Master Class with Tonu Kalam

Tonu Kalam was trained as a conductor, pianist and composer at Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Curtis Institute of Music. His summer credits include fellowships at Tanglewood and Aspen, as well as many years at the Marlboro Music Festival. A prize-winner in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Young Conductor’s Competition, he has appeared as guest conductor with the North Carolina Symphony, the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, the Marlboro Festival Orchestra, and in Europe with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Finland’s Oulu Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Kalam has conducted over 130 opera performances for companies including the Shreveport Opera, the Lake George Opera Festival and the Nevada Opera Company. For thirteen years he was an administrator and artist-faculty member at the renowned Kneisel Hall summer chamber music festival in Blue Hill, Maine. Presently he is a Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, serving as Music Director and Conductor of the UNC Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Kalam is also in his nineteenth season as Music Director and Conductor of the Longview Symphony. In addition to his conducting activities, he performs regularly as a pianist and chamber musician. Maestro Kalam is also the President of the International Conductors Guild.

On Friday, November 9, 2007, Maestro Kalam will be conducting a Piano Master Class at Kilgore College from 1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. in the Anne Dean Turk Fine Arts Center, Room 103 (Choir Room). This Master Class will feature the Kilgore College piano students as well as two East Texas area piano students. Tryouts will be held for one junior high student and one high school student to be featured on the Master Class program. These tryouts will be held on October 29, 2007 at 4:00 p.m. in Room 107 of the Anne Dean Turk Fine Arts Center. The high school student chosen for the Master Class will be awarded a partial piano scholarship to Kilgore College. For more information, contact Sandra Siler, Head of Piano Instruction at Kilgore College: 903-983-8120.

On Saturday, November 10, 2007, Tonu Kalam will be featured as Longview Symphony’s conductor and soloist in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Clavier Concerto in g minor, the composer’s own arrangement of his well-known A minor Violin Concerto. Leonard Bernstein fashioned his Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront from his Academy Award-nominated score to the 1954 film of the same name which starred Marlon Brando. The concert closes with Sir Edward Elgar’s most beloved work, the Enigma Variations, a musical collage in which each variation is a musical depiction of a different person from among Elgar’s friends, including a brilliant self-portrait in the finale. This performance will be held at the Belcher Center on the LeTourneau University campus in Longview, Texas.

Fifty-third Annual
KILGORE COLLEGE BACH PIANO FESTIVAL

The Kilgore College Bach Festival is held annually to offer area piano students the opportunity for formal adjudication of an original composition by J.S. Bach. The 2008 Festival will be Saturday, March 8, 2008, on the Kilgore College campus. Auditions will be from 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., Saturday, in the Anne Dean Turk Fine Arts Building. Outstanding students will be chosen to perform on the Bach Festival Performers’ Concert at 7:00 p.m., Saturday, March 8th, in the Van Cliburn Auditorium. Winners will be posted Saturday afternoon. It is the responsibility of the student or teacher to check the posting of performers.

Any original composition, excluding concerti by J.S. Bach is acceptable for the Festival. Music must be memorized. Each student should bring an original copy of the music for the judge. Xeroxed music will not be allowed. Participants will receive a written critique and a certificate of participation. Trophies will be awarded to those selected to play on Saturday’s concert.

Each student entering the Festival should send the following information on a 3 x 5 index card: name, age, telephone number, teacher, and name of composition. A non-refundable entry fee of $14 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope must accompany the index card. Failure to send in an index card for each student will result in disqualification of that student. Entries must be postmarked no later than February 23, 2008. Late applications will not be accepted. Checks should be made payable to Kilgore College Piano Club. Audition times will be sent by mail to each teacher.

Inquiries and entries should be sent to Sandra Siler, Department of Music, Kilgore College, 1100 Broadway, Kilgore, Texas, 75662-3204. Phone: 903-983-8120.

Master Class with Luis Sanchez

Born in Argentina, Dr. Luis Sanchez joined the faculty of Texas A & M University – Commerce in the Fall of 2007 as Assistant Professor of Piano. He leads an active career as a soloist, clinician, collaborative artist, and adjudicator. He has been a featured soloist with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ball State Symphony Orchestra. His many awards include Competition for Young Pianists of the Jrimian Foundation, Centro de Estudios Pianisticos, M.T.N.A. Indiana State winner, Ball State Concerto Competition, Fort Wayne Philharmonic Concerto Competition, and the Merle Montgomery Doctoral Dissertation Grant.

A recipient of the 2005 Pinellas County Arts Council Artist Resource Fund, Dr. Sanchez has recorded a CD of solo works by Mozart, Ginastera, Chopin, Taranto Jr., and Schumann. In June 2005, he founded the Summer Piano Program in Florence, Italy. Dr. Sanchez has also presented lectures at the College Music Society Southern Chapter Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Great Lakes Chapter Conference at Northwestern University, Illinois, the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society, and the 2007 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities.

Dr. Sanchez holds degrees from the National Conservatory of Music “Carlos López Buchardo” and Ball State University. His teachers include Ana Litovsky-Grunwald, Graciela Beretervide, Robert Palmer, and Rebecca Penneys. A recipient of an Artist Enhancement Grant of the State of Florida, Dr. Sanchez attended fortepiano master classes with Dr. Andrew Willis, at University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and most recently visited Cornell University to study fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson. As a recipient of a 2006-2007 American Scandinavian Foundation, Dr. Sanchez traveled to Norway and Sweden to study fortepiano with Liv Glaser (Norwegian Academy of Music), Torleif Torgersen (Grieg Academy), and Tilman Skowroneck (Göteborg, Sweden). He also presented a recital and master class at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and a recital at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, Norway. Prior to his appointment at Texas A & M University – Commerce, he was on the faculty at St. Petersburg College, FL. A quote from the St. Petersburg Times reads, “…Can a two-hour recital be called action packed? Possibly, if Luis Sanchez is playing the piano…”

Dr. Sanchez will be conducting a Piano Master Class with the Kilgore College piano students on Friday, March 7, 2008, at Kilgore College. The Master Class will be held in the Anne Dean Turk Fine Arts Center, Room 103 (Choir Room) from 1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. This performance is free and open to the public. There will be one high school student selected to perform a J.S. Bach selection for Dr. Sanchez in the Master Class. Tryouts for this opportunity will be held February 25, 2008, at 4:00 p.m. in FA 107 of the Anne Dean Turk Fine Arts Center. The high school student chosen for the Master Class will be awarded a partial piano scholarship to Kilgore College. For additional information, contact Sandra Siler, Head of Piano Instruction at Kilgore College: 903-983-8120.

2008 DAVID KARP PIANO FESTIVAL

The David Karp Piano Festival is hosted each year by Kilgore College. It is an opportunity for all area piano students to prepare and perform for formal adjudication. The 2008 Festival is scheduled for auditions from 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, 2008, in the Anne Dean Turk Fine Arts Center. Selected students will perform in a recital at 2:00 p. m. in the Van Cliburn Auditorium.

David Karp, nationally known pianist, composer, educator, lecturer, and author, holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Colorado. Dr. Karp is professor of music and director of the National Piano Teachers Institute at the Meadows School of the Arts. He teaches courses at Southern Methodist University in piano performance, composition, theory and aural skills, improvisation, and class piano techniques for the college teacher. His former students are now professionally engaged on college campuses throughout the United States. He has performed, lectured, and conducted workshops and seminars at many colleges and universities from Alaska to New Hampshire and as far away as Taiwan. In 1993, Dr. Karp was honored with the establishment of the David Karp Piano Festival, an annual event held at Kilgore College in Kilgore, Texas, in which over two hundred students perform and are judged on Karp compositions. When not teaching, Dr. Karp enjoys spending time at his cottage in Maine, reading books, listening to music and playing tennis. Dr. and Mrs. Karp have three married children and six grandchildren.

A list of selected repertoire for the Festival may be found at Mundt Music in Longview or Tyler. Students may enter in only one solo category: Divisions Primer, I, II, III. Soloists may also enter in the Duet Division IV. Required pieces will be performed from memory (excluding duets). An original copy of the music must be provided for the judge. Xeroxed music will not be allowed. Each student will receive an adjudication sheet with a rating and a ribbon. Preliminary judges will select finalists from each division who will perform in a recital on Saturday afternoon, in the Van Cliburn Auditorium. At the recital, Dr. Karp will award trophies to first, second, and third place winners in each division. He will be available to autograph music after the recital.

Each student entering the Festival must send the following information on a 3 x 5 index card: name, age, telephone number, teacher’s name and mailing address, division entering, and name of composition. A non-refundable $14 entry fee and a self-addressed, stamped envelope must accompany each index card. Failure to send in an index card for each student will result in disqualification of that student. Entries must be postmarked no later than March 28, 2008. Late applications will not be accepted. Checks should be made payable to: Kilgore College Piano Club. Inquiries and entries should be addressed to Sandra Siler, Department of Music, Kilgore College, 1100 Broadway, Kilgore, Texas, 75662-3204. Phone: 903-983-8120.

2008 KILGORE COLLEGE CONCERTO COMPETITION

“I did not foresee that my performance experience would help me in my medical career until my third year of medical school residency. Many times fellow students and residents commented that I never seemed nervous and never let stressful situations change my demeanor. The performance opportunities at Kilgore College were where I learned to smile and appear confident even in sometimes terrifying situations.” -- Dr. Sunni Boren

“Playing in the Concerto Program was the most inspirational experience in my life. I learned that with discipline, confidence, persistent practice, and most importantly, to never give up, I can achieve anything that I set my mind to, no matter how impossible the goal.” -- Geneve Liu, Attorney

“The Concerto Program helped me to be able to handle stressful situations effectively and to react and adapt under pressure. This skill has no limits in whatever career I pursue. These few moments on stage have been some of the most enjoyable times of my life.” -- Jessica Morris, SMU, student of the 2000 Leeds International Piano Competition, Alessio Bax

Playing in the Kilgore College Concerto Program is an opportunity of a lifetime. As Head of Piano Instruction at Kilgore College, I want to make this unique performance available to all dedicated musicians. Auditions to participate in the 2008 program will be for those students that have been selected as recitalists in either the 2007 Bach Festival or the 2007 David Karp Festival. In addition, the student must have attended one of the two Master Classes presented in this brochure. Any classical concerto by Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven is acceptable. Auditions will be March 8, at 1:00 p.m. in Room 201 in the Technology Vocational Building.

Each student entering the competition should send the following information on a 3x5 index card: name, age, telephone number, teacher, and name of composition. A non-refundable entry fee of $20 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope must accompany the index card. Failure to send in an index card for the student will result in disqualification of that student. Entries must be postmarked no later than February 22, 2008. Late applications will not be accepted. Checks should be made payable to Kilgore College Piano Club.

Inquiries and entries should be sent to Sandra Siler, Department of Music, Kilgore College, 1100 Broadway, Kilgore, Texas, 75662-3204. Phone: 903-983-8120.