College to Host Honorary Concert in Tribute to Longtime Professor Dr. Scott Eggert

LVC faculty members will honor Eggert's 30 years at the College in Sept. 15 concert

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LVC faculty members will honor Dr. Scott Eggert’s 30 years at the College in Sept. 15 concert

ANNVILLE, PA (09/04/2013)(readMedia)-- Lebanon Valley College will host a special tribute concert for Dr. Scott Eggert, retired professor of theory and composition at the College for the past 30 years, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013 in Lutz Hall of the Blair Music Center. The honorary concert is free and open to the public.

The concert will feature excerpts from compositions that reflect Eggert's uniquely eclectic style, including "Road Trip" for clarinet and saxophone, performed by Beverly Butts and Tom Strohman; "Dance Card" for violin and cello, performed by Johannes Dietrich and Marie-Aline Cadieux; "Sonata for Trombone and Piano," performed by James Erdman and Eric Fung; "Three Nocturnes for Flute and Piano," performed by Michelle Barraclough and Eric Fung; "Quincunx" for solo piano, performed by Shelly Moorman-Stahlman; and "Peacock Pie" for voice and piano, performed by Rebecca Lister and Eric Fung. All of the performers are members of the LVC faculty with whom Eggert has closely worked over the past three decades.

"I've been incredibly lucky to have had such splendid colleagues during my tenure in the department of music-colleagues who not only care deeply about the art of music, but who care deeply about the art of teaching," Eggert said. "That these talented, dedicated folks are committing the time and energy to play a concert of my music is-I hope it goes without saying-tremendously flattering and humbling. And I can't wait to hear it!"

"Sonata for Trombone and Piano" was written specifically for Erdman and his quartet in 1987. It is a piece that Eggert describes as "quintessentially 'Jim-ish'" when he recalls the impetus behind the piece: "Jim was the first performer at Lebanon Valley College to ask me to write a piece of music for him. I was terrifically honored, and, perhaps with a little too much enthusiasm, gave him this piece-a three-movement, close to 40-minute behemoth; probably the longest trombone sonata in existence! This is always the music I hear in my head when I think of Jim's 'voice.' It speaks so clearly of the beauty and humanity of his playing."

"Quincunx," a "raucous, bravura piano fantasy" that Dr. Eggert describes as "something completely different," captures his unique style of composition, combining tango, samba, bolero, salsa styles that are "contrapuntally combined and rhythmically transformed in quite complex ways."

"I came to LVC, and I remained here for 30 years, for the same fundamental reason," Eggert said. "It was my sense that this was a place where I could make a difference; a place where my particular gifts, and breadth of interests, would make me useful to my students, both as musicians, and, even more importantly, as persons. In other words, I hope that my being here mattered, at least to some of those I was privileged to work with."

Eggert joined the faculty of Lebanon Valley College in 1983 after attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Chicago, and the University of Kansas. He taught classes in music theory, composition, counterpoint, and orchestration.

In addition to numerous Lebanon Valley College faculty and staff performers and attendees, dozens of Eggert's former students will return for the concert and to celebrate Eggert's legacy at the Valley.