9:36 a.m., Sept. 9, 2009----The 2009-2010 University of Delaware Master Players Concert Series (MPCS), titled a “Rhapsody in Blue and Gold,” will open in October.

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A season-opening gala, “I Left My Heart in Newark,” will be held at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 9, in Mitchell Hall during Parents and Family Weekend.

This spectacular campus event has been a popular Newark tradition every fall for the past 20 years and successfully opened the season of MPCS last year. It will feature showpieces and masterpieces of chamber music and renowned UD faculty artists including Noel Archambeault, Jennifer Barker, Robert Brandt, Christine Delbeau, Xiang Gao, Marian Lee, Harvey Price, Marie Robinson, Holly Roadfeldt-O'Riordan, Blake Smith, Daniel Stevens, Lawrence Stomberg and Anne Sullivan.

Next in the series, the beloved Franz Schubert piano quintet The Trout will be featured in the MPCS concerts entitled Trout Under the Spotlight at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct.16, and at 3 p.m, Saturday, Oct. 17, a repeat performance, in the Gore Recital Hall of the Roselle Center for the Arts.

MPCS Artistic Director Xiang Gao returns to stage to perform one of the greatest violin-cello duos of all time by the Hungarian composition giant Zoltán Kodály with the international prize winning cellist Bo Li.

The concert will feature international concert pianist Jeffrey Sharkey, who is a local legend, Gao said. Born and raised in Newark, Sharkey entered the world of music with brilliant piano skills and recently became the director of the world famous Peabody Institute of Music.

Other artists include bass virtuoso and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient DaXun Zhang of the University of Texas at Austin and UD faculty violist Andrea Priester Houde, who will be making her second MPCS appearance after iMusic II-Xiang Gao and Friends last year.

The state-of-the-art Gore Recital Hall only seats 200 and those interested in attending are encouraged to purchase their tickets in advance. MPCS tickets cost $21 for the general public; $17 for senior citizens, UD faculty, staff and alumni; and $7 for students with ID. Tickets are available at the REP/PTTP box office in the Roselle Center for the Arts. Call (302) 831-2204.

This year, MPCS also offers gift-wrapped tickets. Order any number of MPCS concert tickets gift-wrapped with a personal note for a birthday, anniversary, thank you, holiday or just to bring someone to share the power of music. Handling and USPS first class shipping fee is $10 per gift box.

Next week, the newly designed season brochure of MPCS 2009-10 concert season will be sent to the general public and posted on the MPCS Web site.