Rick Brantley

A banner 2023-24 season is in the works for the Oconee Performing Arts Society, also known as OPAS. From the Plaza Arts Center in Eatonton to Festival Hall in downtown Greensboro, a lineup of musical performances will feature some top-level talent as evidence by the credentials they will bring to Lake Country.

It all begins on Saturday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m. at Festival Hall with “Country Hits: Songs from Nashville.”

And what more do you associate with country music than … a symphony. Backing up the list of artists from Nashville, Tennessee, at Festival Hall is the Augusta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dirk Meyer.

“They are going to play some of country music’s most popular songs,” said Doug LaBrecque,

OPAS Artistic/Executive Director, in an interview with The Lake Oconee Breeze. “With orchestral arrangements by a Grammy-award winner (Jeff Tyzik). It features six of Nashville’s finest musicians with a 32-piece orchestra, so there will be about 40 on stage. People should expect hits by famous country singers like Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Reba (McEntire), Miranda Lambert, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, all very popular material with world-class orchestral arrangements.”

The six artists have done this particular show with numerous orchestras nationwide. Headlining is Macon’s Rick Brantley along with Emily West from Nashville.

“We’re excited to play some country music for our OPAS crowd,” said LaBrecque, who is in his fourth season as executive director. The show will consist of two 45-minute sets with a 15-minute intermission.

OPAS also holds shows at Sandy Creek Barn at Reynolds Lake Oconee and has a private 200-acre farm called The Farm at Oconee. This is the site of the annual Memorial Day symphony concert.

LaBrecque’s tenure with OPAS began right after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, July 2020 to be exact.

“Fortunately, we had great support from our donors,” he said about keeping OPAS going when shows couldn’t be held in front of a large audience. “They all stayed on board with us. We produced a couple of virtual programs. We did a fundraiser. We had a bunch of famous Broadway people. Then we did a socially distant Christmas program we filmed and sent to our donors. So we made it through.”

The Memorial Day show was held in 2021 outdoors still respecting social distancing. They opened a full season in September, 2021, though people still wore masks in a “full house.”

Now in its 16^th season, OPAS has plans again to co-produce the annual Rhythm and Brews Festival with Reynolds Lake Oconee headlined by Better than Ezra and Tonic Oct. 21 at Sandy Creek Barn.

The big Broadway concert, Broadway Sings for OPAS, is Nov. 17 at Festival Hall. LaBrecque said a Grammy and Emmy award winning conductor, Jason Howland, is headlining this show with a Broadway “superstar,” Capathia Jenkins.

The annual Christmas program, “Fa-La-La,” is Dec. 15 at the Plaza Arts Center with one of the longest-running performers to play the role of “Christine” in “Phantom of the Opera,” Lisa Vroman, as soloist with the lead violinist from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Mark Wood.

“They call him the Eddie Van Halen of the electric violin,” said LaBrecque. “He invented the Viper electric violin, so if you see that weird instrument that’s on the shoulder instead of pinched on your neck, he created that.

“Both the Broadway concert and ‘Fa-La-La,’ we bursting at the seams. Both shows usually sell out,” said LaBrecque. “Then we are doing another exciting thing Valentine’s Day. We are bringing in Alex Mendham from London. He was the band leader at the Savoy Hotel for years. He does vintage 1920s and ’30s arrangements with his big band. We are doing it as a ‘Great Gatsby’ romantic concert.”

March 22 will resume the popular OPAS lounge series with Jumaane Smith, first trumpeter for Michael Buble for 19 years, doing a tribute to Louie Armstrong. The season concludes with the Memorial Day concert that will include Queens of Soul, the music of Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Adele and Gladys Knight.

“We have some high-profile stuff we’re really proud of,” said LaBrecque. “We work hard to find variety and reach into the different genres of music like jazz, the blues, soul, Broadway, classical, country … make sure we have something for everyone.”

OPAS is not-for-profit and is a supporter of arts education with a large outreach, including two community arts education events serving more than 2,000 youth, LaBrecque said. Last year they did “The Ugly Duckling” in repertory theater for second and third graders and “I Have a Dream,” the Martin Luther King Jr. story at Rock Eagle with around 1,100 youth.

“We give out five scholarships for college. Many of the guest artists who come in do master classes in local schools,” said LaBrecque. “We have a program for music lessons online called OPAS Lesson Bank. I pair local kids with world-class faculty … trumpeters, singers. That’s part of our mission.”

OPAS has Circle Members and Friends. Members have priority access to tickets. The first three shows were released for sale to the public at the same time and can be found, along with membership information, on opas.org.