[258] MTSU Hosts 10th Annual Flute Festival Jan. 30

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 20, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Office of News and Public Affairs, 615-898-2919

MTSU HOSTS 10TH ANNUAL FLUTE FESTIVAL JAN. 30

(MURFREESBORO)—The 10th annual MTSU Flute Festival, featuring guests Angeleita Floyd and Daniel Velasco, will be Saturday, Jan. 30, with registration beginning at 8 a.m. in the Wright Music Building lobby on the MTSU campus.
"I am thrilled to have both guest artists this year, said Deanna Little, MTSU professor of flute. “Dr. Floyd was my undergraduate teacher and the greatest inspiration in my musical life. She is vibrant, energetic and a truly amazing musician and teacher."
Floyd will work with and lead the Honors Flute Choir in concert at 10 a.m. in Hinton Hall of the WMB and teach a morning session at 9 o’clock titled "No time warm-ups warm up! (Loose lips, loaded lungs and lightning speed).”
Then, at 1 p.m. in the WMB’s Hinton Hall, guest artist Valesco, a native of Quito, Ecuador, will give a public recital.
"Daniel Velasco is also a student of Angeleita Floyd's and he is a young, up and coming artist," Little said. "He recently won the (National Flute Association’s) Young Artist Competition as well as the Minnesota Orchestra's Young Artist Competition."
Other flute festival events will include a High School Solo and a Junior Solo competition, as well as flute exhibits including Miles Ahead Instrument Service and Sales, with repair services available.
Guest artist Floyd has been professor of flute at the University of Northern Iowa since 1986. Most recently, she was a featured guest artist at the 2009 National Flute Association Convention in New York City, directed and gave master classes at university-level summer flute workshops.
• ADMISSION: Admission for the flute festival is $15 to register for the day as a participating flutist. The general public may register as a guest for one or all of the public concerts and public competitions for a one-time charge of $5.
For more information, please access www.mtsu.edu/~drhahn/flutefest10.html or call Little at 615-898-2473.

About the Guest Performers

Floyd has fostered numerous prize-winning students on the regional and national level. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Stetson University, where she studied with the eminent English flutist Geoffrey Gilbert and received Master of Music, Master of Music Education and Doctor of Music degrees from Florida State University. Her teachers included Jean-Pierre Rampal, William Bennett, Trevor Wye, Peter Lloyd, Irene Maddox and Charles DeLaney.
Guest artist Velasco has studied with Luis and Luciano Carrera. In Ecuador, he attended the National Conservatory starting at age 6 and graduated in 2004. He was also principal flutist of the Youth Orchestra of Ecuador, where he had the opportunity to play as a soloist. In January 2005, he was selected to be a member of the Latin American Youth Orchestra in Caracas, Venezuela, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and Claudio Abbado. He is studying for a master's degree at the University of Texas at Austin under the guidance of Marianne Gedigian.

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With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.