We’ve Only Just Begun : The Carpenters 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert
with the Eugene McCarthy Big Band & Singers
One of the most fascinating, but tragic stories, in popular music history was the life of Karen Carpenter. She achieved so much in her short life and her untimely death at just 32 years old was a sad loss to the music industry and her many, many fans. Karen was the voice of the multi-hit making group The Carpenters who, along with her brother Richard, scored an unprecedented 17 consecutive billboard US top ten hits.
The touring show “We’ve Only Just Begun’ has been on the road now for over 5 years and is simply the best celebration of The Carpenters music to be heard anywhere in the world. The show features every Carpenter hit embellished by a 10-piece big band and accompanying audio visuals of The Carpenters career highlights. It’s an evening of pure nostalgia where Toni Lee truly becomes Karen Carpenter.
Karen Carpenter had a unique voice, so unique in fact that it has proven almost impossible to duplicate its deep, smoky, emotional edge, creating that uniqueness that is so hard to perfect. Now, for the very first time in over 30
years, the voice that melted a thousand romantic hearts lives again through Toni Lee…
As a very young girl, Toni Lee was touched by Karen Carpenter’s breath-taking voice, and by the wonderful arrangements of The Carpenter’s beautiful love songs. She became, and has remained, one of their greatest fans. Now Toni transports her audiences with the natural and uncanny likeness of her voice to that of Karen Carpenter. In fact, Toni graced the stage on TV a few years back as Karen Carpenter on the hit television show Stars In Their Eyes, showcasing the vocal and visual likeness by singing Superstar, which was met with great acclaim. She looks on this as a tribute to Karen as well as an endorsement to herself!
Toni has had great success performing at many venues, large and small, in theatres across the UK and live on radio, performing hits such as Close To You, Superstar, For All We Know, Song For You and Top Of The World, just to mention a few.