Some bucket lists will become shorter when Sundilla presents Beth Nielsen Chapman in concert on Thursday, July 10. Showtime at the AUUF (450 E. Thach Avenue in Auburn) is 7:30. A limited number of $25 Advance tickets are available and can be found at Spicer’s Music, Ross House Coffee, and online at sundillamusic.com. Admission at the door will be $30, and $15 for students. Free coffee, tea, water and food will be available, and the audience is invited to bring their own favorite food or beverage.
If you’re not familiar with Beth Nielsen Chapman and wonder why seeing her in concert is a bucket list item for so many people, consider her body of work. Fifteen albums. Seven #1 hits. Two Grammy nominations. Nashville’s Songwriter of the Year in 1999. Induction into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2016. And the list of people who have recorded her songs includes Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, Faith Hill, the Indigo Girls, and Keb Mo’, to name just a few.
She was born in Texas, the middle of five children in an Air Force family, and so she moved quite often during childhood. At the start of ninth grade her family relocated from Muchich, Germany to Montgomery, Alabama, so she calls Alabama home. Thanks to those Alabama roots she received a special award by The Alabama Music Hall Of Fame and was the recipient of The Distinguished Artist Award from the Alabama State Council on the Arts in 2009, to go along with the awards and honors mentioned before.
Having lost her first husband to cancer in 1994 and her second husband to cancer in December of 2022, Chapman also survived breast cancer herself in 2000 and a brain tumor in 2009 so in her concerts, workshops and Keynotes, she draws from direct experience in her inspiring presentations about the fascinating dance between cognition, healing and the creative flow. Her songs take you on a journey through the depth, humor and the wonder of life.