8:19 a.m., Jan. 20, 2010----The University of Delaware's Master Players Concert Series will continue Friday, Feb. 19, with “Molto Spiritual,” featuring the Morgan State University Choir under the direction of Eric Conway.

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The concert, co-presented by the UD Department of Music and the Center for Black Culture (CBC), will begin at 8 p.m. in Mitchell Hall.

Admission is $21 for the general public; $17 for senior citizens, UD faculty, staff and alumni; and $7 for students with ID and children. Tickets may be available at the door, however many of the concerts were sold out last season and purchasing tickets in advance is strongly recommended.

Tickets are available at the PTTP/REP box office on the UD campus or by calling (302) 831.2204 (a $2 processing fee applies).

Under the artistic direction of Xiang Gao, the internationally renowned UD faculty violinist, the Master Players Concert Series serves as a vital cultural resource for the UD campus, the city of Newark and surrounding communities. Season after season, the extremely successful concert series has brought many of the world's most established classical musicians to Delaware.

On Feb. 19, the series will continue a University of Delaware tradition of celebrating Black History Month with a performance by the world renowned Morgan State University Choir, one of the nation's most prestigious university choral ensembles, under the direction of internationally acclaimed chorale conductor Eric Conway.

While classical, gospel, and contemporary popular music comprise the choir's repertoire, the choir is noted for its emphasis on preserving the heritage of the spiritual, especially in the historic practices of performance. Known for their consistency of excellent performances, the choir performs with more major orchestras of the United States than that of any other university.

Conway is currently the director of the Morgan State University Choir as well as chairperson of the Fine Arts Department. He has served as associate conductor and principal accompanist for the Morgan State University Choir for the past 20 years under the leadership of the late Nathan Carter.

He received his doctor of musical arts degree from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he majored in piano performance and minored in conducting. While at the Peabody, Conway was a recipient of the prestigious Liberace Scholarship, as well as a winner in the Yale Gordon Concerto Competition, where he earned the honor of playing Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra.

Some of his significant accomplishments as pianist include a tour of Eastern Africa, sponsored by the United States Information Agency. One of the highlights of the tour was a solo performance for Madagascan television and radio.

He has performed as soloist with several orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Concert Artists, Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, Georgetown University Orchestra, and the Millbrook Orchestra in Shepardstown, W.Va.

In January, 2006 he performed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to wide acclaim.

Conway is also sought after as a collaborative artist. He has worked with several leading artists including Trevor Wye, Hillary Hahn, Daniel Heifetz, William Brown and Janice Chandler, to name a few. He is also an orchestral pianist for the Baltimore Symphony. In 1994 and 1997, he toured with the orchestra to Eastern Asia.

Conway's choral accomplishments include working closely with some of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, including Robert Shaw, Sir Nevelle Mariner and Donald Neuen.

In 2001, he was chorusmaster for the Baltimore Symphony Chorus' performance of the Verdi Requiem. He travels throughout the region giving choral master classes and workshops for collegiate and high school levels.

For more information about the 2009-2010 Master Players Concert Series, visit the Web site.