FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 19, 2007

Contact: K.E. Schwab  

724.738.2199

 karl.schwab@sru.edu

SRU students compete for Williamson Memorial Scholarship    

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. -- Fifteen Slippery Rock University voice students will vie for the top honor in the 15th Annual Chad Williamson Memorial Scholarship Competition at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Swope Music Hall. The competition is one of the most popular events in the University’s music department, said Maribeth Knaub, music department chair.

           The competition honors the late Slippery Rock High School graduate who had planned to attend SRU before being killed in a traffic accident.

           The competition will be judged by Guenko Guechev, a world-renowned bass-baritone, who is chair of the voice department and director of the opera workshop at Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University. He is director of education of the Baltimore-based Inter-Atlantic Music Foundation and artistic director of the foundation-sponsored Puldin International Voice Competition. He is also a founder and faculty member of the Puldin Operatic Summer Academy, a five-week summer program in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, affiliated with Duquesne.

           The scholarship competition allows SRU music majors the opportunity to demonstrate their vocal talent and gives the local community the chance to both see and hear the performing arts talent of SRU voice majors.

           The scholarship was created by Williamson’s family, including his mother, Karen Legato, a former SRU executive secretary, as a means of helping SRU’s music department attract talented vocal performers.

           Competing students, and their hometowns, are: Brian Mueller, Butler; Emily Henry, Latrobe; Casey Bauman, Butler; Zachary Wood, Waynesboro; Andreas Follmar, Angela Fenk, Kirsten Wilson and Ryan Griffin, all of Pittsburgh; Nyomin Buhler, Slippery Rock; Anna Michelle Cypher, Evans City; Janelle Chambers, Cranberry; Lauren Paterra, Bentleyville; Bethany Nagy, Connellsville; Christiana Howell, Erie; and Nicholas Kochanov, North Huntingdon. 

Slippery Rock 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.

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