[314]16th ANNUAL RUTHERFORD COUNTY SCHOOLS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 23, 2009
CONTACT: Tim Musselman (615) 898-2493

16th ANNUAL RUTHERFORD COUNTY SCHOOLS
ELEMENTARY CHORAL FESTIVAL SET FOR MARCH 13

(MURFREESBORO)—The 16th annual Rutherford County Schools Elementary Choral Festival, or RCSECF, will be held March 13 in Hinton Hall of the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus, with a final concert at 6:30 p.m. in Hinton Hall.
Choral students from four Rutherford County elementary schools will participate in the RCSECF and will feature choirs from Campus School, directed by Karen Blooding; Lascassas Elementary, directed by Will Brecht; McFadden Elementary, directed by Susan Wilson; and Thurman Francis Elementary, directed by Michael Thiemann.
Blooding said the festival is one of seven elementary and middle school choir festivals that music teachers in the county will sponsor and participate in during the current school year.
Jennifer Vannatta-Hall will serve as the event’s guest conductor. Hall, who holds a master’s degree from MTSU and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois, is a faculty member at MTSU and the director of Music, Worship and Family Life at First Christian Church in Shelbyville. She has extensive experience working with choirs from 4th grade through adults.
McFadden director Wilson said the first festival of this kind was planned and coordinated by MTSU’s Dr. Nancy Boone Allsbrook and held at Murphy Center in 1990. Since then, Wilson added, county school music teachers have continued the tradition, coordinating festivals for 4th- through 8th-grade students.
The 6:30 p.m. concert will feature music from a variety of time periods and genres, Blooding said.
"One highlight of the program will be a piece scored for voices and Orff instruments, arranged by Brecht," she said.
The March 13 concert is free and open to the public.

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Attention, Media: For interview requests or to secure art from prior RCSECF events, please contact Musselman @ 615-898-2493 or at tmusselm@mtsu.edu.