Contact: Maridith Geuder
An Arkansas community college administrator is the new director of the Starkville Symphony Chorus that now is launching its 26th season.
Michelle Johnston of Helena, Ark., will lead the local volunteer singing group. For the past year, she has headed the music division at Phillips County Community College in the Mississippi River city.
Johnston is a 1993 summa cum laude graduate of the University of Alabama, with a bachelor's degree in piano performance. She received a master's degree in piano performance from Louisiana State University two years later.
A Mississippi Piano Showcase Performing Artist in 1996, she holds first-place honors in the Ruth Hollis Contemporary Music, Alabama Federation of Music Clubs and Wurlitzer Collegiate Artist competitions, among others.
The symphony chorus was organized in 1972 as part of the Starkville-Mississippi State University Symphony Association. During its quarter-century history, the group has presented programs from "Oklahoma," "South Pacific" and other Broadway musicals, as well as from a variety of classical works.
Persons interested in joining are invited to rehearsals each Monday at the Choral Music Building on the Mississippi State campus. The hour-long sessions begin at 7:30 p.m.
The choral and other buildings of the music education department are located on Morrill Road, just west of the President's Home.
For more information, telephone (601) 323-7520.