Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Two internationally acclaimed pianists will join with Mississippi State faculty artists and some 20 students June 5-10 for the university's 21st annual Mississippi Piano Showcase.
Guest artists Logan Skelton of the University of Michigan and Jennifer Hayghe of Louisiana State University will present public recitals during a week in which talented high school students and their teachers are immersed in intensive European-style master classes.
"Our clinicians this year have performed to wide acclaim on some of the premier stages in the world," said showcase coordinator Jackie Edwards-Henry. "Their MSU recitals will be an opportunity for area audiences to enjoy remarkable musicianship."
Edwards-Henry is a professor of piano in the sponsoring MSU music education department.
Skelton, an associate professor of piano, has been featured on National Public Radio's "Audiophile Audition," "Performance Today," "All Things Considered," and "Morning Edition." A composer and frequent performer, he has produced two compact discs for Centaur Records--"American Grab Bag: Piano Music of Our Time," and the more recent "Songs of Logan Skelton."
Hayghe, also an associate professor of piano, is a graduate of Juilliard School of Music, where she received the Gina Bachauer International Piano Scholarship and Sony Elevated Standards Fellowship, among others. In addition to a solo performance at Carnegie Hall, she has been featured with the National Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Bunkamura.
All of the week's public performances at MSU will be held in the McComas Hall theater.
Admission is $10 to the June 5 and 7 events featuring the guest artists. Admission to a faculty concert on the 9th is $10 for the general public; free for university students and employees with identification. A concluding student recital on the 10th is free.
The specific public events include:
--June 5, 4 p.m., Jean B. Taylor Memorial Concert featuring Skelton performing the works by Sergei Prokofieff, William Bolcom and Franz Liszt. Clayborne D. Taylor of Starkville sponsors the annual tribute to his late wife.
--June 7, 7:30 p.m., Holland Memorial Concert featuring Hayghe performing works by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Grieg, Schubert, and Liszt. This concert is sponsored by Melissa Holland and Barbara Criswell through the Holland Music for All Endowment that honors their parents, both MSU faculty members. Robert Holland was a former English department head; his wife, an assistant professor of management.
--June 9, 7:30 p.m., collaborative concert by MSU music education faculty members. Jason Baker will be featured on percussion; Michael Brown, trumpet; Edwards-Henry, Wendy Payton and Rosangela Sebba, piano; Sheri Falcone, clarinet; Michael Huff, trumpet; Richard Human, trombone; Michael and Carol Patilla, guitar and piano; and Elaine Peterson, bassoon. A composition for bassoon and piano by faculty composer Jason Bahr also is on the program.
--June 10, 10:30 a.m., concluding recital by Piano Showcase students.
For more information, telephone Edwards-Henry at (662) 325-3070.