Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Two junior music majors and a faculty member at Mississippi State are being featured this week during a regional conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
A composition by Antonio L. Rice of Brooksville will be performed by clarinetist Cynthia M. "Cindy" Wharton of Grove City, Ohio. Rice is pursuing degrees in piano and voice at the university; Wharton, in music education.
The event marks the first time MSU students have been invited to perform at the College Music Society gathering. The organization is a consortium of collegiate, conservatory and independent musicians from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Elaine Peterson, an assistant professor of double reeds in MSU's department of music education, also will perform. Her selection is an original work by composer Michael Burns.
Written specifically for solo clarinet, Rice's "Konflikt" derives its name from a conflict that once arose between two musicians he knew. In the piece, the parties are represented by the ever-increasing agitations of the instrument's high and low registers.
Minister of music at Charity-Fairview Baptist Church in Crawford, Rice studies voice with Eleanor McClellan, piano with Rosangela Sebba and composition with Jason Bahr. [Information on Rice's parents is not available.]
Wharton, who studies clarinet with instructor Sheri Falcone, is the daughter of William Wharton of Perrysburg, Ohio, and Mary Kirk of Grove City.
Peterson, who teaches oboe and bassoon, will perform "Swamp Song: For Bassoon and CD," a piece written at the Electronic Music Studios of New Zealand's Victoria University. While a recording of the piece manipulates sound electronically, her live performance will employ techniques designed to produce electronic-sounding effects.
Peterson holds music performance degrees from Alma (Mich.) College, Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Conn., and University of North Carolina at Greensboro.