New Year's Eve at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music promises to be a magical event.
The academy will be showcasing its castle — the $25 million school and professional performance center which opened this spring — and hosting a visiting princess.
Miss Pennsylvania, Kendria Perry, gown, tiara and all, will perform in the academy concert hall as part of a celebratory event that will include music, food and a midnight champagne toast on the rooftop in the academy atrium.
Miss Pa. practices at PAMPerry, a graduate student at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, will perform Frederic Chopin's "Ballade No. 1 in G minor."
Perry, 24, has been practicing the piece with academy founder and concert pianist Frances Veri in preparation for her performance in the nationally televised Miss America Pageant next month.
The Lancaster audience will hear the full ballade, of about nine to 10 minutes in length. Perry's performance at the pageant in Las Vegas will be only about 90 seconds.
"It's really tricky and really blasphemous, but I'm trying to keep the overall themes," said Perry.
She began studying classical piano at age 5 with some of Chopin's easiest works.
"I'm really trying to be true to who I am as an artist and as a person," she said of her selection of the piece for the pageant. "I grew up with Chopin and this is the music that I love and this is the music I want to present."
Perry has been practicing at the academy about once a week and studying with Veri about twice a month since being named Miss Pennsylvania in July. Her stops here are between her travels across the state promoting arts education.
The academy event also features a 100th anniversary celebration of Pennsylvania composer Stephen Foster's song "Take Me Out To The Ballgame."
Tickets to the Pennsylvania Academy of Music event are $100 each. For reservations or more information, call the academy at 399-9733.
Staff writer Bernard Harris can be reached at bharris@LNPnews.com or 481-6022. 
