Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Under the direction of Mississippi State music department head Barry E. Kopetz, the Starkville-Mississippi State University Symphony Orchestra opens its 2016-17 performance season with a Sept. 16 concert at Mississippi University for Women.
Free to all, the 7:30 p.m. program at Rent Auditorium in Columbus begins with Franz Joseph Haydn’s (1732-1809) “Symphony No. 6 in D major, popularly known as “Le matin.”
“While the nickname of ‘Le matin’—the morning, in French—did not originate with Haydn, its gradual opening seems to depict the breaking of dawn,” said Ryan Landis, MSU voice instructor and SSO operations manager.
Julia Mortyakova, MUW music department chair and associate professor of music, will be the featured soloist for Olga Harris’ “Piano Concerto No. 2.” Harris will be in attendance.
Rounding out the program will be the orchestra’s rendition of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-91) “Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385.” Also known as the “Haffner Symphony,” the work premiered in 1783 and calls for a variety of instruments, including pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, along with timpani and strings.
“This performance will highlight works of two masters of classical symphonic composition and provide an introduction to a contemporary symphonic work, making it a fitting opening for the Starkville-MSU Symphony Orchestra’s 48th season,” Landis said.
Founded in 1969, the Starkville-MSU Symphony Association is a nonprofit volunteer organization whose members work to educate, enlighten and share classical music with the city, university campus and other communities in the Golden Triangle region. For more information, visit www.starkvillesymphony.org and facebook.com/StarkvilleSymphony.
In addition to MSU and the City of Starkville, major association contributors include the J.W. Criss Foundation, Mississippi Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Renasant Bank, Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau and Columbus-based Gildea Foundation.
The association accepts tax-deductible donations via the MSU Foundation. To contribute, contact Lynn Durr at 662-325-8918 or ldurr@advservices.msstate.edu.
For additional concert information, contact Landis at 662-325-2872 or rml269@msstate.edu.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.