Samford University music/pre-medicine major Amanda Tapley will present "Music for a Cure," a benefit concert for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Saturday, April 19, at 7 p.m. in Brock Recital Hall at Samford.
Tapley will be joined by several family members in the concert, which will include a variety of classical piano and vocal music by composers Tschaikowsky, Rachmaninoff, Pachelbel, Chopin, Bach and Schubert.
Tapley will play Tschaikowsky's Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor with an uncle, Dr. Anthony Turkiewicz. Tapley, who is 2008 Miss Samford, won the talent award at the school pageant in November for her performance of the piece. She will also sing several selections by Italian composers.
Other family members on the program include Tapley's brother, Jeffrey Tapley, and her grandfather, retired Samford piano professor Dr. Witold W. Turkiewicz. The duo will play Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2. Her grandmother, Marie Turkiewicz, and another uncle, Dr. Tommy Turkiewicz, will sing.
Anthony Turkiewicz will also play Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze and Pachelbel's Canon in D with Samford student violinist Rachel Emery.
"Music for a Cure" is Tapley's platform in the Miss Alabama pageant, to be held in June. In 2006, she and her brother, Jeffrey, raised $4,000 for St. Jude's hospital through the release of a CD of piano music. The benefit concert is a continuation of her fundraising efforts for the hospital, as well as an attempt to raise awareness of pediatric medical research.
A Samford sophomore, Tapley is the daughter of Patricia and Jeff Tapley of Birmingham.
The concert is free and open to the public. Donations for St. Jude's will be accepted. For information, go to www.musicforacure.cfsites.org.