11/19/2003

Contact: K.E. Schwab  -- 724-738-2199;  e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu

POPULAR MUSICIANS’ CONCERT BAND, HOLIDAY CHORUS TO OPEN LOCAL HOLIDAY SEASON

          SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Musicians’ Concert Band and Holiday Chorus will bring “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” to Slippery Rock University with a 4 p.m. concert Dec. 7 in Miller Auditorium, featuring music of the season.

          The 100-member band is under direction of Blase S. Scarnati, professor emeritus of music and retired director of bands at SRU, with the chorus directed by LaDonna Linamen, a member of the band’s trumpet section and longtime director of church and community group choirs. She sings with the Bach Society of Grove City, rings in her church handbell choir and is founder and director of her church orchestra, among other musical endeavors. She is also an information technology technician in SRU facilities and planning.

           The concert will offer “Overture to Winter Festival,” by James Curnow, Strauss’ “Radetzky March,” Stephen Bulla’s “Rhapsody for Hanukkah,” and “Heralds for an Occasion,” and Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride.” The choir will offer “Christmas Fantasia,” Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” and Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”

           Guest conductors for the program will include James Kaplan, Dennis Emert and Michael C. Formeck, assistant conductor of the band.

PN, WPN, PgN, PR