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Kevin Whalum jazzes up MTSU with free April 16 concert

April 11, 2013 By

Jazz vocalist Kevin Whalum is coming to MTSU for a special Tuesday, April 16, evening that also will showcase the MTSU Singers, led by Grammy Award-winning School of Music professor Cedric Dent.

The free public event is set for 7:30 p.m. in the Hinton Music Hall inside the university’s Wright Music Building.

Vocalist Kevin Whalum will jazz up campus on Tuesday, April 16, with a free public performance in the Wright Music Building that also will feature the MTSU Singers and Grammy award-winning music professor Cedric Dent. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Whalum)

Whalum, a Memphis native whose countless musical influences range from Al Green and Ella Fitzgerald to The Manhattan Transfer and Lynyrd Skynyrd, recently returned from a visit to South Africa, where his next CD is scheduled for worldwide release this summer.

His first two releases, “Timetable” and “One Life to Love,” are classified as jazz but feature elements of R&B, soul and Christian music. Whalum’s voice has been described as “butter” by jazz keyboards great George Duke, with whom Whalum’s co-written several songs.

Whalum, who also is the younger brother of jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum, first found his voice in their father’s church. Initially going into business after college, he ultimately turned his love of music into a full-time career as a live and session vocalist in Nashville and then as a touring artist.

The MTSU Singers, who also will perform Tuesday night, are a student ensemble that performs jazz, Broadway and contemporary music, focusing on developing stage presence and vocal skills during their tenure in the group.

The singers are led by Dent, a member of the Grammy Award-winning gospel/jazz group Take 6 who has taught in MTSU’s School of Music since 2004.

Dent, who received his own Grammy in 1992 for his work on several musical arrangements on the recording “Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration,” recently was named as the recipient of the 2013 Heritage Music Award by the National Association of Negro Musicians Inc. He’ll be presented with the award at NAMM’s annual convention in Nashville in July.

A parking map of MTSU arts venues, including the Wright Music Building, is available at www.mtsu.edu/socialmedia/docs/mapforweb.jpg.

For more information on this and other MTSU School of Music events, call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.

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Duffy Jackson joins MTSU Jazz Ensembles for April 15 concert

April 8, 2013 By

Dynamic jazz drummer Duffy Jackson will join MTSU’s Jazz Ensembles in concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 15, in Hinton Music Hall inside the university’s Wright Music Building.

Duffy Jackson

Duffy Jackson

Tickets for the April 15 concert with the Jazz Ensembles I and II are $15 for the general public and can be purchased at the door. Admission is free for MTSU students, faculty and staff with valid IDs.

Earlier the same day, Jackson will present a free public educational clinic at 3 p.m. in Room 101 of the Saunders Fine Arts Building.

Jackson’s swinging style has driven the big-name bands of Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Lionel Hampton and Illinois Jacquet. He’s also performed with jazz legends Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine and Buddy Rich.

A former “Eminent Scholar” in the Florida Atlantic University music program, Jackson, who now lives in Nashville, plays festivals, travels around the United States performing and teaching at universities and performs in Europe many times each year.

A parking map of MTSU arts venues, including the Wright Music Building, is available at www.mtsu.edu/socialmedia/docs/mapforweb.jpg.

For more information about MTSU’s jazz program, please visit www.mtsu.edu/music/jazzpage.php. For more information on this and other MTSU School of Music events, call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.

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Stones River Chamber Players close season with free April 8 concert

March 29, 2013 By

The Stones River Chamber Players, MTSU’s ensemble in residence, will conclude their “Faculty Favorites” season with a free public concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 8, in Hinton Music Hall inside MTSU’s Wright Music Building.

SCRP 2012-13 posterThe university’s ensemble-in-residence, all of whom teach in MTSU’s School of Music, will continue the season’s theme with performances of:

  • “Quartet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon” by Heitor Villa-Lobos, a favorite of oboe professor Laura Ann Ross;
  • a premiere of a new work by music theory professor Michael Linton, “Plymouth Board”; and
  • “Quartet No. 3 for Piano and Strings, Op. 60” by Johannes Brahms, selected by viola professor Henry Haffner.

Ross, who called the Villa-Lobos piece “both challenging and fun to play,” will be accompanied by Stones River Chamber Players members Deanna Little on flute, Todd Waldecker on clarinet and Gil Perel on bassoon.

Linton’s portion of the program is an excerpt of his larger, three-movement trio for piano, clarinet and cello called “Stages on Life’s Way,” which he modeled on Kierkegaard’s philosophical treatise of the same name.

SRCP violinist Andrea Dawson, pianist Arunesh Nadgir and clarinetist Waldecker will perform Linton’s piece.

“We had asked the composition faculty if they had any favorite compositions for which they would like to receive another performance,” said SRCP co-coordinator Angela DeBoer. Linton took the idea to another level, she said, reworking and expanding ideas from a previous composition and transforming them into a new work.

The Brahms quartet, which Haffner said has been one of his favorites since he first performed it in college, was begun in the 1850s, but the composer left it unfinished until the 1870s.

“Because of this long gestation period, I think this quartet is a really interesting combination of the sturm und drang of the young Brahms but also the refinement and technical precision of his maturity,” Haffner explained.

Haffner will be joined in the Brahms performance by cellist Christine Kim and Dawson and Nadgir.

For more information on MTSU School of Music concerts, call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link. You also can click on the poster above for more information about the Stones River Chamber Players.

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Renowned trumpet soloist to perform with MTSU Wind Ensemble

March 29, 2013 By

World-renowned trumpet soloist Jens Lindemann will join the MTSU Wind Ensemble for a special concert on Thursday, April 18, in the Hinton Music Hall inside the university’s Wright Music Building.

Renowned trumpeter Jens Lindemann will perform with the MTSU Wind Ensemble in a special free concert on April 18 in the Hinton Music Hall on campus. (photos submitted)

The free performance is set for 7:30 p.m. and is open to the public.

“I and many others consider Lindemann to be the world’s greatest trumpet soloist,” said Dr. Michael Arndt, professor of trumpet at MTSU. “I first heard him with the Canadian Brass years ago, and, needless to say, it was awe-inspiring playing. Then I got to hear him at the 2003 International Trumpet Guild Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. The first solo notes out of his trumpet are as beautiful as anything I had ever heard.

“Technically, his playing is some of the most striking in the world. As musicians, we strive to communicate through our instruments. He accomplishes this with the ease of laughing. His performances are bigger than life and leave everyone inspired. My words may seem over the top, but it is hard to find words that describe his ability on the trumpet and his captivating personality and musicality.”

Lindemann, a former member of the Canadian Brass who has recorded with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and presented a solo Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II, has performed as a soloist and recording artist with classical stars such as Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Angel Romero, Doc Severinsen, Charles Dutoit, Gerard Schwarz, Eiji Oue and Bramwell Tovey.

At his April 18 performance at MTSU, Lindemann will be featured on a composition called “Apophenia” by Peter Meechan, whom MTSU Wind Ensemble conductor Reed Thomas called “one of the most prominent British composers today.”

The MTSU Wind Ensemble,conducted by Dr. Reed Thomas and shown here in the university's Hinton Music Hall, will welcome guest artist Jens Lindemann for a special April 18 performance. (photo courtesy of the MTSU School of Music)

The MTSU Wind Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Reed Thomas and shown here in the university’s Hinton Music Hall, will welcome guest artist Jens Lindemann for a special April 18 performance.

“’Apophenia’ is a whirlwind trumpet solo piece written for Jens Lindemann and his extraordinary versatility on the trumpet,” Thomas added.

The MTSU Wind Ensemble also will perform “Sparkle” by Shafer Mahoney, “Funeral March” by Edvard Grieg and “West Point Symphony” by Morton Gould, as well as Meechan’s “Epitaph (for Hillsborough).”

“Epitaph was written as a tribute to the 96 innocent citizens who were killed at a regional soccer match in England,” explained Thomas, referring to the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium incident in Sheffield that also injured 766 people and has been called one of the world’s worst football disasters.

“All of the victims were supporters of the Liverpool Club, and this piece uses events both during and after the tragedy as inspiration and homage.”

In addition to his performance with the MTSU Wind Ensemble, Lindemann also will present a free public master class on Tuesday, April 16. The time for the master class is still being finalized.

You can learn more about Lindemann at his website, www.trumpetsolo.com.

For more information on this and other MTSU School of Music events, call 615-898-2493 or visit the concert calendar page at www.mtsumusic.com.

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Prize-winning pianist Robert McDonald to visit MTSU April 6-7

March 26, 2013 By

Prize-winning pianist and Juilliard professor Robert McDonald will perform works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Nielson and Fauré in a free public concert at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 7, in Hinton Music Hall inside MTSU’s Wright Music Building.

Pianist and Juilliard professor Robert McDonald will present a free concert at MTSU April 7 and conduct master classes for promising local piano students. (photo submitted)

Pianist and Juilliard professor Robert McDonald will present a free concert at MTSU April 7 and conduct master classes for promising local piano students. (photo submitted)

McDonald, a prize-winning soloist and chamber musician as well as a longtime recital partner for renowned violinist and conductor Isaac Stern, also will teach two free master classes to 10 of Tennessee’s most promising high school and college piano students on Saturday, April 6, in Hinton Hall.

The classes, which will be held at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. April 6, will be open to the public, too.

“It is tremendously exciting to have Mr. McDonald on campus to perform and work with Tennessee students,” said Dr. Lynn Rice-See, professor of piano and coordinator of keyboard studies at MTSU.

“His stature both as a performer and a pedagogue place him on the highest level, and we are delighted to welcome teachers, students and the public to hear him work with students and perform. Having known him for many years, I am delighted to have such a special individual in Murfreesboro for a few days.”

During the master classes, the students, who were selected through an audition process, will perform works of their solo piano repertoire and will receive input from McDonald. The participants include:

  • MTSU master’s degree candidate Elizabeth Chua, who is one of MTSU professor Arunesh Nadgir’s students;
  • Tennessee Tech sophomore Joshua Davis, a student of TTU music professor Catherine Godes;
  • Elizabeth Gray and Rebekah Lim of South Haven Christian High School in Springfield, Tenn., who are students of professor Karen Krieger at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music;
  • MTSU junior Yong Goo Kim, one of Rice-See’s students;
  • Siyou Li, a student at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., under music professor Ning An;
  • Montgomery Bell Academy Kevin Wang, who is a student of Blair School of Music professor Amy Dorfman;
  • Vanderbilt junior Brian Woods, a student of the Blair School’s Craig Nies;
  • Vanderbilt senior Susan Yang, who studies with Dorfman at the Blair School; and
  • Wan-Lin Yu of Lee University, a student of Ning An.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for students in Tennessee to work with one of the world’s most distinguished pianists and revered teachers as well as to hear him perform,” said Nadgir, an assistant professor of piano at MTSU.

These free events are sponsored by the Steinway Piano Gallery of Nashville, the MTSU Distinguished Lecture Fund, the Office of the University Provost at MTSU, the MTSU College of Liberal Arts and the MTSU School of Music.

In addition to performances at international and U.S. music festivals and broadcasts and an extensive recording career, McDonald has been a member of the piano faculty at the Juilliard School since 1999. He also joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2007, where he holds the Penelope P. Watkins Chair in Piano Studies.

During the summer, McDonald serves as artistic director of the Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico.

For more information on this and other MTSU School of Music events, call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.

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Cello trio’s 3 Midstate concerts commemorate composer’s centennial

March 15, 2013 By

Three university cello professors have joined talents to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of composer Benjamin Britten’s birth in three free public concerts around the Midstate next week.

Felix Wang, Vanderbilt

Eli Lara., EPSU

Christine Kim, MTSU

MTSU cello professor Christine Kim will be joined by Felix Wang of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and Eli Lara of Austin Peay State University to perform at:

  • 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 20, in Mabry Hall in Austin Peay’s Center for Creative Arts in Clarksville.
  • 8 p.m. Friday, March 22, in Hinton Music Hall inside MTSU’s Wright Music Building in Murfreesboro.
  • 3 p.m. Sunday, March 24, in Vanderbilt’s Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall at the Blair School in Nashville.

Each concert will feature composer Britten’s Cello Suite No. 1, Opus 72; Cello Suite No. 2, Opus 80; and Cello Suite No. 3 Opus 87.

“This is a rare opportunity to hear all three Britten suites in one evening,” said Kim, an active soloist and chamber musician who has performed for concert series across the United States, including Da Camera of Houston, the Foundation for Modern Music, and Musiqa, and has appeared as a concerto soloist with the La Crosse, Evanston, Madison, and Milwaukee Symphonies.

“Each suite creates an engrossing and unusual sound world, and I’m very excited about this collaboration.”

Each concert is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Tim Musselman at the MTSU School of Music at tim.musselman@mtsu.edu or 615-898-2493.

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Jeff Coffin, Dave Pietro headline saxophone conference at MTSU

March 7, 2013 By

MTSU’s welcome for an upcoming saxophone conference includes a special March 16 public concert by renowned musicians Jeff Coffin and Dave Pietro alongside two School of Music faculty members.

Jeff Coffin

Jeff Coffin

Coffin is saxophonist with the Dave Matthews Band and a three-time Grammy Award winner with Bela Fleck and The Flecktones. Pietro, a New York-based jazz saxophonist, has recorded with musicians such as Dave Holland, Kenny Werner and Pete McCann.

Dave Pietro

Dave Pietro

The pair will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 16, at the 2013 Region 7 Conference of the North American Saxophone Alliance. Joining them will be MTSU professors Don Aliquo and Paula Van Goes in Hinton Music Hall inside the Wright Music Building. Admission to the concert is $5 per person without conference registration.

The two-day conference begins Friday, March 15, at 3 p.m. with workshops in the State Farm Lecture Hall in the Business and Aerospace Building at MTSU.

More than 50 saxophonists based in Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia also will be performing throughout the conference.

In addition to Aliquo and Van Goes, saxophonists including Miles Osland, Steve Stusek, Taimur Sullivan, Clifford Leaman, Doug O’Connor, Masahito Sugihara, Phil Barham and Brian Utley will represent a broad spectrum of styles and careers based in the commercial and jazz music scenes, university settings and the military.

A 7 p.m. concert on Friday, March 15, in the State Farm Room will feature Osland with Mike Mowers, the Nashville Super Sax Ensemble and the University of Kentucky Mega Sax ensemble. Admission to this concert also is $5 per person without conference registration.

The conference continues at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 16, inside the Wright Music Building. Major saxophone manufacturers will be exhibiting the latest in instruments, accessories and music.

The conference fee is $25 per person for the entire weekend or $10 for both evening concerts. More information and registration is available at the “NASA Region 7” link at www.mtsu.edu/saxophone.

For more information on MTSU School of Music events, call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.

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Stones River Chamber Players offer ‘faculty favorites’ Feb. 25

February 15, 2013 By

The Stones River Chamber Players will bring “Faculty Favorites” back to their second free public concert of the 2012-13 season at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25, in Hinton Music Hall inside MTSU’s Wright Music Building.

SCRP 2012-13 posterThe university’s ensemble-in-residence, all of whom teach in MTSU’s School of Music, will continue the season’s theme with performances of:

  • “Chansons Madécasses” by Maurice Ravel, a favorite of voice professor Christine Isley-Farmer;
  • Joaquín Turina’s “Circulo, Op. 91,” chosen by faculty violinist Andrea Dawson;
  • “Serenata in vano” by Carl Nielsen, a favorite of MTSU bassist Tim Pearson; and
  • Alec Wilder’s “Suite for French Horn, Tuba, and Piano,” selected by faculty tubist Ben Miles.

Isley-Farmer will perform as the soprano for the Ravel piece, which translates as “Songs of Madagascar” and actually is three songs in one.

“The carnal, passionate and sophisticated eroticism of the two outer love songs contrasts with the natives’ bitterness and hatred for the hypocritical white colonists expressed in the middle song,” Isley-Farmer explained.

She’ll be accompanied by fellow Stones River Chamber Players members Deanna Little on flute, Christine Kim on cello and Lynn Rice-See on piano.

Dawson’s favorite by Turina “describes the cycle of time, with each movement depicting a different period of the day — dawn, midday and dusk — with pleasant atmosphere and Spanish-sounding melodies,” she said.

Kim will return on cello to accompany Dawson on violin and Lillian Buss Pearson on piano.

Nielson’s work was composed in 1914 for members of the Danish Royal Orchestra. It will be performed by SRCP members Pearson on bass, Todd Waldecker on clarinet, Angela Deboer on horn, Gil Perel on bassoon and Kim on cello.

Of the final piece, Miles noted that in addition to being one of the first pieces written for this particular combination of instruments, the suite “is an example of Wilder’s compositional style and includes elements of jazz.”

Miles will be joined by Deboer on horn and Sandra Arndt on piano.

The Stones River Chamber Players will conclude their 2012-13 “Faculty Favorites” season with a free public concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 8. For more information on MTSU School of Music concerts, call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.

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Jazz Artist Series concludes Feb. 23 with Grammy-winning arranger

February 9, 2013 By

Multi-Grammy-winning jazz arranger/composer Bill Holman will join the MTSU Jazz Ensemble I and the MTSU Singers on Saturday, Feb. 23, for the final concert in the 2012-13 MTSU Jazz Artist Series.

Bill Holman

The 7:30 p.m. performance in Hinton Music Hall, located inside the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus, will be the culmination of the daylong MTSU Jazzfest.

Jazzfest offers both junior high and high school students an individual focus on the jazz style and the art of jazz improvisation.

Tickets for the Feb. 23 concert are $15 for the general public and can be reserved by calling 615-898-2724 or emailing james.simmons@mtsu.edu. Admission is free for MTSU students, faculty and staff with valid IDs. Discounts for area band students and educators are also available.

“A master class with one of our jazz faculty members will also be a feature of the day’s activities for students,” said Jamey Simmons, director of jazz studies at MTSU.

“The beauty of this format is that the whole ensemble need not attend but are in fact welcome at the same time. Our vocal jazz (training) component, with a performance by the MTSU Singers, is new this year.”

Holman, who has been nominated for the Grammy Award 14 times and has won three Grammys, has roots as a tenor saxophonist, composer and writer extending back as far as 1949 in ensembles with such artists as Ike Carpenter, Stan Kenton, Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers and Mel Lewis.

He has consistently been voted “Best Arranger” in readers’ and critics’ polls and has received many awards in recognition of his contributions to jazz.

The Smithsonian Institution established the Bill Holman Collection of scores and memorabilia in 2000, and in 2010, the National Endowment for the Arts presented Holman with the NEA Jazz Masters Award — the nation’s highest honor in jazz — in recognition of a lifetime of extraordinary achievement.

The MTSU Singers, at top, and the MTSU Jazz Ensemble I will perform Feb. 23 with Grammy-winning jazz great Bill Holman in Hinton Music Hall inside the Wright Music Buildling. (photos submitted)

Among the artists for whom Holman has provided arrangements over the years are Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, Peggy Lee and many more.

His Grammy wins came in 1987 for Best Instrumental Arrangement for Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Orchestra’s “Take the A Train”; in 1995 for Best Instrumental Composition for “A View from the Side” for the Bill Holman Band; and in 1997 for Best Instrumental Arrangement for Thelonious Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser” on the Bill Holman Band’s album “Brilliant Corners.”

Holman’s visit is sponsored in part by the Office of New Student and Family Programs and the MTSU Distinguished Lecture Fund.

For more information about MTSU’s Jazz Artist Series, please visit www.mtsu.edu/music/jazzseries.php or call 615-898-2493. For Jazzfest details, please visit www.mtsu.edu/music/jazzfest.php.

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Warm up your Valentine’s Day with ‘Birth of Cool’ jazz

February 7, 2013 By

Chill out with your valentine on Thursday, Feb. 14, and enjoy an evening with the MTSU Jazz Faculty Nonet performing music from Miles Davis’ famous 1949 recording, “Birth of the Cool.”

The second concert of the 2012-13 MTSU Jazz Artist Series begins at 7:30 p.m. inside Hinton Music Hall in the university’s Wright Music Building.

Birth of the Cool album cover

Tickets to the Feb. 14 concert are $15 for the general public and free for MTSU students, faculty and staff. Discounts for area band students and educators are also available.

Jamey Simmons, director of jazz studies at MTSU, said the legendary Davis formed the original nine-member group as a cooperative effort with other like-minded musicians in New York.

“Essentially, many of the concepts were worked out as musicians stopped by arranger Gil Evans’ apartment,” said Simmons. “The door was left open, and jazz musicians felt free to drop by and bounce musical ideas off each other. These interactions resulted in one of the greatest achievements in jazz recording history.”

Joining Simmons and his trumpet in MTSU’s Jazz Faculty Nonet are School of Music professors Don Aliquo on saxophone, Jim Ferguson on bass, Pat Coil on the piano, Derrek Phillips on drums, David Loucky on trombone, Angela DeBoer on the horn and Ben Miles on the tuba.

Nashville musician and session player Denis Solee will join the group on baritone saxophone.

“One of the most captivating things about this ensemble is the addition of horn and tuba, which are two instruments not usually associated with jazz,” Simmons said. “It’s exciting to have them play with us.”

For reserve tickets, contact Simmons at 615-898-2724 or james.simmons@mtsu.edu.

The 2012-13 MTSU Jazz Artist Series will conclude Saturday, Feb. 23, when multi-Grammy-winning jazz arranger/composer Bill Holman joins the MTSU Jazz Ensemble I and the MTSU Singers for a 7:30 p.m. performance. For more details on that concert, visit mtsunews.com/holman-2013-jazz-series-concert.

For more information on MTSU School of Music concerts, call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.

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