A partnership between the WVU College of Creative Arts and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is producing a multitude of benefits for students at West Virginia University and school children in Morgantown.

A group of Pittsburgh Symphony musicians will visit Morgantown Monday, Sept. 27, when they will present a children’s concert to fourth and fifth graders at Mountainview Elementary School, conduct master classes for WVU music students, and perform at the Creative Arts Center for students and faculty.

“We are proud of the relationship our College has established with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, whose dedication to providing access to world-acclaimed artists and conductors makes this partnership unique for us,” said Dean Bernie Schultz of the College of Creative Arts.

“This wonderful partnership enhances the quality of education that we bring to our students, and now it reaches even further—into an elementary school.”

The PSO musicians will include: John Moore, bass; Jeremy Branson, percussion; Ron Samuels, clarinet; Pete Sullivan, principal trombone; Neal Berntsen, trumpet; David Sogg, co-principal bassoon; and Dennis O’Boyle, second violin.

They will present a Children’s Concert at 11:30 a.m. for approximately 200 fourth and fifth graders at Mountainview Elementary School and will spend most of the afternoon giving individual master classes to WVU music students.

At 4 p.m., they will present a performance at the CAC for approximately 250 WVU music students and faculty members.

The WVU College of Creative Arts has had a partnership with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2003.

PSO musicians present master classes at the CAC as part of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Visiting Musician Series.

In addition, WVU students also attend Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concerts in Pittsburgh and participate in backstage tours of Heinz Hall.

This is in addition to the series of three concerts that the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra presents at the Creative Arts Center each year.

This year’s concerts are: “Rachmaninoff”s First Piano Concerto,” on Oct. 24, at 2 p.m., conducted by Leonard Slatkin, with pianist Olga Kern; “Honeck & Tchaikovsky,” Feb. 13, at 2 p.m., conducted by Manfred Honeck, with violinist Serge Zimmerman; and “Marvin: The Man and The Music,” on April 27, at 7:30 p.m., with Marvin Hamlisch in a show of his own works, featuring music from A Chorus Line, The Way We Were, Ordinary People, Sophie’s Choice, The Spy Who Loved Me and The Informant.

The PSO’s concert series at WVU, known as the Canady Symphony Series, is sponsored by William and Loulie Canady in memory of their daughter Valerie Canady, a Morgantown native and WVU graduate, who died in the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

More information about the Canady Symphony Series for 2010-1011 is available by calling the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at 800-743-8560 or online at www.pittsburghsymphony.org.

-WVU-

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

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