Two stars, no waiting. When longtime friends and country music artists combine their impressive set lists and their love of live performance, everybody in the audience wins. Yavapai College Performing Arts Center will host hitmakers Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss for a rousing and memorable “Together at Last” performance Thursday, March 2 at 7 p.m.

Two country music legends, with three Grammy awards between them, bring their prodigious talents, solo hits and on-stage chemistry to the stage. Friends since their early days in Nashville, Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss have each carved out careers in popular music with country chart hits spanning two decades.

Mattea has had more than 30 singles hit Billboard Magazine’s Hot Country Songs Charts, including “Goin’ Gone,” “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” and “Come From the Heart.” She won Grammy Awards for her 1990 single “Where’ve You Been?” and her 1993 Christmas Album Good News.

Bogguss found stardom with her platinum-selling album “Aces,” which featured four hit singles: the title track, “Someday Soon,” “Outbound Plane” and “Letting Go.” She won the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Female Singer award in 1989 and the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award in 1992.

Their busy solo careers allowed Mattea and Bogguss few opportunities to collaborate musically, although they did perform a Grammy-nominated cover of “Teach Your Children” in 1994. Their fans have clamored for a joint tour like this for years. And now, sporting new material developed for the tour, armed with two careers worth of stories and more hits than they can fit, Mattea and Bogguss are together at last.

Tickets for Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss start at $32. Yavapai College Performing Arts Center is located at 1100 E. Sheldon St., Prescott.

The YCPAC Ticket Office is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Thursdays and Fridays, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For reservations or more information, call 928-776-2000 or visit www.ycpac.com.

Prescott Chorale

showcases two

faces of Bach

With over a thousand compositions to his credit Johann Sebastian Bach is almost universally recognized as one of the most prolific composers of liturgical music. However, during his tenure as Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, he became heavily involved with the city’s Collegium Musicum, a secular performance ensemble that performed regularly at a coffee house knows as a social center for gentlemen in Leipzig.<br />

It was during this period that he wrote one of his most unique cantatas — a somewhat lighthearted work focused on coffee drinking. On Saturday, March 4, the Prescott Chorale will present its spring concert featuring a contrast between the serious and whimsical sides of Bach.

The Chorale will open the program with Cantata No. 191-Gloria in Excelsis Deo, a rather festive work that Bach composed for the celebration of Christmas, probably in 1742. This cantata is unique in that it is the only one of his church cantatas that is set to a Latin text rather than the usual German. Soprano Jordan Paige Kliphon and tenor Chad Millar are joined by the chorus and orchestra for a joyous performance.

As a complete change of character the program includes a presentation of Komm, susser Tod, which translated means “Come Sweet Death.” The author of the text is unknown but Bach skillfully applies melody and harmony to express a desire for death and transition to heaven.

A second major change in character comes with the Kaffe Cantata, a decidedly secular work based on the dialog between a father and his daughter on the subject of coffee drinking. The father strongly believes that the daughter drinks too much but opposed by the daughter who holds equally strong opinions. Be prepared for a musical surprise.

Be sure to note that the venue has changed to the beautiful St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 2000 Shepherd’s Lane, Prescott, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4. Maestro Dennis Houser invites everyone to come early at 2 p.m. to hear a pre-concert lecture intended to enhance the enjoyment of the music.

Tickets are $25 for adults, and $5 for students; children younger than 12 get in free. To buy tickets online, visit www.prescottchorale.com and follow the prompts to “Buy Tickets.” You will be redirected to the ticket office of the Yavapai Center for the Performing Arts website to complete your purchase. Tickets are also available at the door.