Two Coastal Carolina University faculty members will perform a free concert on Monday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Recital Hall in the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts. The event is free and open to the public.

“How Can I Keep from Singing?: American Songs Through the Years” will feature Ann Miles and Patti Edwards, both of Coastal’s Department of Performing Arts.

Included on the program will be early hymns such as the Quaker song “How can I keep from singing?” and Copland’s Shaker tune, “Simple Gifts.” Folk songs and spirituals will also be featured, among them “The Lass from the Low Countree” by John Jacob Niles and “Deep River.” Art songs and Broadway tunes will complete the concert, which will include an intermission.

Miles, a teaching associate at Coastal, earned a bachelor’s degree in church music, with a concentration in piano, from Appalachian State University. She was director of music and organist for the Darlington Presbyterian Church for the past 21 years, and she performed with the University of South Carolina Concert Choir and also played for Carolina Alive, USC’s show choir. Miles is the founder and artistic director of The Young Singers of Darlington, an auditioned group of fourth-to-eighth graders. In 1997, she was awarded the Elizabeth Bush Wiggins Award by Black Creek Arts Council of Darlington County for her contribution to the arts.

Edwards, a native of Georgetown, graduated from Mars Hill College with a bachelor’s degree in music education. She earned a master’s degree in vocal performance and a master’s in vocal chamber music from Saint Louis Conservatory. She is presently completing her doctoral studies at the University of North Texas. As an apprentice with Opera Omaha she sang numerous opera and musical theater performances throughout the Midwest. She has appeared with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony, the Brevard and Transylvania Symphonies.

For more information, contact the Wheelwright Box Office at 349-2502.