Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A statewide guitar festival at Mississippi State is bringing together national artists, leading state performers and students for competition, master classes and concerts.
To be held Feb. 23 and 24, the annual gathering is sponsored this year by the university's music education department, along with the Golden Triangle Guitar Society, Starkville Area Arts Council, William Carey College of Hattiesburg, and Hinds Community College in Raymond.
Julian Gray will be the featured guest artist. He is a principal in the Gray/Pearl Classical Guitar Duo, as well as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University's prestigious Peabody Institute.
In addition to master classes during the day, Gray will present a free concert on the 23rd in the Bettersworth Auditorium of Giles Hall. Featuring a range of guitar literature, his program will begin at 7:30 p.m.
In addition to Gray's performance, two other free programs are scheduled during the conference. They include combined festival faculty concerts at 11 a.m., also on the 23rd, in the Colvard Union ballroom, and at 7:30 p.m. on the 24th in the Bettersworth Auditorium.
Other guitarists taking part in the campus festival include:
--Barry Hause, instructor of guitar and humanities at Belhaven College in Jackson;
--Miroslav Loncar, a native of Croatia serving as artist-in-residence at William Carey College;
--John Ingwerson, director of the guitar program at Hinds Community College; and
--Michael Patilla, assistant professor of guitar at MSU.
Gray has performed throughout the U.S., Canada and England. As part of the Gray/Pearl Duo, he also has been featured on National Public Radio's "Performance Today." He additionally serves as a member of the Baltimore Consort, an early-music ensemble that specializes in medieval and Renaissance music.
Active in commissioning new guitar music, Gray also is an award-winning writer on guitar-related topics.
For more information on the guitar conference, telephone the MSU music education department at (662) 325-3070.