Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Music faculty members at Mississippi State University and Mississippi University for Women will present a classical recital Friday [Sept. 26] at the Starkville First United Methodist Church.
Free to all, the 7:30 p.m. performance by Rosangela Sebba and Elizabeth Jones, her former MSU music department colleague, will feature a Romantic Era-inspired repertoire that includes seven works by German, Czech and Russian composers.
Sebba, the music department's professor of piano, theory and ear training, said the program is the third collaboration between her and Jones, a 2010 MSU music/vocal performance graduate.
A Starkville native, Jones is a former MSU adjunct instructor of voice now teaching voice and music appreciation at the Columbus institution.
"Our performance should be interesting and enjoyable, as it has been designed to expose music lovers of all ages to languages with which they may not be familiar," said Sebba.
Founder and coordinator of the MSU piano pre-college program and retreat, Sebba currently serves as the Mississippi Music Teachers Association's vice president for collegiate and national competitions. She is featured on the Mississippi Arts Commission's Artist Roster, with a CD titled "Eight Sonatinas and the Sonata for Piano Solo by M. Camargo Guarnieri" released in 2010.
Prior to joining MSU in 2000, the Brazilian native held positions at Gustav Ritter State Conservatory-Brazil, University of Southern Mississippi and Pearl River Community College. Additionally, she is the founder and coordinator of the Brazilian Music Festival and has given recitals, master classes and lectures in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, Costa Rica, England and Spain.
Sebba is a music graduate of the Universidade Federal de Goias and the University of Wyoming, with additional studies completed at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City.
Jones, who also holds a master's degree from Georgia State University, said she appreciates the "wonderful opportunity" to return for a hometown performance.
"I have fallen in love with Russian repertoire in the past few years, and the set of Russian romances that we will be performing is four of my favorites," the daughter of Bill and Carol Jones added.
An active performer in Europe and the United States, Jones is a mezzo-soprano who took first-place honors in the 2013 National Association of Teachers of Singing and 2011 Classical Singer Vocal competitions.
In addition to performing multiple roles during the past two seasons at Varna International Opera Academy in Bulgaria, Jones participated in the 2011 Russian Opera Training Workshop at the Philadelphia-based Academy of Vocal Arts.
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