Carpenter draws crowd to center

By Carrie Porsche Jones, On-Line Forty-Niner

Tuesday, September 15, 1998

Richard Carpenter carried the near capacity audience to the top of the world with a night of music and memories that opened the season of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Cal State Long Beach on Saturday.

Carpenter led the CSULB Symphony Orchestra in a piano medley of Carpenter hits including "Rainy Days and Mondays," "Long Ago and Far Away" and "We've only Just Begun" before turning over the baton to conductor Nick Perito.

Carpenter, a four-time Grammy winner, instrumental arranger and conductor, performed on piano the songs that made him and his sister, Karen popular. The Carpenters, one of the most popular groups in recording history, have sold over 100 million records worldwide.

The duo produced an average of one album a year for 13 years, beginning with "Offering" in 1969. They hosted a television

show and toured internationally. Karen died in February 1983 from heart failure that resulted from a lifelong battle with anorexia nervosa.

Carpenter did not limit musical selections to the top-40 hits of the duo. He introduced the classic ragtime composition "Dizzy Fingers," with a warning that not only his fingers but the whole place would be dizzy. Video screens captured his fingers flying across the keyboard and the bows sawing away at the violin strings.

Carpenter paid tribute to his father with images of him flashing across video screens. His father encouraged him to learn the piano and to push himself to become a better musician.

He dedicated "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" to his father with the CSULB University Choir, led by Lee Vail, providing the background.

Carpenter used the video screen to play along with old footage of Karen performing on their television show. The audience sang along with the closing of "Top of the World."

Following the concert, a reception was held in the lobby of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center for benefactors.