Bailey School of Music Concert Programs
Below is a collection of programs from the Kennesaw State University School of Music.
-
Faculty Jazz Parliament
KSU Faculty Jazz Parliament highlights the members of the School of Music's talented jazz faculty. This special performance features the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astor Piazzolla and will include vocalist Karla Harris, Sam Skelton and Luke Weathington on reeds, Rob Opitz on trumpet, Wes Funderburk on trombone, Trey Wright on guitar, Tyrone Jackson on piano, Marc Miller on bass, and Justin Chesarek on drums.
-
Junior Recital: Melissa Ake, violin
Melissa Ake
This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Ms. Ake studies violin with Helen Kim.
-
Voice Honors Recital
Eric Jenkins
The KSU voice area presents a special performances featuring voice students performing works by a variety of notable vocal composers. This recital is an auditioned-based performance opportunity for students to show off their most impressive songs and arias. Advanced students earn the opportunity to work on their repertoire with world renowned, and the most recorded classical vocalist in history, Jennifer Larmore. Program includes works by Beethoven, Handel, Ravel, Mozart, Bernstein, and many more.
-
Year of Morocco presents Innov Gnawa
This very special performance features Innov Gnawa, a GRAMMY-nominated musical collective dedicated to exploring Morocco's Gnawa music tradition. Often called "the Moroccan Blues," Gnawa music is the ritual trance music of Morocco's black communities and has a distinctive raw and hypnotic power played by an array of unique instruments. Formed by Moroccan expats and master Gnawa musicians, Innov Gnawa is based in New York City and has been making a big splash playing the city's most prestigious rooms including Lincoln Center, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn Bowl, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, and the storied backroom at Brooklyn's Barbès. Presented as part of KSU's Year of Morocco, this event is a collaboration between the KSU School of Music and KSU's Division of Global Affairs.
-
Jazz Ensemble III and Vocal Jazz Combo
Brian Reid
This KSU School of Music performance features the Vocal Jazz Combo led by Karla Harris, Artist-in-Residence in Vocal Jazz, and Jazz Ensemble III led by Rob Opitz, Artist in Residence and Part-Time Instructor of Jazz Trumpet.
-
Faculty Recital: Helen Kim, violin and Robert Henry, piano
Helen Kim and Robert Henry
This KSU faculty recital features Professor of Violin, Helen Kim, with Coordinator of Piano Studies and Assistant Professor of Piano, Dr. Robert Henry, featuring works by Claude Debussy, Sergei Prokofiev, Erich Korngold, Jean Marie LeClair, and Max Richter.
-
Wind Symphony and Wind Ensemble
Trey Harris
The KSU School of Music presents KSU Wind Ensemble, led by Director of Bands Dr. David Kehler, and KSU Wind Symphony, led by Associate Director of Bands Dr. Debra Traficante. Wind Ensemble performs works by Gustav Holst, David Biedenbender, and the Georgia premiere of Michael Shapiro's "'Ol Mississippi Sings the Blues." KSU Wind Symphony performs works by Peter Mennin, Ryan George, Percy Aldridge Grainger, and Michael Markowski.
-
Opera Theater, "American Dreamers"
Join KSU Opera Theater for American Dreamers, a special evening of 20th-century one-act operas by three masterful American composers. In Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge, we discover that although these 1950’s neighbors share a game of bridge, their deepest yearnings are for fantasies far beyond the card table. Seymour Barab’s A Game of Chance reveals that you must be careful what you wish for. Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti opens up the doors on a not-so-perfect suburban home.
-
Women's Choir with Lost Mountain Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Choruses
Sean Thrower, Lorin Green, and Brenda Brent
The KSU Women's Choir, directed by Dr. Alison Mann, Associate Professor of Choral Music Education, and the Lost Mountain Middle School Choruses present a performance titled "I Carry Your Heart With Me."
-
Non-degree Recital: Teresa Sheppard, harp
Teresa Sheppard and Eric Jenkins
This recital is presented while pursuing the degree Bachelor of Music in Music Education. Ms. Sheppard studies harp with Elisabeth Remy Johnson.
-
Faculty Recital: Christina Smith, flute and Robert Henry, piano
Christina Smith and Robert Henry
This KSU faculty recital features Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Principal Flute and KSU Artist-in-Residence, Christina Smith with Coordinator of Piano Studies and Assistant Professor of Piano, Dr. Robert Henry.
-
Jazz Ensembles
Kristin Houston and Rebecca Miller
This concert features performances by KSU Jazz Ensemble I led by Director of Jazz Studies Sam Skelton, and KSU Jazz Ensemble II led by Wes Funderburk, Artist-in-Residence in Jazz Studies and Jazz Trombone. Featured is music by saxophonist Bob Mintzer and more. Bob Mintzer is a twenty-eight-year member of the Grammy award winning Yellowjackets who also leads a Grammy winning Big Band, travels with his own quartet, and plays with numerous bands globally. Bob writes for orchestra, concert band, and big band and has over three hundred charts to his credit.
-
Philharmonic and University Band Spring Concert
This performance features KSU Philharmonic, led by Assistant Professor of Music Education Dr. Nancy Conley, and KSU University Band, led by Assistant Director of Bands Dr. Trey Harris. KSU Philharmonic will perform works by Ernesto Lecuona, J. S. Bach, Karl Jenkins, and Camille Saint-Saëns. KSU University Band will perform works by Morton Gould, J. S. Bach, Leroy Anderson, Michael Markowski, and Henry Fillmore.
-
Faculty Recital: Twentieth-Century Songs of the British Isles
Jana Young, Todd Wedge, Nathan Munson, John Warren, Eric Jenkins, and Edward Eanes
The talented members of the KSU voice faculty present an evening of 20th-century art songs of the British Isles featuring works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arnold Cooke, and Cecil Armstrong Gibbs. This performance includes soprano Jana Young, tenors Todd Wedge and Nathan Munson, clarinetist John Warren, pianist Eric Jenkins, and commentary by Dr. Edward Eanes, KSU professor of music history.
-
Faculty Recital: Justin Chesarek, drum set
Justin Chesarek, Kati Stewart, Patrick Arthur, and Marc Miller
Drummer Justin Chesarek lends a new perspective to familiar American songwriting ranging from gospel spirituals to pop songs, plus original material by Chesarek. The band, featuring faculty bassist Marc Miller, guitarist Patrick Arthur, and vocalist Kati Stewart, will introduce the jazz element of improvisation to songs where it did not previously exist and bridge the gap between contemporary songwriting and traditional jazz. Songs to include "Friendship" (Pops Staples), "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" (The Beatles), "Lo and Behold" (James Taylor), and more.
-
Symphony Orchestra presents Homage
This performance features the KSU Symphony Orchestra led by Nathaniel F. Parker, Director of Orchestral String Studies. Performance includes Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round, Silvestre Revueltas' Homage to Federico García Lorca, and Georges Bizet's Suites Nos. 1 and 2 from the opera Carmen.
-
Faculty Chamber Players
Helen Kim, Kenn Wagner, Catherine Lynn, Charae Krueger, and Robert Henry
The KSU Faculty Chamber Players feature various groupings of talented KSU School of Music faculty members and guest artists performing a wide variety of repertoire for strings, woodwinds, piano and more. This performance will include violinists Helen Kim and Kenn Wagner, violist Catherine Lynn, cellist Charae Krueger, and pianist Robert Henry performing Mozart's Divertimento In E-Flat Major (K. 563) and Schumann's Piano Quintet in E-flat Major (Op. 44).
-
Collage 2019
Heather Witt, Sean Thrower, Elizaveta Sukhai, Christopher Bowers, Andrew Yi, Robert Henry, Julie Coucheron, Huu Mai, Todd Wedge, Andrew Creech, Kayleen Justus, Helen Kim, Sherri N. Barrett, and Brenda Brent
An exciting highlight each season, Collage is the signature production of the School of Music and a major fundraising event for supporting scholarships for music students. This special performance features over 200 student and faculty performers and includes jazz, orchestra, choir, band, percussion, and opera selections for soloists, chamber groups, and ensembles. Special lighting effects and stage design combine with the diverse and exciting program presented as rapid-fire, flowing vignettes to create a truly unique performance.
-
Wind Ensemble with Guest Composer Andrew Boss and Charae Krueger, cello
Andrew Boss and Charae Krueger
This performance features KSU Wind Ensemble, conducted by Director of Bands Dr. David Kehler, with visiting guest composer Andrew Boss. The program will include works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Michael Daugherty, and the Georgia premiere of Boss' Toward the Hour Arises First Light featuring KSU faculty cello soloist Charae Krueger.
-
Faculty Recital: Robert Henry, piano
Robert Henry
Pianist Robert Henry, KSU Director of Piano Studies and Assistant Professor of Music, presents a special solo recital. The Washington Post praised Dr. Henry's "dazzling ability to turn the percussion instrument into a sonorous orchestra… stratospheric sounds… rumbling earthiness… his colorful, virtuosic, sensitive playing proved that nothing surpasses finely executed Chopin."
-
The James Carter Organ Trio
James Carter, Gerard Gibbs, and Alex White
The organ combo reigned supreme for several decades as a "meat-and-potatoes" mainstay of 50's and 60's jazz. In the hands of saxophonist James Carter, one of jazz's most sophisticated improvisers, the organ trio is elevated by Carter's virtuosic chops, the band's powerful blues-drenched style, and wide-ranging repertoire collected through the members' far-flung musical explorations. Relying heavily on inspired group interplay, the trio features the nimble yet muscular keyboard work of Detroit's rising B3 star Gerard Gibbs and the propulsive support of drummer Alex White.
-
Trumpet Festival of the Southeast: Georgia Brass Band and KSU Wind Ensemble
Joe Gransden, trumpet, and Douglas Lindsey
This special performance of the Trumpet Festival of the Southeast features the KSU Wind Ensemble, led by Director of Bands Dr. David Kehler, with special guest, the Georgia Brass Band. Trumpet soloists include Joe Gransden, Doug Lindsey, and Rex Richardson.
-
Trumpet Festival of the Southeast: Faculty Jazz Parliament
Rex Richardson, Joe Bransden, Tyrone Jackson, Brad Cannata, and Justin Chesarek
KSU Faculty Jazz Parliament welcomes featured guest artists Joe Gransden and Rex Richardson for a special performance as part of the 2019 Trumpet Festival of the Southeast. Gransden, an accomplished trumpeter, singer, and bandleader, is renowned for his distinctive style that's earned him a loyal following in Atlanta and worldwide through engaging performances and acclaimed recordings as a soloist and with his 16-piece big band. Rex Richardson stays busy as a headline artist at international classical and jazz festivals and as a soloist with a multitude of orchestras, concert bands, brass bands, and jazz ensembles performing across five continents.
-
Junior Recital: Josh Hayward, saxophone
Josh Hayward, Zach Wilson, Brad Cannata, and Zack Smith
This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Mr. Hayward studies saxophone with Sam Skelton.
-
Senior Recital: Mia Jordan, flute
Mia Jordan and Judith Cole
This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Music Education. Ms. Jordan studies flute with Robert Cronin.