Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--During two days in early October, pops, blues, jazz, and other popular music will be featured at community and school concerts sponsored by the Starkville/Mississippi State Symphony Orchestra.
Both will involve the university's seven-member State Messengers under the direction of Michael Brown, music department head and symphony director.
The annual Pops on the Plaza concert begins at 6 p.m. Oct. 3 on the plaza of Cadence Bank in downtown Starkville. Portions of Main Street will be closed to allow those attending to dance to tunes such as "Take the A Train," "It Don't Mean a Thing" and "The Girl from Ipanema."
In addition to Brown on trumpet, featured solo artists for the swing, jazz, ballads, and other numbers include Cliff Taylor on trombone; Robert Damm, drums; and Alphonzo Sanders, tenor saxophone.
Taylor is the associate director of MSU Bands who also serves as principal trombonist with the Meridian Symphony, while Damm is a music education department colleague well-known for his study of and work with diverse percussion instruments. Sanders is chair of the MVSU music department and director of the B.B. King Blues Initiative.
The group also will perform a series of six 50-minute Children's Concerts on the 3rd and 4th for area school children in kindergarten-fifth grade. Students from county, city and private schools, as well as those receiving home schooling, are being invited to participate in the sessions at Starkville's Greensboro Center.
In addition to performing, the musicians will provide educational information about the history--and their origins in Mississippi--of blues, rock and jazz.
For more information, contact Brown at 662-325-3070.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.