Dueling pianos perform at Concerts in the Park

It was a nice summer evening with a cool breeze for a Concerts in the Park event held at Lamar Park in Wyoming, Michigan. The July 16 concert was perfromed by The Yellow Brick Road Dueling Pianos. The concert was from 7 to 9 p.m.

"We've been performing together now for abou 12 years," Kevin Viilo from Grand Rapids and head piano player says.

Trilogy acts as the Dueling Pianos' backing band, and they have been together since 1978.

"We perform about 250 concerts a year and we perform from Grand Rapids to Detroit to Mackinaw Island," says Viilo.

Concert performers are booked through the Community Enrichment Commission of Wyoming, Michigan.

"We have 11 concerts over a 10 week period here in the park," says Brandon Simmons, Chairman of the Community Enrichment Commission. "July 2 was our biggest concert with two groups performing starting at 5:30 p.m. and then we had fireworks afterwards."

Vicki Briggs, of the Commission, books performers for the concert series. The Commission expects about 400 people to be at the concerts.

"I get here about two hours before the concert to set up the sound equipment," Eric Richter, sound operator from Wyoming says. "I like to have the sound system set up in time for the concert." Richter has worked all of the concerts during the Summer conert series for the past three years.

The Dueling Pianos took requests during their set. They played old favorites like "Coming to America" and "Sweet Caroline," which are well known songs performed by Neil Diamond. The Dueling Pianos also performed a rendetion of "Piano Man," originally performed by Billy Joel.