, adding that Montgomery is "amazing and talented in all artistic areas." Montgomery said he was delighted that Penn Singers chose to perform his opera. "I couldn't possibly be more thrilled that they chose to celebrate their 25th anniversary with my work," he said. Schinfeld added that the show is obviously important to Montgomery. "The show is a part of him," he said. "And to have it done is great for him and the actors and singers in it because we got to experience the genius that this great man has to offer." Alumni from the past two years' casts will be attending the show, which will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Zellerbach Theatre, according to Bennett.