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CORVALLIS - It isn't often that an award recipient acknowledges the honor by bursting into song.

But that's exactly what Robert Bailey plans to do Thursday evening (May 23) after accepting the Distinguished Achievement Award from The Friends of Oregon State University Libraries.

Bailey, general director of the Portland Opera Company, will be honored for his achievements as an artist and administrator. Since taking over the company, Bailey has boosted its fiscal and artistic success.

Bailey has directed and appeared in numerous operas, recitals and musical theater productions. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music.

The award presentation will take place during a concert by the OSU-Corvallis Symphony Orchestra "Pops" Concert as part of a two-day celebration of OSU libraries. The university will break ground the following day on a $40 million library expansion project that will take two years to complete.

Appropriately, Bailey is scheduled to sing "Marian, the Librarian."

Also performing at the concert will be Roosevelt Credit, a 1990 OSU graduate currently appearing in "Showboat" on Broadway.

Tickets for the concert are $15 each ($8 for students) with proceeds going to the orchestra. They are available through the OSU Department of Music (call 541-737-4061) and local outlets. The concert will begin at 8 p.m. at OSU's LaSells Stewart Center.

Previous recipients of the OSU Friends of the Library Distinguished Achievement Award include Margarita Donnelly, founder of CALYX Publishing; and Sir Francis Crick, Nobel Prize laureate and co-discoverer of the molecular structure of DNA.