Symphony orchestra announces concert for young, young at heart

The Starkville-MSU Symphony Orchestra will present a “Music is a Universal Language” children’s concert early next month. (Photo by Megan Bean)

STARKVILLE, Miss.—The Starkville-��ɫ��Ƶ Symphony Orchestra will present a children’s concert Nov. 6 in historic Lee Hall’s Bettersworth Auditorium.

Free to all, the 7:30 p.m. performance of “Music is a Universal Language” features works by Johannes Brahms (1833-97), Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), Claude-Michel Schönberg (1944- ), Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-87) and Franz von Suppé (1819-95).

Three additional concerts will be held during the day for kindergarten-fifth grade children in the Oktibbeha County area. All performances are being sponsored by the Starkville-��ɫ��Ƶ Symphony Association.

Foreign language—with an emphasis on French, German and Spanish—is the focus of the 2015-16 concert lineup. Significant parts of each program will feature music and spoken dialogues from these cultures.

During the early November event, orchestra members will accompany children in English, French, German and Spanish renditions of the popular international folk song “Frère Jacques,” also known as “Brother John.”

Kathy McGill, music teacher for the Starkville Sudduth Elementary School honor choir, will lead the singing and also will perform “Brahms’ Lullaby” in English and German.

Junior Sarah E. Jenkins of Brandon, an MSU music/piano and foreign language/Spanish double-major, will perform a rhapsody by Kabalevsky. Winner of this year’s Starkville-MSU Concerto/Aria and Mississippi Music Teachers Association piano solo division competitions, Jenkins will be directed by professor Barry E. Kopetz, music department head and the SSO’s music director-elect.

Along with von Suppé’s “Light Calvary Overture,” the program includes selections from “Les Misérables” and Dvořák’s “New World Symphony.”

For additional concert information, contact Michael Brown, MSU music professor and SSO music director, at 662-325-3070 or mbrown@colled.msstate.edu.

Founded in 1969, the Starkville-MSU Symphony Association is a non-profit 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. Producing high-quality musical events and increasing awareness for the arts are its primary missions. For more, visit and .

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.

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

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