[114]MTSU’s STONES RIVER CHAMBER PLAYERS OPEN NEW SEASON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 24, 2008
CONTACT: Tim Musselman, 615-898-2493

MTSU’s STONES RIVER CHAMBER PLAYERS OPEN NEW SEASON
Ensemble Premieres New Work by Composer Osterfield at Free Oct. 6 Concert

(MURFREESBORO)—The Stones River Chamber Players, an ensemble in residence at MTSU, will premier a new work in its first concert of the 2008-2009 season at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6, in Hinton Music Hall of the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus.
The premiere work, “Klee Abstractions,” by MTSU faculty composer Paul Osterfield will be performed by faculty members Deanna Little (flute) Todd Waldecker (clarinet) and William Yelverton (guitar). Lynn Rice-See, MTSU faculty pianist and co-director of SRCP, said Osterfield based the work on paintings by Swiss painter Paul Klee.
"(Osterfield) became acquainted Klee's paintings when the youth orchestra of which he was a member performed Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ ‘Five Klee Pictures,’" Rice-See said. "Four of Klee’s paintings inspired Osterfield in this work: ‘Ad Parnassum,’ ‘Crystal Gradation,’ ‘North Sea Picture’ and ‘Twittering Machine,’" she added.
"This (entire SRCP) program is titled 'Back to School,' because it showcases works by composers who also had significant influence as teachers," she said.
In addition to “Klee Abstractions,” the group will perform song cycle “Along the Field” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Dance Suite” by Leonard Bernstein, “Diamond in the Rough” by Michael Daugherty and “Septet for Winds” by Paul Hindemith.
“Along the Field” for voice and violin will be performed by faculty members H. Stephen Smith (tenor) and Andrea Dawson (violin).
Concerning the work, Rice-See said that the Vaughan Williams used a setting of poems by A. E. Housman, which unfolds the story of a love affair gone awry.
About “Dance Suite,” Rice-See indicated that each of the five movements is dedicated to a significant American choreographer or dancer: Anthony Tudor, Agnes de Mille, Mikhail Barishnikov, George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins. Performers on this piece will include Michael Arndt (trumpet), Jeff Bailey (trumpet), Angela DeBoer (horn), David Loucky (trombone) and Gilbert Long (tuba).
The work titled “Diamond in the Rough” will be performed by Dawson (violin), Sarah Cote (viola) and Lalo Davila (percussion).
"This imaginative work, originally composed in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, contains movements titled ‘Magic,’ ‘Wig Dance’ and ‘Fifty-five Minutes Past Midnight,’ (which refers) to the time of Mozart’s death," Rice-See said.
Hindemith's “Septet for Winds" will be performed by Little (flute), Waldecker (clarinet), Greg Lawson (bass clarinet), Gil Perel (bassoon), Arndt (trumpet) and DeBoer (horn).
The Oct. 6 concert is free and open to the public.
For more information on this and other events in the MTSU School of Music, please call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com.

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