Lead Vocalist Annie Haslam diagnosed with serious spine injury

Philadelphia, PA – September 27

Annie Haslam, the lead singer of renowned progressive rock pioneers Renaissance, has been diagnosed with a serious vertebral compression fracture and is required to wear a Jewett Back Brace for two to three months. Her doctors have prescribed a minimum two to three week abstention from all travel. As a result, Renaissance will be forced to postpone the first nine dates of the first leg of their upcoming 2012-2013 Concert Tour.

The dates affected are:

Wednesday October 3 – Howard Theatre Washington DC
Thursday October 4 – Variety Playhouse Atlanta GA
Friday October 5 – The Plaza Live Orlando FL
Saturday October 6 – Capitol Theater Clearwater FL
Sunday October 7 – Amaturo Theater, Broward Center for Performing Arts Fort Lauderdale FL
Thursday October 11 – Le Gesu Centre Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Friday, October 12 – Tupelo Music Hall Londonderry, NH
Saturday October 13 – Showcase Live Foxborough, MA
Sunday October 14 – Center For The Performing Arts – The Egg Albany, NY

Ms. Haslam’s specialist has advised that she may begin performing live again starting with the group’s scheduled Friday, October 19th performance at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield,CT. The group plans on rescheduling the cancelled shows and adding more dates in 2013.

“I am very upset about having to postpone these shows,” commented Ms. Haslam. “We’ve all been so excited about bringing our classics to the fans as well as previewing material from the new studio album Grandine il Vento.”

Renaissance recently completed mixing their first new studio album in twelve years, which is expected to be released in early 2013. The 2012 dates the band will be performing are:

**Friday October 19 – Ridgefield Playhouse Ridgefield, CT
**Saturday October 20 – The Concert Hall at Ethical Culture New York, NY
**Thursday, October 25 – Victoria Theater – New Jersey Performing Arts Center Newark, NJ
**Friday October 26 – Keswick Theater Glenside, PA
*Saturday, October 27 – Scottish Rite Auditorium Collingswood, NJ
*Sunday, October 28 – Strand Center for the Arts Lakewood, NJ

* Program comprising Turn Of The Cards and Scheherazade and Other Stories
** Program comprising Novella in its’ entirety plus a treasure trove of favorites and debuting selections from the
new album Grandine il Vento

Thank you for your continuing support and positive energy. This has been a summer of intense focus on the composing and recording of our new album, Grandine il Vento. We’ve barely had time to come up for air, let alone enjoy the summer. That said, the journey has been magnificent and we’re now in the final stages of production; weaving in a couple of fantastic guest appearances before starting the process of mixing. To say we’re multi-tasking is an understatement!

With this said, completion of Grandine il Vento is taking longer than we had originally anticipated. In order to keep you and your ears in the loop, here is a sampler of several songs from the album. The songs in the sampler are:

Symphony of Light
Waterfall
Grandine il Vento
Cry to the World

For those of you that missed the deadline for our Kickstarter pre-purchase album campaign earlier this year, you can visit our web store and review some of the few packages that we are making available.

We are looking forward to seeing you on tour. If you haven’t purchased tickets please do so and be sure to let your friends know.

For those fans in the Philadelphia and New Jersey area, the Scottish Rite Auditorium is sold-out, but there are good seats still left for the Keswick Theater.

Once again, many thanks for your loyalty.

Love,

Annie, Michael, Rave, David, Jason, and Frank

Ray Shasho talked to the enchanting songstress of Renaissance

Renaissance is currently working on a brand new studio album entitled, Grandine II Vento. Annie Haslam charmingly performed a live excerpt from the album over the phone for me. She performed a piece from a track they wrote in tribute to Leonardo Da Vinci. The piece was powerful, poetic, beautiful, inspiring, and almost reduced me to tears (good thing Annie stopped singing when she did). The early preview convinced me that the new album will be awe-inspiring. Watch for a release date of sometime in January.

http://www.keysandchords.com/interview-annie-haslam.html