Contact: Kay Fike Jones
The composition of a Mississippi State University music education professor is part of a recently released commercial recording of contemporary piano music.
"Nocturne," Douglas McConnell's creation for solo piano, is one of seven pieces on a compact disc entitled "Contemporary American Electric Music for the Piano, Volume 4."
Julliard-educated pianist Jeffrey Jacob, a teacher at St. Mary's College in South Bend, Ind., produced the CD. Centaur Records and New Ariel Recordings are handling the distribution.
"This is the first time I've had something I wrote included on a commercial CD," McConnell said. "It's a milestone for me."
Originally commissioned by fellow MSU music education professor Joel Harrison, "Nocturne" is a movement from a larger suite titled "Just a Few Trifles, Some Hymns, and a Prayer."
McConnell, an associate professor, teaches music theory and composition. He also is the music education department's composer-in-residence. His compositions have been performed both in the United States and Europe. In the U.S., his works have been premiered by the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus, Indianapolis Symphony and Chorus and the Dayton Bach Festival, among others.
McConnell recently received a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for a chamber composition titled "Song of the Beloved." At present, he is working on "Lily," a one-act opera whose development is supported by grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission and Mississippi State's Arts and Humanities Research Program.
A doctoral graduate of the University of Cincinnati, he joined the MSU faculty in 1990.
The CD may be ordered directly from Centaur Records Inc. at (504) 336-4877 or from New Ariel Recordings, c/o the Zarex Corp., at 1-800-336-2224.