Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Office of University Relations
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
publicinfo@selu.edu
www.selu.edu/NewsEvents
Date: 4/3/98
Contact: Christina Chapple 95
Editors: Photos accompany release
SLU, HONDURAN MUSIC SCHOOL WORKING TOWARD STUDENT EXCHANGE
HAMMOND -- The Southeastern Louisiana University Chamber Winds will travel to
Honduras, April 15-18, to present a series of concerts and clinics, including a performance for
the Central American country's President and First Lady.
The ensemble's trip is part of a musical friendship that is developing between
Southeastern and a Honduran music high school, a relationship that could blossom into a full-
fledged -- and mutually beneficial -- student exchange program.
The 10-member student ensemble, conducted by Southeastern Director of Bands Frank
Dubuy, will fly to San Pedro Sula, home of the Escuela de Musica Victoriano Lopez. They will
perform that evening for the school's young musicians, then travel to Tegucigalpa, Honduras'
capital, where they will be the stars of a special concert in the National Theatre, "the Lincoln
Center of Honduras," said Dubuy. They will also give clinics for high school musicians in
Tegucigalpa and at Victoriano Lopez.
The Tegucigalpa concert's audience will include Honduran President Carlos Roberto
Flores and his wife, Mary. The President and First Lady have special ties to Louisiana: Flores is
a Louisiana State University graduate and his wife is a Louisiana native.
Dubuy said playing before such a distinguished audience in the restored national theatre
will be a thrilled for the Southeastern musicians. "The theatre dates from the turn of the century
and it is European in construction, with two rows of boxes all around the house. It's very intimate
and has great acoustics. The kids are going to love it," said Dubuy.
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SLU-HONDURAS -- Add One
Chamber Winds members are Marcia Lyons of Chalmette, flute; David Petit of Luling,
oboe; Jason Rusk of Meraux and Rahni Kennedy of Baton Rouge, clarinet; Charlie Forrest of
Hammond, alto saxophone; Julie Legleu of Baton Rouge, bassoon; Brock Ballow of Baton
Rouge, horn; Don Woods of Decatur, Ala., trumpet; Brennan Arceneaux of Hammond,
euphonium; and Matthew McLean of Baton Rouge, trombone.
The opportunity for students to give a public performance in a foreign country is just one
of the benefits Southeastern will receive from its budding relationship with the Victoriano Lopez
music school, Dubuy said.
The agreement was signed earlier this year between Southeastern, Victoriano Lopez, and
the Fundacion Filarmonica de San Pedro Sula, a private foundation that supports the school and
the musical growth of Honduras in general. Under its informal terms, Southeastern and the
Honduran school are exploring ways to share students and resources.
The relationship between Southeastern and the Escuela de Musica Victoriano Lopez took
root last year because of the Central American contacts of music professors Frankie Kelly and
Ron Nethercutt, who is also general manager of KSLU. Kelly taught for a number of years in
Mexico and Nethercutt travels and performs frequently in Central America.
Last spring, the Faculty Brass Quintet, which included Dubuy and music department head
David Evenson, made a three-city concert tour to Honduras and also gave clinics at several
schools, including Victoriano Lopez. In September, four Southeastern professors went to
Victoriano Lopez to offer coaching and clinics to the schools students and ensembles. Violin
professor Yakov Voldman was also invited to the school to judge its prestigious concerto
competition.
Kelly, who is making the trip with the Chamber Winds as a clarinet soloist, said the
Victoriano Lopez students are "incredible young people with outstanding academics," who "have
raw beautiful talent. They are playing from the soul." However, music programs like Victoriano
Lopez's "have almost no resources," she said. "Everything is a struggle, evening getting
instruments and music!"
"They want us to improve their curricula. Their graduates would come to us as
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SLU-HONDURAS -- Add Two
undergraduates and enroll in the music education or music performance degree programs. In
exchange, we would send them teachers, perhaps even student teachers who excel in the areas of
performance," she said.
Kelly has been corresponding regularly with Fundacion president Dr. Leonardo Landa
and Victoriano Lopez director Ruben Moncada. On the Southeastern end, she has been writing
grants to help fund the program and working with Southeastern's foreign languages and English
departments on language programs for the Honduran students, who must be able to pass TOFEL
-- Test of English as a Foreign Language -- to enroll at Southeastern.
Two Honduran students have already tested the water at Southeastern. In February,
Gabriela Landa, a Victoriano Lopez clarinet student, arrived at Southeastern to spend the
semester as the university's guest. She was joined in March by Mary Lucy Moreno, the school's
clarinet teacher and principle clarinetist for Honduras' national symphony.
The young women have been studying English, taking private music lessons and
performing with student ensembles. Before they return to San Pedro Sula at the semester's end,
they will both give a student recital. Both hope to come back Southeastern in the fall, Landa as
an undergraduate music major, Moreno as a graduate student.
And Kelly and Dubuy hope they will be followed as early as next fall by more
Victoriano Lopez students.
Southeastern's Honduran connection is a great outreach program, Dubuy said. "Our
students will be participating in the musical development of Honduras," he said.
- SLU -
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