World AIDS Day gala opera concert at St. John's Church, Pembroke this evening.

She will be joined by seven other artists who are giving their services for the concert, entitled A Classic Response to AIDS.

The event, sponsored by Sandys Rotary Club, hopes to raise around $30,000 to establish a special education fund, and represents the Club's major fund-raising drive for the year.

Miss Lytle, a native New Yorker who now lives in California, has recently been featured with her brother in a concert of Gershwin music which was shown on public television.

She studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she obtained her Masters degree. Miss Lytle received her earliest training from her father, who was a church organist and began performing in a singing group when she was only nine years old.

She has given concerts at Boston's Gardner Museum, and at the University of California and has been the soloist with the Rudolph Saltzer Singers, Stanford University Opera Theatre, and the Oakland and Long Beach symphony orchestras.

In tonight's concert, Miss Lytle will sing excerpts from La Traviata, The Marriage of Figaro and Rigoletto.

She will be joined by another American soprano, Dr. Beverly Hay, who is making a return visit to the Island for the concert. Last year, she conducted the first professional Master Classes for singers in Bermuda.

Bermudian soprano Ru-Zelda Nisbett-Severin studied with the late Geoffrey Tankard and received her degree in music from Atlantic Union College. She is presently studying voice with Gary Burgess and is a music specialist at Francis Patton and Paget Primary Schools, besides teaching privately.

Mezzo soprano Nancy Chisling has appeared as soloist in several major music productions since her arrival here with her husband, the Rev. David Chisling, in 1989. Educated in piano and voice at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, she has been a soloist in the Mozart Requiem and Bach's Magnificat under the baton of Marjorie Pettit, and recently gave a concert with Symphony Nova Scotia.

Austrian tenor, Franz Wohlmuth, who was recently the featured soloist in the Bermuda Philharmonic Society's performance of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, and well known baritone Peter Nash will also appear.

Accompanists for the $100-a-ticket black-tie gala concert will be well known musicians Jane Farge and Lloyd Matthew.

A reception at Government House will precede the concert.

Tickets are available at Opus 1, on Reid Street. For more information call Rev. Chisling at 238-1945.

CONCERT GUEST ARTIST -- Gwendolyn Lytle.