FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        February 20, 2008

TWO TO PRESENT CLASSICAL PIANO CONCERT AT NORTHWESTERN

            The beautiful music of a classical piano piece will be doubled when Dr. Ling-Yu Kan and Dr. Rodney Murrow present a concert at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

            Kan, assistant professor of music, and Murrow, professor of music and associate dean of graduate studies, will be on stage at Herod Hall Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 6.

            The program includes three chorale preludes by Johann Sebastian Bach and arranged by Leonard Duck—“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” “Sheep May Safely Graze” and “Sleepers, Wake.” This will be a piano duet, with Kan and Murrow playing the same piano.

            The preludes will be followed by “Sonata in C Major” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arranged for two pianos by Edvard Grieg. Murrow noted that there will be a special twist in the playing of this piece.

            “The Mozart sonata is familiar to many young students of piano who play the piece in their own piano study,” he said. “In this arrangement, however, we actually will be playing the music of two composers from two entirely different historical eras. Mozart (1756-1791) represents for many the peak of creativity in the Classical era. Grieg was a composer of the Romantic era and was active some 75 years after Mozart’s death.

            “In this arrangement, Dr. Kan will be playing the sonata as Mozart composed it; I’ll be playing a second part that Grieg composed as an ‘accompaniment’ to the sonata.”

            The last presentation before intermission will be three military marches by Franz Schubert, also a piano duet.

            After intermission, Kan and Murrow will complete the concert with “Suite No. 2, Opus 17,” by Sergei Rachmaninoff played on two pianos.

            Murrow said he and Kan are grateful to the Northwestern Foundation and the university administration for supporting the concert by providing funds for the rental of a Steinway concert grand piano from the Edmond Music Company.

-NW-

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