Starkville Symphony Orchestra Concert Features MUW Pianists

Assistant professor Julia Mortyakova, MUW music department chair, will be the featured soloist for an Oct. 18 concert in Rent Auditorium with the Starkville Symphony Orchestra.

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Under the direction of Mississippi State music professor Michael Brown, the Starkville Symphony Orchestra goes on the road to open its 2014-15 performance season with an Oct. 18 concert at Mississippi University for Women.

Free to all, the 7:30 p.m. Columbus program in the Rent Auditorium is made possible by the Starkville-MSU Symphony Association, with additional support from the Columbus-based Gildea Foundation and Columbus Arts Council.

Julia Mortyakova, MUW music department chair and assistant professor of music, will be the featured soloist. A Russian native, she will perform the first movement of Saint-Saens’ “Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra.”

The program also will feature the world premiere of Valentin Bogdan’s “Transylvanian Sights.” Originally from Romania, Bogdan also is an assistant professor of music at MUW.

The evening concludes with a performance of “Symphony No. 4.” Written by German composer Felix Mendelssohn, the piece is usually referred to as “The Italian.”

Mortyakova holds degrees from Vanderbilt and New York universities and the University of Miami, and has completed studies at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. She is a published author whose first independent solo piano album has sold internationally.

Founded in 1969 at the home of David and Barbara Cornell, the Starkville Symphony Association is a non-profit volunteer organization whose members work to educate, enlighten and share classical music with the city, university campus and other communities in the Golden Triangle region. For more, see www.starkvillesymphony.org and www.facebook.com/StarkvilleSymphony.

In addition to MSU, major association contributors include the J.W. Criss Foundation, Mississippi Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Renasant Bank, City of Starkville, Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau and Gildea Foundation. Tax-deductible donations may be made to the MSU Foundation by contacting Lynn Durr at 662-325-8918 or ldurr@advservices.msstate.edu.

For additional orchestra information, contact Brown at 662-325-3070 or mbrown@colled.msstate.edu.

MSU is online at www.msstate.edu, www.facebook.com/msstate, www.instagram.com/msstate, and www.twitter.com/msstate.