The Stones River Chamber Players, MTSU’s faculty ensemble-in-residence, continue their 2017-18 season Monday, Feb. 12, with a free concert, “Tributes,” honoring composers Claude Debussy, Gioachino Rossini and Leonard Bernstein.

The ensemble members, all of whom teach in 2MTSU’s School of Music, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 in Hinton Music Hall inside MTSU’s Wright Music Building.

The MTSU Arts concert will feature music that marks important anniversaries for each composer in 2018: Bernstein’s 100th birthday and the 150th and 100th anniversaries of Rossini’s and Debussy’s respective deaths.

MTSU clarinet professor Todd Waldecker arranged the opening performance of the overture to Bernstein’s operetta, “Candide,” for wind quintet.

“I was a member of a woodwind quintet as an undergraduate student, and we were always searching for exciting and entertaining pieces to play,” said Waldecker. “Bernstein’s orchestral overture to ‘Candide’ was a favorite piece of mine, so I spent an entire Christmas break transcribing it for our ensemble. I’m thrilled to dust it off after all these years and perform it again with my SRCP colleagues.”

Dr. Todd Waldecker

Waldecker will perform the work with his colleagues: oboist Rebecca Van de Ven, flutist Deanna Little, bassoonist Gil Perel and horn player Angela DeBoer.

Other works by Bernstein on the program include five short pieces for various combinations of brass and piano that honor family or friends’ pets: “Elegy for Mippy I and II” “Waltz for Mippy,” “Rondo for Lifey” and “Fanfare for Bima.”

The group will present two duets by Rossini, “La regata veneziana” and “La pesca,” by sopranos Christine Isley-Farmer and Dina Cancryn, accompanied by pianist Joseph Walker.

The evening will conclude with a performance of Debussy’s “Trio in G Major for Violin, Cello and Piano,” a four-movement work written when the composer was only 18 years old.  MTSU professor Arunesh Nadgir will play piano on the work alongside violinist Andrea Dawson and cellist Christine Kim.

The group’s 2017-18 season will conclude Monday, March 26, with a “Roads Not Traveled” concert featuring works by Steve Rouse, Alessandro Scarlatti, Jin Zhang, Michael Burritt and Robert Delanoff.

You can listen to streaming audio performances by the Stones River Chamber Players at www.mtsu.edu/music/srcp.php. For details on other MTSU School of Music performances, call 615-898-2493 or visit the MTSU School of Music “Concert Calendar” link.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)