[105] Cello/piano duo returns to MTSU’s School of Music for free Saturday concert

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — An Indiana music duo will return to MTSU Saturday, Sept. 30, to share their musical talents in a free public concert featuring works by Frédéric Chopin and other composers.

Cellist John Winninger and pianist Diane Rivera will perform at 3 p.m. Sept. 30 in Hinton Hall inside the Wright Music Building and will be accompanied by MTSU School of Music flute professor Deanna Little for some songs.

The performance will include “Sonata in G minor” by Henry Eccles; “Fantaisie for Flute and Piano,” “Romance en la majeur” and “Elegy,” all by Gabriel Faure; “Trio for Flute, Violoncello, and Piano” by Bohuslav Martinu; and Chopin’s “Cello Sonata in G minor.”

A searchable campus map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.

The Winninger-Rivera Duo last performed at MTSU in 2015 when they helped kick off the School of Music’s 2015-16 concert season.

Winninger is a charter member of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and served as its principal cellist for 35 years, as well as principal cellist in the Bloomington Pops Orchestra. He has been playing his circa-1885 French Bernadel violoncello since 1962 and recently retired as senior producer/director at Indiana University’s WTIU public TV station after a 49-year career.

Rivera has taught piano in numerous collegiate programs, including the University of Evansville, University of Richmond and Drake University, as well as in Baltimore’s Peabody Preparatory community school for the performing arts and the pre-college Young Pianists Program at Indiana University. As a soloist, Rivera has performed in recitals across the country and collaborated with singers, woodwind players and string players.

Winninger and Rivera met through the Community Chamber Music Association and formed a duo in 1993. They’ve appeared on music series throughout the Midwest and at art galleries and universities and have presented a biannual series of chamber music programs since 2010.

At MTSU, professor Little currently teaches applied flute, classes in woodwind methods, literature and pedagogy and directs the MTSU Flute Choir. A multi-award-winning musician, she is a member of the Stones River Chamber Players, the MTSU Faculty Wind Quartet and the F4 Winds Flute Quartet and has performed with the Nashville Symphony, Nashville Opera, Nashville Ballet and Nashville Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Huntsville Symphony in Alabama, the Sewanee (Tennessee) Symphony Orchestra and the Evansville Philharmonic in Indiana.

For details on more MTSU School of Music concerts, call 615-898-2493 or visit the Concert Calendar at http://www.mtsu.edu/music/calendar.php.