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Crane School of Music Opens Spring Semester with Faculty Showcase

Professors Take Center Stage at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music in Faculty Showcase Concert on Friday, Feb. 1

Potsdam, NY (01/28/2019) — SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music will officially open the Spring 2019 semester with the annual Faculty Showcase, on Friday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater.

The performance will highlight members of Crane's illustrious faculty, including a composition by SUNY Potsdam Professor of Composition Dr. Gregory Wanamaker. The concert will also include works by American composer Tom Cipullo (2018 winner of the Pellicciotti Opera prize), Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, Austrian composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert, German composer Carl Maria von Weber, Chinese violinist and composer Chen Yi, and American legends John Lennon and Paul McCarthy.

Faculty members and ensembles scheduled to perform include: instrumentalists Lauren Becker, Karl Doty, John Ellis, Marie-Elaine Gagnon, Casey Grev, Maxwell Grube, Anna Henrickson, Julianne Kirk-Doyle, Carol Lowe, Liesl Schoenberger-Doty, and Joel Schut; pianists Gary Busch, Julie Miller, Young-Ah Tak, and Eugenia Tsarov; and vocalists Margaret Chalker, Donald George, Nicholas Kilkenny, Deborah Massell, Colleen Skull, and Lorraine Yaros Sullivan.

SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music continues to highlight a commitment to presenting a variety of musical artists who reflect the diversity of our global community. This recital features works by American composer and SUNY Potsdam Professor Gregory Wanamaker and Chinese composer Chen Yi-the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Combining athletic virtuosity and lyrical expressionism, Wanamaker's music has been called "pure gold, shot through with tenderness and grace" (San Francisco Chronicle), "achingly beautiful" (Palm Beach Daily News), "compelling" (Audiophile Audition), "outstanding" (American Record Guide) and "a technical tour de force" (Fanfare).

A strong advocate of new music, American composers, Asian composers, and women in music, Yi's music has been performed and commissioned by the world's leading musicians and ensembles, including Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Evelyn Glennie, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC, Seattle, Pacific, and Singapore Symphonies, the Brooklyn, N.Y. and LA Philharmonic, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Her music has also been recorded on many labels, including BIS Records, New Albion, CRI, Teldec, Telarc, Albany, New World, Naxos, Quartz, Delos, Angel, Bridge, Nimbus, KIC, and the China Record Company.

This concert is free, and the public is invited to attend.

This concert will be broadcast live on the SUNY Potsdam website at the performance time. To view the program and see other upcoming streaming performances, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/streaming.

For more information about SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution.

Media Attachments

Crane School of Music Visiting Assistant Professor of Saxophone Casey Grev performs on stage at Sara M. Snell Music Theater.

Tom Cipullo works on the production of “Mayo,” a groundbreaking opera that was staged on campus last semester.

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