Starkville/MSU Symphony Begins Fall Season At MUW

COLUMBUS, Miss. (PRESS RELEASE) — The Starkville/MSU Symphony will be in concert Friday, Sept. 16 in Rent Auditorium on the campus of Mississippi University for Women. The 7:30 p.m. event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by The W.

“We are delighted to have the Symphony presence in our community and to help launch the 2016-17 season under the direction of Dr. Barry Kopetz,” said Dr. Jim Borsig, MUW president. “This will be an outstanding evening of musical performance.”

Kopetz, new musical director for the symphony, is head of the music department at Mississippi State University. Previously, he was the director of bands and professor of music at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where he conducted the Symphonic Winds, Wind Symphony and Chamber Winds, as well as teaching courses in conducting and wind literature.

The program will begin with Haydn’s “Symphony no. 6 in D Major ‘Le Matin.’” While the nickname “Le Matin” did not originate with Haydn, its gradual opening seems to depict the breaking of dawn.

This will be followed by the Harris “Piano Concerto No. 2,” performed by guest soloist Dr. Julia Mortyakova, department chair and associate professor of music at The W. The piece she will perform is composed by Dr. Olga Harris, her mother, a native of Moscow, Russia, now on faculty at Tennessee State University. Dr. Harris specializes in chamber music and has composed a number of symphonies, piano concertos, quartets and sonatas.

The final selection will be Mozart’s “Symphony no. 35 in D Major K. 385 ‘Haffner.’” This work premiered in 1783 and calls for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets with timpani and strings. The bold drum rolls and ascending leaps of the Haffner Symphony offer a striking effect and clearly illustrate the composer’s intention for it to be played with “fire and spirit.”

“This performance will highlight works of two masters of classical symphonic composition along with the introduction to a contemporary symphonic work, making it a fitting opening for the 48^th season for the Starkville-Mississippi State University Symphony,” Kopetz said.