Crane School of Music Opens Semester with Faculty Gala Concert Sept. 9

POTSDAM, NY (08/28/2014)(readMedia)-- The Crane School of Music will usher in the new academic year with the annual Crane Faculty Gala Opening Concert on Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall.

An annual favorite of audience members, this year's program will feature a variety of works performed by members of the Crane faculty.

"Crane's annual faculty gala embodies in so many ways the School's vibrant musical community, and what it means to our area: The concert welcomes back our continuing students, gives new students an inspiring experience from faculty with whom they will study, and provides all our community patrons with a wonderful launch for the exciting concert season to come," said Crane School of Music Dean Dr. Michael Sitton.

This year's concert will include a performance by the Potsdam Brass Quintet, an operatic trio from Mozart's "Cosí fan tutte," and solo works for piano and violin.

In addition, the performance will feature excerpts of a new work by Dr. David Heinick, a professor of music theory and composition. Heinick composed the work for Director of Bands Brian K. Doyle and the Crane wind faculty.

Titled "Tweets," Heinick's eight-movement piece is a divertimento for 11 wind instruments, and is named after the popular social media platform, Twitter. Each movement title serves not only as a character description of the music to follow, but also references the hashtag nomenclature that has itself become culturally iconic. Additionally, each movement is brief, no longer than 140 seconds of music, paralleling the terse nature of a tweet, which cannot exceed 140 characters.

Crane faculty gala performers include:

• the Potsdam Brass Quintet, with John Ellis and James Madeja on trumpet, Kelly Drifmeyer on horn, Mark Hartman on trombone and Charles Guy on tuba;
• Donald George, tenor;
• Jonathan Stinson, baritone;
• David Pittman-Jennings, baritone;
• Kirk Severtson, piano;
• Rosemarie Suniga, piano;
• Raphael Sanders, clarinet;
• John Lindsey, violin;
• Michael Sitton, piano;
• Kenneth Andrews, flute;
• Sasha Shatalova, oboe;
• Julianne Kirk Doyle, clarinet;
• Carol Lowe, bassoon;
• Robert Young, alto saxophone,
• and Brian K. Doyle, conductor.

Visiting scholar Jie Zhou, soprano, from the University of Nanjing, China, will also perform.

This event is free, and the public is invited to attend. A free reception will follow in the Hosmer lobby.

This concert will be broadcast live on the SUNY Potsdam website at the performance time. To view the program and see other upcoming streaming performances, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/streaming.

For more information about SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution.

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