Vol. 17, No. 1	Sept. 4, 1997

Music faculty featured in Gala Opening Concert

An annual highlight of the beginning of the academic year is the music department's Gala Opening Concert, showcasing the virtuosity of its multitalented faculty musicians. Celebrating its eighth year, the gala concert will be held at 8 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 11, in the Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building.

Admission is free and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. A reception to meet the artists will be held after the performance.

With music ranging from Gershwin to Brahms, to a suite for classical and jazz pianos, the eclectic concert includes music for everyone to enjoy.

John Conrad, a noted Gershwin scholar, has arranged three Gershwin tunes for wind instruments and bass, featuring Patrick Evans, baritone; Eileen Grycky, flute; Lloyd Shorter, oboe/English horn; Charles Salinger, clarinet; Jon Gaarder, bassoon; and Doug Mapp, bass.

The Taggart-Grycky Duo, with Christiaan Taggart on the guitar and Grycky on the flute, will play Castérède's Sonata D'Avril.

Members of the Mendelssohn String Quartet-Nick Eanet and Nicolas Mann, violins, and Marcy Rosen, cello-along with pianist Julie Nishimura will play the fourth movement of the Brahms' G Minor Piano Quartet.

Fantasie Brillante by Jean-Baptiste Arban will spotlight trumpeter Alan Hamant and pianist Nishimura.

Nishimura will team up with pianist Michael Arenson in Claude Bolling's Suite for Classical and Jazz Pianos, also featuring Mapp on the bass and Tom Palmer on drums.

Other performances include soprano Marie Robinson singing "Ain't It a Pretty Night" from Carlisle Floyd's opera Susanna, and Evans singing "Avant de quitter ces lieux" from Gounod's opera Faust, both accompanied by Nishimura. Soprano Melanie DeMent, with Michael Steinberg at the piano, will offer a humorous ditty, "Overweight, Overwrought, Over You."

For information, call 831-2577.