Contact: Sasha Steinberg
Photo by: submitted
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State's music department and the Starkville First Presbyterian Church are welcoming an internationally recognized concert pianist, composer, conductor and educator for a concert and two church music workshops.
Free and open to all, most of the Saturday and Sunday [Feb. 21 and 22] programs will take place at the University Drive church.
Organized by the department's piano program, the workshop is being led by Mark Hayes of Kansas City, Missouri. Methods to improvise and arrange simple piano hymns will be the focus of his workshops.
A Baylor University magna cum laude piano performance graduate, Hayes is considered among "the most important church music composers of the times in the U.S. and abroad," said professor Rosângela Y. Sebba.
"Having such a renowned and important musician-in-residence will give our students, faculty and members of our local community the opportunity to discuss music and church music at a different level," she added.
Saturday's schedule includes a 10 a.m. choral music workshop at the church featuring five pieces performed by MSU and church choirs, and 2 p.m. piano workshop at the MSU Band and Choral Hall on Hardy Road.
The 11 a.m. worship service will begin Sunday's events, with a concluding concert at 5 p.m., also at the church, by Hayes and choral accompaniment.
Hayes' musical repertoire includes works for solo voice, solo and multiple pianos, orchestra, jazz combo, small instrumental ensembles and a variety of choruses--more than 1,000 published works in all.
He also is an accomplished orchestrator and record producer who has performed, conducted and lead workshops around the world, and has been a guest conductor at New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center for Performing Arts. For more biographical information, see www.markhayes.com.
Hayes' weekend visit is among MSU music department events sponsored by the J.W. Criss Foundation, Starkville Area Arts Council and Golden Triangle Music Forum.
For more information on the event, contact co-organizers Sebba at rys3@colled.msstate.edu or Jennifer Blackbourn at jenniferblackbourn@hotmail.com.
Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, MSU's music department offers a bachelor's degree in four areas of music education, as well as a bachelor of arts in music. Learn more at www.music.msstate.edu, facebook.com/pages/Mississippi-State-University-Department-of-Music/227362148042 and twitter.com/mstatemusic.
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