Feb. 24, 2016

By Mary Davisson

The staff and alumni of the Music Department are bringing in the spring with “Valves, And Reeds, And Strings, Oh My!”

Music Mosaics is a concert series that showcases the talents of the staff and alumni of UW–Whitewater. The series began in 2002 with diverse pieces of music, gathered together to bring out their collective beauty.

Each concert in the series goes to help fund the scholarship for UW-W student musicians to continue in pursuing an education in music.

“More than thirty UW-W music majors have received scholarship support from the Music Mosaics Series over the past 10 years,” Leslie Lamuro, Young Auditorium Marketing Director, said.

The idea for the collaboration of “Valves, And Reeds, And Strings, Oh My!” came from the faculty hornist, Linda Kimball.

“She felt that a program of varied chamber music would be a nice addition to the series and worked with the faculty to develop the program,” said trumpet professor, Frank Hanson, who has been performing in the Mosaic series since its founding.

Five faculty members work together to help make the event come to life. The show will feature an original piece, written by UW–W faculty composer Christian Ellenwood titled “After You Flew Away.”

“It is always nice to see your professor performing,” LaMuro said. “This concert has a premiere of a piece written by Christian Ellenwood for trumpet, horn and piano. The piece is dedicated to the memory of Robin Fellows who recently passed away.”

There is another original piece written for trumpet by James Stephenson titled “The Storyteller,” which is also in memoriam to a passed musician.

“In this case, it is in memory of Adolph ‘Bud’ Herseth who was the principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for more than 50 years,” Hanson said. “‘The Storyteller’ is cored for trumpet, violin, piano and an offstage trumpet and features motives from several well-known orchestral trumpet solo passages.”

The single ticket prices for the concert is $10 for general admission, $9 for anyone 65 and over and $3 for students with IDs. Tickets can be ordered in person, online at tickets.uww.edu, or by phone at (262) 472-2222.

“Valves, And Reeds, And Strings, Oh My!” will show at 3 p.m. Sunday, February 28 at the Light Recital Hall located in the Center for the Arts.