Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Some 350 skilled high school musicians from around the Southeast are at Mississippi State this week for the university's 2007 Honor Band Clinic.
Each student is scheduled to participate in one of five clinic ensembles taking place Wednesday [Jan. 24] through Saturday [the 27th]. Sponsored by the music department and its office of bands, sessions will include jazz, percussion, wind, and two concert groups.
Fred J. Allen, Lance Britt and Carol Jacobs are guest conductors. Allen and Jacobs have traveled from the states of Texas and Alabama, respectively, while Britt is an MSU alumnus now teaching in North Carolina.
Though clinic sessions are limited to participants, three free concerts are open to all. The jazz and percussion groups will perform at 6:30 p.m. Thursday [the 25th] in the McComas Hall theater, while the clinic honor band concert begins at 1 p.m. Saturday in Lee Hall auditorium.
On Friday [the 26th], the MSU Wind Ensemble will be featured in an 8 p.m. host concert in McComas Hall.
Elva Kay Lance, MSU director of bands, said the clinic is among the oldest of its kind in the region.
"It began in the 1950s as a new materials clinic," Lance said. "At that time, its purpose was to introduce directors to newly published music. Over the years, it has evolved into its current format."
For additional information, contact Lance at 662-325-2713.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.