Alumni Composers Return to DU
Works showcased in contemporary music festival

Four composers, all alumni of the Mary Pappert School of Music, return to the University for performances of their works, Sept. 28-29.

David Stock, composer-in-residence at the Mary Pappert School of Music, arranged the concerts, which he calls an “Alumni Composers Mini-Festival.”

The alumni composers are members of the faculty at various schools of music. They are Don Freund, DMA, (M'69) of Indiana University , Brett Dietz (M'95) of Louisiana State University , Robert Singley (M'02) of Bennington College and Joseph Sheehan (M'02) of Indiana University .

At the Sept. 28 concert, which takes place at 8 p.m. in PNC Recital Hall, the Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble will perform under the direction of Stock. The Sept. 29 concert is in Carnegie Music Hall , Oakland , 8 p.m., and features the Duquesne University Wind Symphony and Symphony Band, conducted by Robert Cameron. That program will include the performance of a piano concerto by Freund with the composer as soloist.

For more information, visit www.music.duq.edu or call 412.396.4632.

Alumnus Jack W. Geltz saluted with Special Performance.

On September 10, to honor alumnus Jack W. Geltz, who provided the financial support needed to create the Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair, the Mary Pappert School of Music presented A Little Night Music , a piano recital of music inspired by the night. Left to right: Dean Edward Kocher, Mary Pappert School of Music; Professor David Allen Wehr, holder of the Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair; Jack W. Geltz, B'49, GA'84; and President Charles J. Dougherty.

Maestro Sidney Harth (left), director of orchestral activities, and Donald McKinney, associate conductor of ensembles, after a recent rehearsal of the Duquesne University Symphony Orchestra.

Nights in the Gardens of Spain by Manuel De Falla, and adjunct professor of cello Misha Quint will play Dmitri Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1.

The March 25 concert, titled A Family Occasion, will have performances that put members of the same family on stage together, including Rachel and Charles Stegeman of the string program. That concert will feature also trumpeter Sean Jones, assistant professor of jazz studies, and trombonist Edward Kocher, dean of the Mary Pappert School of Music, performing Sketches of America by Lynn Purse, assistant professor of music technology.

Like the previous season, four concerts this year are scheduled to be broadcast live on 89.3, WQED-FM. For more information about the DUSO season and other concerts and recitals at the Mary Pappert School of Music, visit www.music.duq.edu or call 412.396.6083.

DU Honors Jazz Guitarist Henry Johnson

At Duquesne's third annual outdoor Summertime Jazz Concert, nationally renowned guitarist Henry Johnson not only performed but received the Duquesne University Lifetime Achievement Award.

Johnson has played with vocalist Donny Hathaway, pianist Ramsey Lewis and in the group of the late jazz legend Joe Williams. Johnson's first album, You're the One , received a Grammy nomination. The album, recorded for MCA/Impulse! won a five-star rating in Downbeat magazine, the highest attainable, and was called “a thoughtful piece of work which may well become a jazz guitar classic” by Jazz Times reviewer Diane Patrick.

Besides Johnson, other performers for the July 26 event included Jimmy Bruno, Wolf Marshall, Joe Negri and the Duquesne faculty jazz guitar ensemble Catch 22.