By Kirsten Kirtley, Senior Reporter
The Northwest Oklahoma Concert Series will host The Diamonds in the Herod Hall Auditorium on March 21 at 7 p.m.
For general admission, the cost will be $20.
If students bring their ID, they will be able to get in for $5.
“You don’t go anywhere and watch a professional concert for $5,” said Kimberly Weast, executive producer of the concert series.
Weast said the ticket prices are affordable because of annual ticket sales, contributions from the community, grant money from the Oklahoma Arts Council and a large grant bi-annually from the Share Morton Trust.
The Diamonds are a musical group that performs worldwide and have been awarded three gold records for the songs “Silhouettes,” “The Stroll” and “Little Darlin.’”
They have had 33 appearances on American Bandstand and are in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and Doo-Wop Hall of Fame.
Gary Owens, Dan Vissers, Julian McCleary and Jeff Dolan are the four vocalists of the group, but there is a live band that travels and performs with them as well.
Weast said she tries to rotate styles and genres of music biannually or around every three years.
She said she thought it was time to bring in a swing-type group that would perform tight four-part harmonies.
“We try to bring in a huge variety of styles and types of music,” Weast said.
The Northwest Oklahoma Concert Series books the performers that it will host a year in advance.
As the executive producer of the concert series, Weast has already booked all the groups for 2023 and 2024 and given them their first deposits.
“We bring four professional concerts in with the Northwest Oklahoma Concert Series every year,” Weast said.
The concert series is not a part of Northwestern.
However, Northwestern donates time and resources with the usage of the building, the lights, and the students and faculty that set up for the concerts.
The concert series is a non-profit organization.
“We try to bring in professional productions that are going to not only entertain the community, but also encourage, inform and educate our university students,” Weast said. “We want to offer professional opportunities and acts that students can see at a reasonable price.”
The Diamonds will be highlighting Broadway musicals in their performance by singing songs from several musicals such as “Grease” and “Jersey Boys.”
The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Anyone in the community is welcome to attend.