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FOR RELEASE

UK Alumnus Gregory Turay Performs at Kennedy Center Honors

Performance Pays Homage to Steven Spielberg

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 21, 2006) − University of Kentucky alumnus and Metropolitan Opera star Gregory Turay will sing as part of the prestigious 29th Annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala to be televised nationally during the holiday season. Turay's performance airs as part of the two-hour program scheduled for 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 26, on CBS Television. Bluegrass audiences will be able to watch the show on local CBS affiliate WKYT-TV Channel 27 (Insight Cable channel 9).

The Kennedy Center Honors Gala includes a number of performances and verbal tributes from renowned artist friends and peers of the honorees. This year's gala, pre-taped Dec. 3, features a performance by Turay of Leonard Bernstein's song "Make Our Garden Grow" with soprano Harolyn Blackwell and the United States Army Chorus, under the direction of John Williams. Turay's performance pays homage to honoree Steven Spielberg, a producer and Academy Award-winning director.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for Gregory, and I am so pleased that this program will be aired during the holidays so that we may enjoy it," said Everett McCorvey, director of UK Opera Theatre and Turay's voice teacher. "The Kennedy Center Honors program is a spectacular program honoring performing artists of all genres and we are delighted that Gregory is a part of this exciting show. It is also an exciting opportunity for an artist to perform on the show because it is an acknowledgement of the performer’s achievement as well."

Turay, winner of the 2000 Richard Tucker award, recently appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's opening night gala, "Les Troyens" and "A View from the Bridge," where he portrayed Rodolpho, a role he originated at the opera's 1999 world premiere at Chicago's Lyric Opera. A tenor, he has performed on numerous opera and concert stages around the globe, including performances with the San Francisco Opera, Cleveland Orchestra, Deutsche Opera, Wolf Trap Opera Festival, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival, Salzburg Festival and Washington Concert Opera.

The UK alumnus has won numerous awards starting with the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions at the age of 21. Other awards include a Young Concert Artists International Auditions award, George London Foundation award, ARIA award, first prize in both the D’Angelo Young Artists and Catherine E. Pope Competitions, and the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize. He is also a Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program alumnus.

Spielberg is the most successful director of this age and one of the most acclaimed of any era. A co-founder of Hollywood studio Dream Works, his work includes such critical and popular motion picture hits as "Jaws," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "The Color Purple," "Schindler's List " and "Saving Private Ryan."

Other 2006 Kennedy Center honorees being recognized for lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts include Andrew Lloyd Webber, musical theater composer and producer; Zubin Mehta, conductor; Dolly Parton, country singer and songwriter; and Smokey Robinson, singer, songwriter and producer.

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In striving to become a Top 20 public research institution, the University of Kentucky is a catalyst for a new Commonwealth – a Kentucky that is healthier, better educated, and positioned to compete in a global and changing economy. For more information about UK’s efforts to become a Top 20 university, please go to .

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