Source: Kristin Mortenson, 785-532-5740, kmortens@k-state.edu
Note to editor: Emily Riley, Olathe, is a graduate of Blue Valley West High School.
News release prepared by: Rosie Hoefling, 785-532-2535, media@k-state.edu

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

MUSICAL MARCH: K-STATE MUSIC DEPARTMENT PUTS MONTH IN TUNE

MANHATTAN -- March comes in with an organ recital and out with a guest pianist at Kansas State University. In between expect a lot of singing, a tubaphonium festival, an afternoon with bassoons and more as K-State's department of music offers a month full of music.

All performances are free and open to the public. They include:

* Organ recital by K-State's David Pickering, assistant professor of music, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 1, All Faiths Chapel. Pickering will play works of J.S. Bach, Frank Bridge, Daniel Gawthrop, Alice Jordan, Felix Mendelssohn and Charles-Marie Widor.

* The Pen Trio, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, All Faiths Chapel. The performance includes 20th-century French music for woodwind trio in works by Milhaud, Canteloube, Poulenc and Auric. The group includes K-State's Nora Lewis, assistant professor of music, oboe; guest artist Phillip O. Paglialonga, clarinet; and guest artist Eric Varner, bassoon. Paglialonga is assistant professor of music at Bethune-Cookman University. Varner is principal bassoon in the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario and is on the faculty of Heidelberg College.

* Solo performance by K-State's Jacqueline Fassler-Kerstetter, associate professor of French horn, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3, All Faiths Chapel. The recital features music written mainly by American composers. Two of the works to be performed, "Calls for Two Horns" and "Sonata Concertare" for piano and horn, were written by Kansas-born composer Verne Reynolds. Other works include jazz-influenced "Sonata No. 3" by Alec Wilder; "Aesop's Fables" for horn, narrator and piano by Anthony Plog; and "Bagatelle" by Hermann Neuling. Fassler-Kerstetter will be assisted on piano by K-State's Amanda Arrington, staff accompanist; Paul Hunt, professor of music, as the narrator; and by John Allred, senior in applied music, Manhattan, on horn.

* Tubaphonium Festival and Bassoon Afternoon, Saturday, March 5, McCain Auditorium. The daylong festival is for tuba, euphonium and bassoon students in grades 7-12 who are looking to hone their skills, make music and have fun. It features master classes, recitals and performances by the K-State Tuba Euphonium Ensemble and Bassoon Ensemble. A mass ensemble at the end of the festival features participants and K-State students performing together. The festival is organized by K-State's Steve Maxwell, assistant professor of music, and Susan Maxwell, instructor of music.

* K-State's Steven Maxwell's Tuba and Euphonium Studio, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, All Faiths Chapel. The Tuba and Euphonium Ensemble will perform a program of music written or arranged by K-State students.

* Guest artist Yuka Morishita presents "Organ Music for a Wednesday Morning" at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 9, in All Faiths Chapel. Morishita, who received a bachelor's in music at Nihon University, has studied piano with Takako Naito and Ryuzo Akazawa. She also = studied harpsichord with Hisako Shintani and Mitsugu Yamada. She currently teaches piano at the Yamaha Music School in Tokyo and piano and harpsichord at the Music Academy of Tokyo. Morishita will be playing works by J.S. Bach, Daniel Gawthrop, Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Pachelbel and Louis Vierne. The program acquaints students and the general public with the organ and its repertoire.

* Recital by Duo Montagnard, 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, All Faiths Chapel. Duo Montagnard consists of Joseph Murphy on saxophone and Matthew Slotkin on guitar. The group was formed in 2002 and has performed more than 140 concerts in 30 states, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Slovenia, Greece and the United Kingdom. Programs include compositions by Robert Beaser, Chick Corea, David Kechley, Astor Piazzolla, Maurice Ravel, Roberto Sierra, Toru Takemitsu, Heitor Villa-Lobos and more. Recent commissions include pieces by John Anthony Lennon, James Crowley, George Daravelis and Charles Stolte.

* K-State Wind Ensemble and Concert Band, 3 p.m. Sunday, March 13, McCain Auditorium. The Wind Ensemble will perform various selections, including works by Gordon Jacob, Rob Smith, Ira Hearshen and Michael Daugherty. K-State's Teresa Purcell, master's student in music, Manhattan, and Lyle Sobba, master's student in music, St. George, will conduct the group's performance. The ensemble is directed by K-State's Frank Tracz, director of bands and professor of music. The Concert Band will perform works by Vincent Persichetti, David Maslanka, Eric Whitacre, Norman Dello Joio and Boris Kozhevnikov. The Concert Band is conducted by Donald Linn, instructor of music at K-State, with guest graduate conductor Sarah Bernard-Stevens, master's student in music, Junction City.

* K-State Chamber Orchestra, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 13, McCain Auditorium. Conducted by K-State's David Littrell, university distinguished professor of music, the chamber orchestra is selected from the 80-piece K-State Orchestra. It is formed specifically for performing overseas. This year the group will perform in Ireland March 19-29. Littrell will be soloist in the Boccherini "Cello Concerto," and Melissa Woodworth, senior in music education, Papillion, Neb., will conduct the piece. Blair Williams, master's student in music, Peabody, will lead the orchestra in two Duke Ellington pieces that were arranged by Steve Easterday, orchestra director at Manhattan High School. Littrell will conduct the other all-American pieces in the program, which will include works by Leroy Anderson, George Chadwick, Laurel Littrell and Easterday.

* Cello recital by Adriana LaRosa Ransom, 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 14, All Faiths Chapel. Winner of numerous competition awards, Ransom has performed with several orchestras and chamber ensembles. Her recital features works by Francoeur, Faure, Messiaen and Poulenc.

* K-State Jazz Bands, 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 14, Forum Hall. The Concert Jazz Ensemble and Lab A Jazz Band will perform in collaboration with guest artist Graham Breedlove, trumpet soloist, and the Army Blues jazz ensemble, part of the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own" in Washington, D.C.

* K-State University Band and Choir joint concert, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, McCain Auditorium. The University Band is an instrumental performing group open to all students at K-State. The group also serves as a practical training ground for senior music education students who will be teaching in the public schools next year. This concert features works from contemporary school band literature, as well as works for chamber winds. The University Choir is a vocal ensemble open to all students at K-State. The choir's portion of the concert will feature standard literature conducted by graduate choral conducting majors. K-State's Frank Tracz directs the University Band. The University Choir is directed by Joshua Oppenheim and Julie Yu-Oppenheim, both assistant professors of music. The senior music education students conducting in the concert include Jaquelyn Haney-Ballew, Edgerton; David Frazier, Gardner; Daniela Thrasher, Manhattan; Emily Riley, Olathe; Kaylee Oliver, Topeka; Katie Scanlan, Viola; and Alex Cook and Katie Kreis, both from Wichita

* Jazz Combos concert, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, in Union Station. The group is directed by K-State's Wayne Goins, professor of music.

* Guest artist Peter Boonshaft, March 16-17. A noted music education advocate and expert, Boonshaft will be presenting lectures to music education classes and working with K-State performing ensembles during his visit. He is the best-selling author of the books "Teaching Music with Passion," "Teaching Music with Purpose" and "Teaching Music with Promise." Boonshaft is active as a guest conductor and clinician. He is also a regular speaker for conferences, festivals, concerts and workshops both nationally and internationally. Boonshaft's visit is sponsored by K-State Bands and the K-State chapters of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma.

* Army Jazz Ambassadors workshop and performance, 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 17, 201 McCain. Hosted by K-State Jazz, the ambassadors will give four instrumental workshops to jazz students. The group will also perform a concert at 11:30 a.m.

* General Student Recital, 11:30 a.m. Thursday, March 17, All Faiths Chapel. The one-hour recital features students from the wind, percussion, keyboard, vocal and string programs.

* Guest ensemble performance, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 17, 204 McCain. The performance features the Central College Flying Pans Steel Band. The ensemble is from Pella, Iowa, and is directed by Stan Dahl.

* Guest pianist Joanna Trzeciak, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 17, All Faiths Chapel. Trzeciak was born in Krakow, Poland, and studied at the Warsaw Academy of Music, where she obtained her diploma in 1976. A scholarship from the ministry of culture allowed her to continue her studies at the Moscow Conservatory. She has given recitals and concerts with symphony orchestras throughout Poland, as well as in Belgium, Italy, the Soviet Union, Holland, England, Switzerland, Germany and Yugoslavia. She has recorded for Polish Radio and Television, for BRT in Brussels and for Yugoslavian television. Her K-State program includes works by Beethoven, Chopin, Szymanowski and Hummel.

* Joint performance featuring the K-State Concert Choir and Liberty Christian High School Concert Choir from Denton, Texas, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29, All Faiths Chapel. K-State's Joshua Oppenheim and Julie Yu-Oppenheim are the conductors.

* Performances by K-State Tuba and Euphonium Ensemble and Clarinet Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, All Faiths Chapel. Conductors for the performance are K-State's Steven Maxwell and Tod Kerstetter, associate professor of music.

* Guest pianist performance by Neal Larrabee, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31, All Faiths Chapel. Larrabee has performed extensively in the United States and Europe. Larrabee has toured Germany, Russia, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. He has become a well-known favorite of the concert-going public in Poland, where his highly regarded interpretations of Chopin have led to recordings, national broadcasts on television and radio and engagements in virtually every major concert hall. Awarded a Fulbright grant for study at the Moscow Conservatory under Stanislav Neuhaus, Larrabee became the first American pianist to study in the former Soviet Union under official government sponsorship. He also studied with Eugene List at the Eastman School of Music and with Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the Josef Lhevinne Scholarship. Larrabee has won honors in the Fifth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Ninth International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and he was the first pianist to have been awarded the Artur Rubenstein Medal as winner of the Young Musician's Foundation Competition in Los Angeles.