FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 6, 2007

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199

 karl.schwab@sru.edu

Trio tickles the ivory to raise dollars for SRU scholars

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock Piano Trio will present “Towering Beethoven” as its fourth annual Baker Scholarship concert March 4 at 4 p.m. in Slippery Rock University’s Swope Recital Hall.

The trio, comprised of SRU faculty members Nanette Kaplan Solomon, piano, Warren Davidson, violin, and  Paula Tuttle, cello, will perform a lyric trio by French composer Gabriel Faure, Beethoven’s ever-popular “Archduke” trio and a 2004 work by American composer Joan Tower titled “For Daniel,” a powerful and moving piece dedicated to the memory of a young man. The work, though dissonant at times, makes use of minimalist techniques.

 Tower has received numerous commissions, including one in 1998 from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She recently received national recognition for her “Made in America,” a commissioned orchestral work performed by regional orchestras in every state.

Concert tickets, $10 for adults and $5 for students, may be purchased at the door. Additional scholarship contributions will be accepted. For further information, call 724-738-2063.  

Proceeds from the campus event support the Dwight and Jeane Baker Memorial Scholarship, awarded to an SRU music major concentrating in piano or strings. The Bakers were long standing and beloved faculty members of the SRU music department. Both retired in 1983.   
             In addition to the annual performance, the Slippery Rock Piano Trio has performed in Youngstown and Pittsburgh, and as guest artists last summer at the Music at Penn Alps Festival in Maryland. They recently performed Beethoven’s “Triple” Concerto with the Butler County Symphony Orchestra and the St. Andrew’s Festival Orchestra in Pittsburgh.

Kaplan Solomon is an SRU professor of music who has presented lecture-recitals at the College Music Society national meetings in San Diego, Savannah, Cleveland, San Juan, Denver, Kansas City, Miami and Quebec City. She has performed at international conferences in Berlin, Vienna, Kyoto, Limerick, Costa Rica and Madrid, and is deeply involved with the works of women composers. She has performed at several feminist theory and music conferences, including the American Music/American Women Symposium in Boulder, Colo., and the Athena Festival in Murray, Ky. One of her three CDs features the piano works of women composers.

Davidson conducts the Slippery Rock Symphony Orchestra and teaches violin, viola and strings classes at SRU. He earned his bachelor of arts in philosophy and psychology and his master of music degree in violin from Duquesne University, and is completing his doctor of music arts degree at West Virginia University where he is the Swiger fellow.

Tuttle, a Pittsburgh native, performs with the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestra at the Benedum Center. She teaches cello at SRU, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, and has performed recitals in Europe and the U.S., as well as throughout western Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Carnegie Mellon, and has completed post-masters work at the New England Conservatory and the University of Akron.

SlipperyRock University is Pennsylvania’s premier public residential university. Slippery Rock University provides students with a comprehensive learning experience that intentionally combines academic instruction with enhanced educational and learning opportunities that make a positive difference in their lives.

PN, PGN, WPN, PR