Starkville-MSU Symphony Orchestra concludes spring season with MUW concert

Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Under the baton of Mississippi State University Department of Music Head Barry E. Kopetz, the Starkville-MSU Symphony Orchestra is concluding its spring concert series with a Saturday [April 21] performance at the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus.

Taking place at 7:30 p.m. in MUW’s Rent Auditorium at Whitfield Hall, the concert is sponsored by the Starkville-MSU Symphony Association. All Starkville-MSU Symphony Orchestra performances are free and open to the public.

Ryan Landis, MSU voice instructor and SSO operations manager, said the evening program will begin with Johannes Brahms’ “Symphony 1, Op. 68,” which earned a comparison to the works of symphonic master Ludwig van Beethoven.

“This work took Brahms 14 years to complete, but the brilliance of the composition is worthy of the lengthy time it took to come to realization,” Landis said. “Brahms was already well-known at the time of the premiere of this work, but fretted over the audience’s reception. At the age of 43, he produced a symphony that has long been celebrated for its scope and beauty.”

The Starkville-MSU Symphony Orchestra also will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365,” with piano accompaniment from MUW faculty members Julia Mortyakova and Valentin Bogdan.

In the late 1770s, Mozart conceived this double concerto as something for his sister and him to perform, Landis said.

“It is a unique work with its departure from the usual solo piano concerto emphasizing the dialogue between the two pianos. Throughout the work, the two pianos exchange musical ideas, racing scales, and trills – all in duplicate,” he explained.

Founded in 1969, the Starkville-MSU Symphony Association is a nonprofit volunteer organization in which members work to educate, enlighten and share classical music with communities in the Golden Triangle region.

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. For more, visit www.starkvillesymphony.org.

To make a tax-deductible donation to the Starkville-MSU Symphony Association via the MSU Foundation, contact Lynn Durr at 662-325-8918 or ldurr@advservices.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.