Banks, Edwards-Henry to Present Weekend Classical Recital

Jackie Edwards-Henry

Edwards-Henry

Jessica Banks

Banks

STARKVILLE, Miss. (Press Release) — Two Mississippi State music department faculty members will perform together for the first time Saturday [Jan. 24] at Starkville’s St. Joseph Catholic Church on University Drive.

To begin at 7:30 p.m., the free recital is featuring four classical pieces by university lecturer Jessica Banks and professor Jackie Edwards-Henry. The performances will involve the flute, harpsichord and piano.

“The program contains quite a bit of variety and is very audience-friendly,” said Edwards-Henry in issuing a personal invitation to residents of Golden Triangle communities.

“It will be enjoyable for individuals of all ages, including children aged middle school and above,” Banks added.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Banks is now in her second year of teaching flute and directing MSU’s flute choir. She is a music education and flute performance graduate of Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory in Berea who went on to receive a master’s degree in music from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. In addition to currently pursuing a doctorate in flute at the Jacobs School, she is a member of the Tupelo-based North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.

Prior to joining the MSU faculty, Banks was an associate flute instructor at IU. She also has performed with the Owensboro Symphony, Starkville-MSU and Evansville symphony orchestras and the Lexington and Columbus, Indiana, philharmonics.

Hailing from Cairo, Illinois, Edwards-Henry has taught piano and piano pedagogy at MSU since 1991. In addition to a University of Oklahoma doctorate in piano pedagogy, she holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in performance and pedagogy from William Jewell College in Missouri and the University of Illinois. Additional training was completed at DePaul University, University of Michigan, Oberlin Conservatory and Indiana University-Bloomington.

As a solo and collaborative pianist, Edwards-Henry has performed at numerous recitals and national and international conventions in Canada, Europe and the United States. Among the most notable were appearances at the Prague Conservatory in the Czech Republic and Royal Welsh College of Music, Arts and Drama in Wales.

She also has been featured pianist for three collaborative CD recordings and regularly performs the harpsichord for the Starkville-MSU Symphony Orchestra.

For more information about the weekend recital, Banks may be reached at jbanks@colled.msstate.edu and Edwards-Henry at JEHenry@colled.msstate.edu.

Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, MSU’s music department currently offers bachelor’s degrees in music education, with specific majors in instrumental music, vocal music, piano and guitar, as well as a bachelor of arts in music.

More about the department is found at www.music.msstate.edu, as well as on www.facebook.com/pages/Mississippi-State-University-Department-of-Music/227362148042 and www.twitter.com/mstatemusic.

MSU is the Magnolia State’s flagship research university and is available online at www.msstate.edu.

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