Billy Joel concert to mark Carrier Dome’s 25th anniversary

Billy Joel concert to mark Carrier Dome’s 25th anniversaryNovember 28, 2005Kevin Morrowkdmorrow@syr.edu

Pop music icon Billy Joel is slated to perform at the Carrier Dome on March 25, 2006 at 8 p.m. The concert is part of the popular singer’s first solo major concert tour in nearly seven years and is one of the milestone events celebrating the Carrier Dome’s 25th anniversary.

Tickets will go on sale Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. for only $39.50 each, the same price tickets cost in 1998 when Billy Joel last played the Dome solo. Joel has performed at the Carrier Dome numerous times, including Feb. 2 and 3,1990; Nov. 12 and 13,1993; Dec. 11, 1998; and a shared bill with Elton John on May 5, 2001.

Joel’s March 25 concert at the Carrier Dome is part of his recently announced “My Lives” tour, beginning with concerts in Florida in January 2006. In his last tour, in 1998-99, over the course of 64 shows he played to 1.1 million fans while grossing $47 million, according to Billboard Boxscore.

“Billy Joel shares a special relationship with Syracuse University because of his commitment to music education and his recent, generous gift that allowed our Setnor School of Music to establish the Billy Joel Fellowships in Composition,” says Carole Brzozowski, dean of SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. “I am proud to welcome him back to the Carrier Dome. This concert means a great deal to our campus and the Syracuse community.”

In September, SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts received a $320,000 gift from Joel as part of his long-term commitment to music education and his recently launched music education initiative, which provides gifts of seed money, musical scholarships and endowments to East Coast colleges.

“AEG has enjoyed a long relationship with Billy Joel,” says Debra Rathwell, senior vice president of AEG Live, which has arranged the Dome concert. “It is an honor and pleasure to do anything and everything we can to bring Billy Joel back to his fans at the Dome.”

Tickets are available for purchase via Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com) and at the Carrier Dome Box Office, 900 Irving Ave., (phone: 315-443-2121 or toll-free at 1-888-366-3849).

AEG LIVE, the live-entertainment division of Los Angeles-based AEG, is a collection of companies dedicated to all aspects of live contemporary music performance, touring for a variety of programming and multi-media production. Recently promoted concert tours have included artists such as Prince, Usher, Kenny Chesney, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, Dixie Chicks and American Idols Live.