POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam alumnae Stephanie Blythe and Margaret Lattimore will join forces for a gala concert to benefit the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar on May 20 at 7:30 p.m.

The two celebrated mezzo-sopranos will team up with pianist and composer Alan Louis Smith for the opening gala concert entitled "America Sings" in the Proscenium Theater at SUNY Potsdam's brand-new Performing Arts Center.

The "America Sings!" concert will encourage audience participation and will feature Americana favorites from across the ages. Blythe and Lattimore will also perform a song cycle composed by Smith.

This concert is the opening public event for the 2014 Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar. Now in its third season, the seminar was founded by Blythe along with Executive Director Dr. Carleen Graham, a professor of opera at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music.

This year, the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar will return to Crane from May 19 to May 24. Six singers and three pianists (ages 23-35) from across the country were selected through a competitive, national audition to work with Blythe and Smith for the 2014 festival.

Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is considered to be one of the most highly respected and critically acclaimed artists of her generation. This summer, she will play the role of Gertrude Stein in the world premiere of the opera "Twenty-Seven" by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek, at Opera Theater St. Louis.

Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore has been praised for her "glorious instrument" and as an "undisputed star ... who has it all" by the Boston Globe.. In 2012, Lattimore returned to her alma mater as a guest artist for the inaugural Lougheed Festival of the Arts, and sang as a soloist alongside the Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Verdi's "Requiem" at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center.

Tickets for "America Sings!" are $25 for the general public and $20 for SUNY Potsdam faculty, staff and students. All proceeds will benefit the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar.

Contact the Community Performance Series Box Office at 267-2277 or www.cpspotsdam.org to purchase tickets. Tickets may also be purchased at the CPS Box Office in SUNY Potsdam's Performing Arts Center, or at Northern Music & Video in downtown Potsdam.

Info: www.fallisland.org.