087 STONES RIVER CHAMBER PLAYERS OPEN 2007-2008 SEASON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 13, 2007
CONTACT: Tim Musselman, 615-898-2493

STONES RIVER CHAMBER PLAYERS OPEN 2007-2008 SEASON
Concert Will Feature Artwork by Discover School Students, Three New Faculty Members

(MURFREESBORO)—The Stones River Chamber Players (SRCP), artists-in-residence at MTSU, will present New Faces, New Sounds, the group’s first concert of the 2007-2008 season, at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 1 in the T. Earl Hinton Hall of Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus.
Event organizers said one highlight of the free and open concert will be its finale, The Creation of the World by Darius Milhaud, a ballet score for chamber orchestra that will be conducted by Reed Thomas, MTSU director of bands .
The work, which is considered innovative for its fusion of jazz and classical styles, will be accompanied by abstract paintings projected on a screen. The artworks were painted by art students at the new Discovery School, a magnet school for high-achieving elementary students in Murfreesboro.
Mary Cunningham, whose students created the art pieces, said, “I am walking the line between ‘kid art’ and fine art (that was) done by children, but not cute.”
Regarding the children’s creativity, Todd Waldecker, SRCP co-director, said, "Their artwork blew me away. When I saw the work. I thought it could be in any fine art gallery in the country."
Waldecker said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee encouraged faculty in their opening meeting to collaborate with the local community, which is rich with resources and creative energy.
"When the new Discovery School relocated to Reeves Rogers Elementary, we saw a great opportunity to connect them with what we are doing here in the School of Music," Waldecker added.
In addition to the opportunity to take in new art, the concert will feature three new music faculty at MTSU; namely, Andrea Dawson (violin), Angela DeBoer (horn) and Leopoldo Erice (piano), all of whom will perform the well-loved Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40 by Brahms.
“This work has all the richness one associates with Brahms’ mature, harmonic language delivered by a warm combination of instruments,” commented Lynn Rice-See, co-director of the group and professor of piano at MTSU.
Dawson joined MTSU as assistant professor of violin in fall 2007. A recent addition to the Stones River Chamber Players, she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and Mexico. DeBoer, meanwhile, came to MTSU from Oklahoma, where she has been a member of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and worked with the Tulsa Ballet and Tulsa Opera. Prior to her work in Oklahoma, DeBoer was active in the freelance community in and around Chicago, performing with ensembles such as the Milwaukee Philharmonic.
Erice graduated with honors in both piano and chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid and has performed extensively in Spain, making his debut as a soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of the Royal Conservatory of Madrid in 1999. He is the founder and the director of the Festival Internacional de Música Clásica de Ribadeo.
The Oct. 1 concert will also include veteran Stones River Chamber Players Michael Arndt (trumpet), Sandra Arndt (piano) and Stephen Smith (tenor) performing Eric Ewazen’s song cycle, To Cast a Shadow Again.
For more information on this and other events in the McLean School of music, please call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com.
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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To secure a jpeg of the student art that will be part of the Oct. 1 concert, please e-mail your request to Tim Musselman in the music school at tmusselm@mtsu.edu.