April 15, 2009
• Featuring performers with Alabama ties
• Benefiting people with low vision
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Country singer Sara Evans, rocker Grace Potter and alt-rock songwriter/guitarist Eliot Morris are the headliners May 17 for a musical celebration benefiting people in Alabama with low vision.
The event, "Songs for Sight," will feature gospel, classical, Broadway show tunes and rock music. Van Cliburn award-winning pianist Drew Mays, Miss Alabama Amanda Tapley, singer/actress Belinda George-Peoples and the Mt. Canaan Full Gospel Church Choir also will perform as part of the evening's stellar entertainment, along with the Red Mountain Theatre Company Performing Ensemble and surprise appearances from Broadway performers and others.
The aim of "Songs for Sight" is to raise awareness and funds for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation and to support research efforts for the Optic Nerve Imaging Center. The unique, one-time musical event is designed to entertain, educate and inspire others, while providing financial support for low vision rehabilitation and eye research.
"Songs for Sight" will take place at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at the Alys Stephens Center, 1200 10th Ave. S. Tickets are $250 and $150. Student tickets are $50. Call the Alys Stephens Center Box Office at 205-975-2787. Keith Cromwell, executive director of Red Mountain Theatre Company, directs the show. Visit www.SongsforSight.org for details.
The "Songs for Sight" event is a partnership among the UAB Department of Ophthalmology, the Eye Sight Foundation of Alabama and a group of community volunteers dedicated to supporting their mission. It was imagined and organized by Alie B. Gorrie, 16, of Mountain Brook, who was diagnosed as an infant with optic nerve hypoplasia, a genetic form of vision impairment caused by underdeveloped optic nerves. The impairment can cause many types of vision problems, such as lack of peripheral vision and blindness. Gorrie, legally blind in one eye and with 20/80 vision in the other, wanted to help support low-vision services and research, so as to help other patients suffering from some of the same issues.
"I have so much hope thanks to the UAB Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation, and also because of the research that can be done at UAB," Gorrie said. "I want to help the very talented researchers at UAB who are in eye research. The Optic Nerve Imaging Center is a very exciting project and may hold the key to significant advances in several areas of optic nerve research.
"I certainly have hope that one day the researchers will be able to address the very complicated issues surrounding optic nerve damage and optic nerve abnormalities," she said.
Gorrie and her Songs for Sight Junior Board volunteers, a group of 25 area high school students, toured the UAB Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation and met with Director Dawn DeCarlo, O.D., M.S., to discuss low vision. Each student board member was asked to raise $250 by telling potential donors such as family, friends and neighbors about the event, educating people about low vision and asking for their support. So far the money raised has gone beyond the expectation of $250 for each member and could be as much as $10,000, Gorrie said.
Sara Evans is one of country music's most popular female vocalists. She has been named an Academy of Country Music's Female Vocalist of the Year and was awarded the Country Music Association's Video of the Year for "Born to Fly," and she has received award nominations too numerous to mention. Evans has earned many No. 1 hits, two of which she co-wrote, including "Born to Fly," "No Place That Far," "Suds in the Bucket" and "A Real Fine Place to Start," which spent two weeks at the top of the country charts.
Grace Potter, a 24-year-old singer, songwriter and musician, is a phenomenon of creativity, influenced by modern jazz, soul and blues but with roots in pure rock 'n' roll. Her powerful, controlled voice has made her one of the strongest female vocalists in music today.
Eliot Morris, born and raised in Mobile, is a singer/songwriter and guitarist of immense talent. His new recording, "What's Mine is Yours," showcases both his craftsmanship and poetry.
Drew Mays, a Birmingham physician, won the prestigious 2007 Van Cliburn Foundation's International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, the oldest competition for amateur pianists in the country. Board-certified in ophthalmology, he is in private practice sub-specializing in glaucoma and teaches on faculty in the UAB Department of Ophthalmology and works at the Veterans' Hospital.
About UAB
The UAB Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation is a joint program of the UAB School of Optometry and Department of Ophthalmology.