News release
Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061
publicinfo@selu.edu Summer  2005 news releases Public Information home News archive

Contact: Christina Chapple
Date: 10/21/05
 
Southeastern Chamber Orchestra soloistsClick on image for publication quality photo 
NEW BEGINNINGS – The Southeastern Louisiana University Chamber Orchestra’s Oct. 24 Fanfare concert, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts, will feature a number of new international student musicians, including, from left, Milena Rusanova of Ruse, Bulgaria; Anton Smirnov of Kherson, Ukraine; Jie Gao of Beijing, China; Vanya Karachobanova of Varna, Bulgaria; and Olena Gladkova of Odessa.

Henry Jones and Richard SchwartzCHAMBER ORCHESTRA SOLOISTS – The Southeastern Louisiana University Chamber Orchestra will welcome faculty soloists Henry Jones, piano, and Richard Schwartz, alto saxophone, when the orchestra performs Monday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. The concert is part of Southeastern’s Fanfare arts festival.

SOUTHEASTERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA CELEBRATES “NEW BEGINNINGS”
       HAMMOND – The focus will be on “New Beginnings” when the Southeastern Louisiana University Chamber Orchestra takes the stage for its Oct. 24 Fanfare concert.
       Director Yakov Voldman, head of the Department of Music and Dramatic Arts’ string program, has given the concert its name in honor of the orchestra’s new members – a new group of talented young international student musicians. 
       The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts. 
       Last May saw the graduation of another group of international student musicians, who had become familiar faces on campus for their many performances at campus events, 
       “At our spring concert,” Voldman explained, “to say goodbye to these students, we performed Haydn’s ‘Farewell Symphony.’ In this work, musicians, one at a time, stop playing, snuff out a candle, and leave the stage with their instrument until only the conductor and two violinists are left. It was very moving because we knew they were leaving and that we would miss them very much.
       “But now we have many new students and this concert is a ‘new beginning’ for them and the orchestra,” he said. The new students, he added, “are very good professionals – which you will hear when you come to our concert.”
       New orchestra members include undergraduate Anton Smirnov of Kherson, Ukraine; and graduate students Vanya Karachobanova of Varna, Bulgaria; Jie Gao of Beijing, China, Milena Rusanova of Ruse, Bulgaria; Igor Gladkov and Olena Gladkova of Odessa, Ukraine; and George Bosnea of Constanta, Romania.
       Under Voldman’s baton, the orchestra will perform works by Rossini and G. Holst. Faculty soloists Henry Jones, piano, will be featured in Mozart’s “Concerto in B-flat major,” while his Department of Music and Dramatic Arts colleague, Richard Schwartz, alto saxophone, will solo in T. Ryabchikova’s “Express Concerto.”
       After graduating from Yale University in 1978, Jones spent 10 years in New York City as a free-lance vocal coach and accompanist. During that decade, his credits included choral performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and vocal recitals at Lincoln Center. He also was musical director of a gymnastic exhibition at Madison Square Garden, and Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including “Evita,” “Jerome Robbins' Broadway,” and “The Fantasticks.”  
       Jones received his doctoral degree in piano in 1994 from Louisiana State University and taught at Minot State University in North Dakota and Missouri Southern State College in Joplin before joining Southeastern’s faculty.  He was a winner of the LSU Symphony Concerto Competition, and was nominated several times for best musical director by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets.
       Instructor of saxophone and director of jazz studies, Schwartz authored the internationally recognized intonation tool “The Tuning C.D.” and the instructional guide “Circular Breathe Now.” He has worked as a freelance musician throughout the United States and Italy, performing solos with such musical legends as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. He has played backup for recording artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Byron Stripling, and Patti Austin and performed in orchestras, most notably the Boston Pops. As a woodwind doubler,  Schwartz performed in pit orchestras, including the national tours of Kiss Me, Kate and The Producers. 
       Schwartz is a graduate of Temple University and the University of Michigan. Having formerly instructed at Boston and Brandeis universities, he continues his role as saxophone chamber coach at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He is a member of the Music Educator’s National Conference, the American Federation of Musicians, the College Music Society, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. 
        Tickets -- $5, adults, and $3, senior citizens and Southeastern faculty, and staff -- are available from noon to 5 p.m., weekdays, at the Fanfare box office in the Columbia Theatre lobby, 220 E. Thomas St., 985-543-4371, and online at www.columbiatheatre.org. Admission is free for all students. 
       For additional information about the concert and other Fanfare 2005 events, contact the Columbia Theatre at 985-543-4366 or visit www.columbiatheatre.org.