Grammy Award Winning Opera Singer To Help Houston Raise Money For Community Theater

HOUSTON, MISS. (WCBI) – A Chickasaw County town is raising money to turn an old movie theater into a community performing arts center.

Nathan Carlisle is at home on stage, whether it’s at the Met in New York, or at a recital in California.

He is also at home in Northeast Mississippi, where his grandparents lived. So when the Metropolitan Opera was shut down because of Covid 19, Nathan came to Houston.

“The only way I can survive New York City is to , each year come back and recharge, not only with this wonderful town and the people, but everyone has just been marvelous,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle found out the town was trying to raise money for a community theater, so he offered to help. The grammy award winning opera singer is organizing a benefit concert for the theater, on September 19th.

“”I’m titling the program, “From the Military to the Met,” I sing in the Metropolitan Opera and I came very unorthodox route getting there, people don’t normally go to the military and then to the Met, it’s an interesting story, we will do patriotic music, gospel and even country music , musical theater and end the program with a few classical numbers,” Carlisle said.

The outdoor concert will be held in front of the old Bijou Dream Theater, the future home of the community theater. The goal is to raise enough money to start demo work on the inside.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, we have a good plan in place, talked with architects, looked at other old theaters and how they approached those, we will really have something special,” said Sean Johnson, president of the Chickasaw Development Foundation.

And Carlisle says he is glad to help the community that has meant so much to his family over the years.

“My grandparents, James and Nancy were pillars of the community here, wonderful people and so for me to come back, not only spend time in this community but to be able to perform in this way and to help, it’s a wonderful feeling to be able to do that,” he said.

Carlisle will have pianists and other musicians at the benefit concert. For more information on “From the Military to the Met” go to the Facebook page of the Chickasaw Development Foundation.

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