To celebrate the new academic year at MTSU, the School of Music is bringing new and returning concert-series performances to the Wright Music Building for fall 2012.

Included in the fall 2012 line-up are the MTSU Artist Series, the Stones River Chamber Players concert series, the MTSU Guest Pianist Series and the MTSU Jazz Artist Series. All the concerts will be held in Hinton Music Hall inside the Wright Music Building on campus.

Dr. Nan Liu, left, and zheng master Haiqioug Deng will present traditional Chinese music, painting and calligraphy in “Echoes of Nature,”€ a Sept. 7 performance in the MTSU Artist Series. (photos submitted)

The schedule includes the following performances:

— The MTSU Artist Series, which brings professional artists from around the world to campus for free public performances, will launch the season on Friday, Sept. 7, with Dr. Nan Liu and zheng master Haiqioug Deng presenting traditional Chinese music, painting and calligraphy in “Echoes of Nature” at 7:30 p.m.

On Thursday, Sept. 13, at 7:30 p.m., Vanderbilt University’s Blair String Quartet will travel to MTSU to present a new work by Michael Hersch of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

Won Kim will join the Telsa String Quartet, winners of the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, on clarinet for a 7:30 p.m. Artist Series performance on Wednesday, Oct. 31. And the Aulos Ensemble, experts in 18th-century music for period violin, flute, oboe and continuo, will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 12.

— The Stones River Chamber Players begin their free concert series on Sunday, Sept. 16, with the Jerry Perkins Memorial Concert. The 3 p.m. performance honors the late Jerry Perkins, who taught piano at MTSU from 1967 to 2007.

On Monday, Oct. 8, the SRCP will perform music by J.C. Bach, Schubert, Paganini and Grazyna Bacewicz at 7:30 p.m.

The Stones River Chamber Players’ series also reaches into the spring with 7:30 p.m. concerts on Feb. 25 with music by Ravel, Wilder, Turino and Nielsen and on April 8 with music by Villa-Lobos and Brahms and a new work by Michael Linton.

— The MTSU Guest Pianists Series will feature three professional artists in 2012-13:

• Sin-Hsing Tsai of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25;
• Hope College’s Andrew Le, winner of the 2004 Hilton Head Piano Competition, at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19; and
• Robert McDonald, who’ll perform at 3 p.m. April 7, 201

Members of Aulos Ensemble, experts in 18th-century music for period violin, flute, oboe and continuo, will perform Nov. 12 as part of the MTSU Artist Series.

— The MTSU Jazz Artist Series begins on Thursday, Oct. 25, with jazz pianist Andy LeVerne. The three-concert series continues next spring with the MTSU jazz faculty performing Miles Davis’s “Birth of Cool” on Feb. 14 and with jazz arranger and composer Bill Hollman on Feb. 23.

Jazz Artist Series performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 each for the general public and free for MTSU students, faculty and staff.

This fall also offers a host of faculty, ensemble and student performances at MTSU, including 17 scheduled faculty recitals and large student ensembles featuring some of the top-ranked MTSU School of Music students.

These groups include the MTSU Symphony Orchestra, the MTSU Wind Ensemble, the MTSU Symphonic Band, the MTSU Concert Chorale, the MTSU Jazz Ensemble I and II, the MTSU Women’s Chorale and the MTSU Singers.

For more information on any of the fall concert-series events or any MTSU School of Music performances, please call 615-898-2493 or see the complete listing of concerts at the “Calendar of Events” link at www.mtsumusic.com.