CONCERTO AND ARIA WINNERS TO PERFORM

The four winners of Southeast Missouri State University's annual Concerto and Aria Competition will perform for the public in a concert Tuesday.

The concert, which also will feature the University Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Sara Edgerton, will begin at 8 p.m. in Academic Auditorium.

The student soloists will be Traci Baker, Kevin Hill, Patches King and Rebecca Swett.

About 15 students in all competed last fall for the honor of performing. "These are always our top students," Edgerton said. "The level of ability is very high."

Baker, a saxophonist from Cape Girardeau, has been a clinician with the Southeast Honors Wind Ensemble, plays in the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band and is the director of instrumental music at Trinity Lutheran School. She studies with Dr. David Green.

Baker's performance of the "Scaramouche" Suite for Saxophone and Orchestra by Darius Milhaud will give audiences a rare opportunity to hear an orchestral piece written for saxophone.

"It makes the sound of the orchestra quite modern," Edgerton says. "It's like getting a mixture of jazz music and the traditional sound."

Hill recently won the Missouri Music Teachers' Association Collegiate Competition as a trumpet player. He has performed with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra and studies with Dr. Marc Fulgham. He is from Jackson.

Hill's offering will be the Trumpet Concerto in E Flat Major by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

King, who is from New Cambria, is a pianist who also is a percussionist in the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Golden Eagles Marching Band, among other groups. Last summer, she performed at the Operafestival di Roma. She studies with Dr. James Sifferman.

King will play Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15.

Swett was the principal clarinetist for the Memphis Youth Symphony during its 1994-95 season. Along with university musical groups, she also performs with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. She studies with Dr. David Green as well.

Swett will play Carl Maria von Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F Minor.

"These are pieces professional soloists would choose to play, and the students are doing so well with them," Edgerton said. "We're very proud of them."

The orchestra will conclude the program with Aaron Copland's famous dance suite "Rodeo."

Tickets are $4 general admission, $2 for students and seniors and free with a university ID.