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Email Announcements We Are Receiving Today: See What’s Going On Around The Community

1) Concerto-Aria Winners Join Appalachian Symphony Orchestra for Feb. 16 Performance

Winners of last fall’s concerto-aria competition in the Hayes School of Music will perform on Sunday, Feb. 16 with Appalachian Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra will also perform Mozart’s “Symphony No. 41 in C Major K. 551.” Dr. Chung Park is the director. The concert begins at 2 p.m. in the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts at Appalachian State University. Admission to the event is free. The soloists are Paul Cranfill, piano’ Christopher Plaas, tenor; and Alice Silva, violin. 

2) Guest Artists Ellen Elder and Ben McIlwain Perform March 2

Pianist Ellen Elder and tromboist Ben McIlwain will perform March 2 at 6 p.m. in the Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall at Appalachian State University. Admission is free. Elder and McIlwain are members of the music faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi. Their program consists of Richard Peaslee’s “Arrows of Time,” the premier of Charles Ingram’s “Sonatina,” Jacob ter Veldhuis’ “I Was Like Wow,” Allen Bonde’s “Ballad in Blue,” John Stevens’ “Sonata. Trombonist Drew Leslie from Appalachian’s Hayes School of Music will join the musicians for Ken Davies’ “Crossroads.” Elder is an assistant professor of piano and coordinates the piano accompanying program at Southern Miss. She also is the founder and director of the Southern Miss Piano Institute.  She holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Southern Mississippi. She is the winner of many competitions and awards for solo performance and teaching, most notably the Ann Arbor Society for the Musical Arts Competition. She was second place winner of the Memphis International Beethoven Sonata Competition and won the Higher Education Appreciation Day/Working for Academic Excellence Award established in 1988 by the Mississippi Legislature to honor faculty who have contributed to the promotion of academic excellence at each of the state’s public and private institutions. McIlwain holds degrees from Middle Tennessee State University, Manhattan School of Music, and The Florida State University. An avid supporter of modern music, McIlwain has commissioned and premiered solo trombone works by Chris Burton, Ken Davies, Charles Ingram, Jack Stamp and Daniel Whaley. In 2012, his chamber ensemble, Tromboteam, raised $10,000 through Kickstarter.com and commissioned nine new works for trombone ensemble, which have been recorded and will be released on the group’s first album this year. Upcoming projects include commissioning a concerto for trombone and orchestra by Polina Nazaykinskaya to be premiered February 2015. 

3) 19th-Century Compositions for Guitar and Piano Performed Feb. 13

Guitarist James Buckland and pianist Karen Wisser Buckland will present a free recital Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall at Appalachian State University. Admission is free. The musicians will perform 19th-Century compositions for guitar and piano. Buckland is an adjunct professor of guitar at Presbyterian College. He received his training at the University of Toronto, the University of Akron and the University of South Carolina. He conducted post-doctoral research on 19th-century performance practice at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan. As a guest clinician, Buckland has lectured and/or performed at the Guitar Foundation of America Convention, the Great Lakes Guitar Festival, the Symposium on Guitar and Improvisation and the Guild of American Luthiers Convention. He premiered his reconstruction of the “Second Concerto, Op. 36, for Terz Guitar and String Orchestra” by Maro Giuliani with Sinfonia de Camera. A luthier, Buckland builds guitars primarily in the 19th-century style, using original tools, materials and techniques. Karen Wisser Buckland is an associate professor of music and director of keyboard studies at Presbyterian College. She is the artistic director of the annual Presbyterian College Piano Clinic and the Orval Oleson Performance Competition. She holds degrees from Mansfield University and the University of South Carolina. Active as a soloist and collaborator, adjudicator and guest lecturer, Buckland has performed throughout the Southeast, Pennsylvania, Washington, Alaska and Canada. She is cofounder, with her husband, James, of Ludlamshöhle, a chamber ensemble dedicated to 19th-century music.

4) Pianist Dmitry Rachmanov Performs March 2 at Appalachian

Pianist Dmitry Rachmanov will perform March 2 at 3 p.m. at Appalachian State University in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free. Rachmanov is a professor of piano and head of keyboard studies at California State University. His recital will focus on “Alexander Scriabin: The Russian Prometheus.” Rachmanov will perform preludes and etudes by Scriabin, including two movements from “Sonata-Fantasy in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 19,” “Mazurka in D-Flat Major, Op. 40 No. 1,” “Waltz in A-Flat Major, Op. 38” and other compositions by the Russian composer of the turn of the 20th century. Scriabin drew his inspiration from the works of Chopin, Listz and Wagner to develop an impressionistic style that experimented with harmonies and sound effects. Rachmanov’s Boone performance is part of an all-Scriabin recital tour this spring schedule includes performances in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Moscow, Russia, Budapest, Hungary, Shanghai and Beijing, China, and Paris. Rachmanov has garnered acclaim for his passionate performances, refined musicianship and brilliant pianism. Music critics have called his playing “dazzling, thrilling, soulful, and deeply moving.” Hailed as a “suave and gifted pianist” by the New York Times, Rachmanov has performed at venues such as New York’s 92nd Street Y, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, London’s Barbican and South Bank Centres, and the Beijing, Xinghai and Shenzhen concert halls in China. Rachmanov studied at Moscow’s Gnesins School, is a graduate of The Juilliard School and holds the DMA from Manhattan School of Music. A sought-after educator, master class clinician, adjudicator and lecturer, Rachmanov has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and he has appeared as a guest artist at schools such as Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Shanghai Conservatory and Beijing Central Music School in China, UCLA, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Washington, University of Alaska, Anchorage, Florida State University, Arizona State University and Indiana University at Bloomington.

5) Baha’i Devotional Meeting 

There will be a Baha’i devotional meeting from 10 a.m. until noon in Stony Fork on Sunday, Feb. 16. The theme of the devotional will be “the nature of the soul and its existence after death.” All are welcome. For more information and directions call 828-268-2191.