042 MTSU FRIENDS OF MUSIC PRESENT ‘EVENING OF SWING’ NOV. 11th

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 30, 2006
CONTACT: Robert W. McLean School of Music, 615-898-5903
or Claudette Northcutt, 615-898-5924

Tickets Now Available for Second Annual Fund-raising Dinner/Dance Event

(MURFREESBORO)—Members of MTSU’s Friends of Music committee recently announced that the group’s second “Evening of Swing” gala, a dinner/dance event, will be held beginning at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, in the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building on the MTSU campus.
The evening’s entertainment will feature the big-band music of the 1930s and ‘40s as performed by MTSU’s two jazz ensembles, with MTSU music faculty members Don Aliquo and Jamey Simmons directing.
“The Friends’ inaugural gala last year was such a great success, drawing 350, with great big-band music and lots of dancing, that our committee decided that a repeat event was in order,” said George T. Riordan, director of the Robert W. McLean School of Music at MTSU.
“The Tennessee Room is a great place for dancing and enjoying the music and the evening,” he added. “People were very impressed with the authentic and danceable swing provided by our students in the MTSU jazz ensembles … (so) this is a wonderful forum to introduce the high quality of our musicians to people who haven’t yet enjoyed concerts at the McLean School of Music.”
Riordan said the Friends of Music was designed to encourage community members to take advantage of the 180 concerts presented annually at MTSU and to enable the McLean School to better provide services and opportunities to music students, as well as provide guidance to the school by providing a community perspective.
“We have an active and dynamic leadership committee who are really excited about this event,” he remarked.
MTSU’s Friends of Music organizing committee members include Jane Blakey, Martha Curl, Bobbie and John Duke, Brenda McFarlin, Shirley LaRoche, Liz Rhea, Margie Spangler and Ernestine Thomas, with Robert W. McLean serving as the committee’s honorary chairman. Representing MTSU on the committee are Riordan, Aliquo, Anne Sloan, Connie Huddleston, Robyn Kilpatrick, Patience Long and Claudette Northcutt.
McLean previously donated 54 Steinway pianos to the School of Music, which honors him by carrying his name, Riordan noted.
“Our committee did a great job at putting together our first event in 2005. So many people took part in the dancing that we’re planning to enlarge the dance floor on this, our second time around,” Riordan said. “Last year we filled all of our tables, and we’re well on track to selling out already for 2006.”
• TICKETS: Individual tickets for “Evening of Swing,” which include dinner and a gala evening of music and dancing, are $75 per person ($35 is tax-deductible. Tables seating 10 are available for $750 ($350 is tax-deductible) and patron tables are $1,000 ($600 is tax-deductible).
For more information on “Evening of Swing” or the Friends of Music, including ticket inquiries, please contact Claudette Northcutt at 615-898-5924.


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