[277] Stones River Chamber Players Slate 2nd of Season

FOR RELEASE: Jan. 25, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Tim Musselman, 615-898-2493

STONES RIVER CHAMBER PLAYERS SLATE 2ND CONCERT OF SEASON
‘Happy Anniversary 2011!’ Celebrates Composers’ Births

(MURFREESBORO)—The Stones River Chamber Players will present the second concert of the 2010-11 season, “Happy Anniversary 2011!”, dedicated to the anniversaries of composers’ births, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31, in Hinton Hall of the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus.
During the free public concert, the SRCP will perform works by Charles Loeffler, Gian Carlo Menotti and Malcolm Arnold.
“This year marks 200 years since the birth of Loeffler and 100 years since both Menotti and Arnold were born,” said Angela DeBoer, professor of horn at MTSU and co-coordinator of the group.
Also on the program is a work by Peter Ware, who was born 60 years ago.
The SRCP is scheduled to perform Ware’s “Chama, the Eagle and the Plumed Serpent,” Loeffler’s “Ballade Carnevalesque,” Menotti’s “Canti della lontananza” and Arnold’s “Brass Quintet Op. 73.”
“This program really showcases our talented and diverse faculty, bringing to the stage strings, piano, guitar, voice, woodwinds and brass,” DeBoer said.
MTSU faculty performer and pianist Dr. Arunesh Nadgir said the Loeffler work has "frequent changes in character, evoking a fantasy-like feel with wonderful instrumental combinations that create beautiful and vibrant colors."
Performer and MTSU faculty voice teacher Christine Isley-Farmer added that Mennoti’s “Canti della lontananza” was written for and dedicated to the famous German soprano Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.
“The set depicts an emotionally complex and broad landscape, ranging in subject matter from the uncertainty of lovers’ discord and grief-stricken drunkenness to eerie images of the death of inspiration depicted by glass-eyed mice,” Isley-Farmer said. “Menotti’s use of bitonality, chromaticism and hypnotic rhythmic patterns underscores the desolately intimate nature of these songs.”
The final piece of the program by Arnold has rather interesting origins, according to Dr. David Loucky, performer and professor of trombone at MTSU.
“John Swallow, who was the trombonist in the New York Brass Quintet for its entire history, tells that the group’s founder, trumpeter Bob Nagel, had occasion to meet Malcolm Arnold in England and asked if Arnold had ever written anything for brass,” Loucky said. “Arnold indicated that he never had, but Nagel simply made the suggestion to write for the NYBQ. … Several months later, a package arrived in the mail with Arnold's ‘Quintet.’ It was a gift to the group.”
DeBoer, Isley-Farmer, Loucky and Nadgir will be joined in the concert by fellow MTSU music professors Don Aliquo on saxophone, Michael Arndt on trumpet, Andrea Dawson on violin, Daryl Johnson on tuba, Deanna Little on flute, Laura Ann Ross on oboe, Jamey Simmons on trumpet, Maya Stone on bassoon and William Yelverton on guitar.
For more information on this and other concerts at the MTSU School of Music, please call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.

Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. MTSU recently unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

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IN BRIEF: The Stones River Chamber Players will present the second concert of the 2010-11 season, “Happy Anniversary 2011!”, dedicated to the anniversaries of composers’ births, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31, in Hinton Hall of the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus. During the free public concert, the SRCP will perform works by Charles Loeffler, Gian Carlo Menotti, Malcolm Arnold and Peter Ware. For more information on this and other concerts at the MTSU School of Music, please call 615-898-2493 or visit www.mtsumusic.com and click on the “Concert Calendar” link.

For MTSU news and information anytime, visit www.mtsunews.com.

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