Contact: Maridith Geuder
Emily Jones and Jeff McKee
A classical guitar duo formed just last year will be guest artists for a Sept. 26 concert at Mississippi State University.
Emily Jones and Jeff McKee will be featured in the 3 p.m. public program at the Bettersworth Auditorium of Giles Hall. Both are seeking advanced guitar performance degrees at the University of Arizona.
MSU's music education department is sponsoring their appearance.
Among program selections will be an arrangement of the Overture to Rossini's "Barber of Seville," as well as "Four Brazilian Ponteios" by contemporary composer Celso Machado and "Who is Eve?" by Miorslav Loncar, a native of Croatia who directs the guitar program at William Carey College.
Jones began her musical studies at age 7 by learning to perform on the bluegrass mandolin. She went on to study at William Carey under Loncar's direction. She won solo competitions in the Mississippi Music Teachers' Association Convention and received honorable mention in the Southern Division MNTA Collegiate Artist Competition. She also received the top honor of the 2003 Portland International Guitar Competition.
She is completing a master's degree in guitar performance at Arizona.
McKee began formal guitar instruction when he was 20, attending Oklahoma's Northeastern State University. He earned a master's degree at the University of Texas, where he founded the UT Guitarists Play UT Composers series and taught a children's studio.
In 1998, he earned a graduate fellowship to pursue his doctorate at Arizona. He is co-founder of Allegro, a classical guitar program for children in Tucson.
For more information about the MSU performance, telephone the music education department at 662-325-3070.