The artistry, talent and inspiration of 12 local composers will be featured at the Seventh Annual East Central University Faculty, Students and Friends Composer Concert on Monday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. at the Ataloa Theatre of the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center.
The concert, which is free and open to the public, will premier several new compositions, including four instrumental ensemble works by Steve Filkins, a senior sacred music major from Oklahoma City; Angela Marshall, a 2011 ECU graduate from McAlester; Tommy Long, a 2012 ECU grad from Tecumseh; and John Stone, a junior music major from Seminole.
Filkins will premier “Ordinary Nocturne”, written for piano and two clarinets. This haunting melody was inspired by the poem of the same title by French poet Arthur Rimbaud.
Marshall has orchestrated her composition “Reminiscence” for performance by the ECU Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Allen Correll. “This begins with the piano and gradually moves forward to include an ensemble cast from every instrumental family.
Romantic walks around Ada’s Wintersmith Lake, were the inspiration for Long’s composition of “A Walk with My Love’, a piano, cello, clarinet and flute quartet dedicated to his wife, Casaundra.
From music he heard in a dream, Stone takes listeners on a journey into an ‘endless night sky” in his new composition “Space,” which was written for brass ensemble.
Three solo artists – Claire Marquardt, a junior piano major from Poteau; Ashley Tucker, a junior vocal music major from Sasakwa; and Anna Tynsky, of Ada - will be performing their own compositions at the concert.
Marquardt will perform “In Whispering Pines”, winner of the 2011 National Collegiate Division of the Lynn Freeman Olson Composition Competition.
Tucker will lend her vocal, guitar and poetic talents to the concert as she premiers her passionate folk song “Alone.”
Back for her second performance in the Composer’s Concert, the composer and dancer Tynsky brings her 12-string guitar and glass bottleneck slide to stage to premier her new blues composition “Let it Slide.”
ECU Music Department faculty members presenting works at this year’s concert include Rudy Lupinski and ECU artist-in-residence Victoria Davison. These well-known local composers will present the premiere of their new vocal composition “Ave Maria,” performed by Dr. Steve Walker.
Dr. Alan Marshall’s vocal solo “Remains” will be performed by his wife Dr. Melody Baggech. Both the lyrics and music to this song were written by Marshall when he was an undergraduate student.
Dr. Ben Finley joins the concert with a brand new rhythmic percussion piece entitled “Stynographic’ which is an anagram for the name “Tyson”, after Blake Tyson, Finley’s former mentor and dedicatee.
W.T. Skye Garcia will team up with senior ECU instrumental music major Stephen McCleskey, of Ardmore, to present Garcia’s composition “Gentle Breeze,” from Three American Miniatures for Trumpet and Piano. This piece was inspired by a poem written by Garcia’s wife, Sarah.