Faculty Composers Present Original Works
KEENE, N.H., 2/25/08 - Original compositions by Keene State College music faculty will be showcased in the Seventh Annual Faculty Composers Recital at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4, in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Admission is $10 for the general public and $5 for KSC students, senior citizens, and youth ages 17 and younger. For tickets, call the box office at 603-358-2168.
The Faculty Composers Recital is the KSC Music Department’s celebration of new and original works by its faculty, and it is becoming a popular and anticipated spring performance. This year the program will feature instrumental and choral compositions.
Christopher Swist will perform a piece he wrote for marimba and electronics. Swist is the principal percussionist of the New Britain Symphony and performs in the percussion sections of the Ridgefield and Waterbury Symphonies. He has also played with the New Haven Symphony, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, Norwalk Symphony, Bridgeport Symphony, Opera Theater of Connecticut, New Britain Opera and numerous other groups throughout New England. He has taught percussion, theory, and composition at Keene State since 2003.
Ted Mann will perform three new works for guitar and machines. Mann is a KSC music faculty member who teaches courses in the history of rock and roll, analytical techniques, and guitar, plus private guitar and lute instruction. Mann has been awarded numerous grants to bring music into schools where he has been a composer in residence. He is regularly commissioned to write music for a variety of media, and in 2003 was selected as Composer of the Year by the New Hampshire Music Teachers Association.
The KSC Chamber Singers will perform original works by choral director Elaine Broad Ginsberg and music faculty member, Craig Sylvern. Ginsberg is a lecturer in the Music Department at Keene State, teaching courses in music theory and skills, and the course, History of Jewish Music. Ginsberg conducts the Hampshire College Chorus in Massachusetts and was previously the Jewish community music director in the Springfield, Mass. area. Her compositions have been performed at the St. Moritz International Choral Festival in Switzerland, at Merkin Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, at the American Conference of Cantors Convention, and at the International Trombonists’ Workshop. She has received the Guild of Temple Musicians Young Composers Award and the Mu Phi Epsilon Composition Competition Award.
Sylvern, a tenor saxophonist, is an associate professor and past chairperson of the Music Department at Keene State. He has performed with symphony orchestras in Florida, South Carolina, Ohio, California, New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire and toured for many years as tenor saxophonist with Keith Brion and his New Sousa Band. Currently he performs as a member of the Keene Jazz Orchestra. Sylvern established and coordinates the annual KSC Faculty Composers Concert.
