Contact: Sammy McDavid
Mississippi State's music education department and its University Bands will sponsor a freewheeling-and free-jazz concert Jan. 30 in the McComas Hall theater.
Open to all and beginning at 6:30 p.m., the campus program includes the MSU Jazz Ensemble and Kent Sills High School Honors Jazz Ensemble, along with guest artists Harry Watters and Rebecca Koenigberg. Watters, a soloist with the United States Army Blues jazz ensemble in Washington, D.C., will perform on the trombone, while Koenigberg, an assistant professor in the department, will be featured vocalist.
Directed by department head Michael R. Brown, the concert is being held in conjunction with the 2003 Mississippi State University Honor Band Festival, which is expected to attract more than 350 participants from throughout Mississippi and neighboring states.
A select group of high school students attending the festival, the honors jazz ensemble is a tribute to the longtime MSU faculty member and University Bands director. Now retired to Starkville, Sills led in developing the department's jazz music education program. He also directed numerous summer tours of the Lions Clubs of Mississippi All-State Band.
Harry Watters is a Huntsville, Ala., native and Yamaha recording artist who has performed professionally with such New Orleans greats as Al Hirt, Pete Fountain and the Dukes of Dixieland, among others. He attended graduate school at the University of New Orleans after graduating from North Texas State University.
Voice specialist Rebecca Koenigberg, a finalist in national opera competitions and lead performer in several major American operatic productions, holds a bachelor's degree from Concordia College in Minnesota and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado.
For more information on the program, telephone (662) 325-3070.