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 The performance will showcase winners from the
Millikin School of Music Concerto/Aria Competition. This year's
honorees are Brock Gwaltney (piano), a junior piano performance and
commercial music major from Jacksonville, Ill.; Phillip Lopez
(bass-baritone), a junior vocal performance major from Avon, Ill.;
and Christopher Raymond (bassoon), a senior instrumental music
performance major from Bourbonnais, Ill.
The Young Artists Concert will open with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7
in A Major, a symphony in four movements composed between 1811 and
1812. Following an intermission, the MDSO will perform the first
movement of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring Brock
Gwaltney on piano, followed by performances of Handel's "O ruddier
than the cherry," Strauss' "Morgen!" and Mozart's "Non piu andrai,"
featuring Phillip Lopez.
The concert will finish with performances of excerpts from John
Williams' "The Five Sacred Trees," featuring Christopher Raymond on
bassoon, and George Enescu's "Romanian Rhapsody."
 Dr. Michael Luxner, MDSO music director and conductor, will host the
concert preview on Jan. 31 at 6:45 p.m. in Kirkland Lecture Room 128
prior to the Young Artists Concert. The event is free to concert
attendees. ABOUT THE YOUNG ARTISTS:
Brock Gwaltney began playing piano at the age of nine in his
hometown of Jacksonville, Ill. He is a recent recipient of the Alice
Herren Ayars Award, offered by Millikin to outstanding piano
students. Gwaltney is a winner of the MDSO Concerto/Aria
competition, and a Second Prize winner of the ISMTA Collegiate Piano
Competition. In 2012, he was a member of the Jazz Honors Band at the
IMEA All-State Convention.
Gwaltney's primary focus is classical music, but he also enjoys jazz
and improvisation. The MDSO concert on Jan. 31 marks his debut as a
concerto soloist.
Since entering Millikin University, Phillip Lopez has been
involved with the Millikin Opera Department, performing roles in
"Sacred & Secular Cantatas" by J.S. Bach in 2013, and "Gianni
Schicchi" by Giacomo Puccini in 2014, as well as other solo recitals
and ensemble performances. In February 2015, he will perform the
bass role of Polypheme in George Frideric Handel's "Acis and
Galatea."
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 Phillip has also been a member of the Millikin University
Choir, enjoying the choir's tour to Latvia, Lithuania, and
Estonia during the summer of 2014. In the spring of 2014,
Phillip was awarded an outstanding sophomore award from Pi Kappa
Lambda Music Honors Society. Phillip is also president of Sigma
Lambda Beta Fraternity. Christopher Raymond regularly
performs with the MDSO, the Eidolan Woodwind Quintet, and Millikin's
Symphonic Wind Ensemble, where he has held the Principal Bassoon
chair for the past four years. A two-time winner of the
Concerto/Aria competition, Chris performed Weber's "Concerto in F
Major" with the MDSO in 2013. He was also a finalist for Millikin's
Hollis Prize. Other featured appearances include performances with
the Millikin Wind Ensemble and the Kankakee Valley Symphony.
An active orchestral musician around central Illinois, Chris holds
the Principal Bassoon position with the Urbana Pops Orchestra, and
performs regularly with Sinfonia da Camera in Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
Last year, he traveled with the South Shore Orchestra of Indiana on
a tour of China.
Tickets are are available through the Kirkland Fine Arts Center
Ticket Office, by phone at 217.424.6318 or online at
kirklandfinearts.com. Ticket Office hours are Monday – Friday from
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Concerts of the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra are partially
supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency,
and the Symphony Guild of Decatur.
[Media Relations, Millikin
University]
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