Wind Ensemble performs December 10

SALISBURY, MD ---The Salisbury University Wind Ensemble performs on Tuesday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m. on the stage of Holloway Hall Auditorium. The performance, free and open to the public, features as its guest artist soprano Beth Holder, who will perform "Four Maryland Songs" for soprano and wind ensemble written by composer Jack Stamp in 2001.

An SU graduate, Holder studied voice with Kathleen Turner-Barlow and Dr. Sandra Jarrett. While on campus, she performed as a member of the Chamber Choir and the University Chorale and was a member of Mu Phi Epsilon, the international professional music fraternity. She performs as a soloist for the Easton Choral Arts Society and performs in numerous recitals and performances throughout the Eastern Shore area.

The SU Wind Ensemble will also premiere the 2002 "Ballerbach Consortium" commission, Pater Noster, written by composer John Franzten. The composition was composed in response to the tragedy of September 11, 2001 and is based on the Gregorian chant, "Our Father." Franzten currently teaches music in the public schools in the Severn Park area of Maryland.

The SU Wind Ensemble is under the direction of Dr. Richard L. Johnson, professor of music and director of instrumental music at the University. Johnson teaches courses in undergraduate and graduate conducting, orchestration and arranging, instrumental methods and music education. He currently serves as chair of the Department of Music in the Fulton School of Liberal Arts.

Johnson has appeared internationally conducting works by the Hedwig Van Amerigen Rome Prize Fellow David Rakowski at the American Academy in Rome, Italy. He also lectured at the Ferenc Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary at the invitation of Liszt Academy conductor, Lazlo Marosi. Johnson is well known in the mid-Atlantic states as a conductor of contemporary wind music. World premiere performances include a chamber version of Act II Scene III of Peter Westergaard's opera, The Tempest, James Syler's O Magnum Mysterium for solo soprano and wind ensemble, Beth Wiemann's The Shortness of All the Notes for 10 winds and tape and Pater Noster by John Frantzen.

For more information about the concert, please call the SU Music Department at 410-543-6385.