Department of Music to present first concert of Faculty Recital Series Sept. 24

Sept. 17, 2009 --  The Department of Music at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro will present the first concert of the 2009-2010 Faculty Recital Series on Thursday, September 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Riceland Hall, Fowler Center. The concert will feature ASU music faculty members Robin Dauer, Lauren Schack Clark, Dale Clark, Marika Kyriakos, and Matthew Carey, with assistance from Sean Pollock. The concert is free of charge and open to the public. The audience is also encouraged to view the ASU Art Faculty Show in the Bradbury Gallery during intermission.

The concert will include performances of “Castel del Monte (Ballata per corno e orchestra)” by Nino Rota, performed by Robin Dauer and Lauren Schack Clark; “Mixed Metaphors for Bassoon and Piano” by Richard Applin, performed by Dale Clark and Lauren Schack Clark; “Prelude and Fugue in E-flat from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II” by Johann Sebastian Bach, “Sonata No. 3 in A Minor” by Sergei Prokofiev, and “Six Songs Without Words, Book III, Op. 38” by Felix Mendelssohn performed by Lauren Schack Clark; and “Salzburg (from Bells are Ringing)” by Jule Styne and “Wunderbar (from Kiss Me, Kate)”  by Cole Porter, performed by Marika Kyriakos, Matthew Carey, and Sean Pollock.

Dr. Lauren Schack Clark is ssociate professor of Piano and Keyboard Activities coordinator at Arkansas State University. Recent performances have included solo recitals in Naples, Italy, at Berklee College of Music, and at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. In 2008, she performed a recital at the University of Florida as part of the ASU Double Reed and Piano Trio, and she played programs with violinist Stephen Sims at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Denison University. Her solo CD was released by Centaur Records in February 2008, and contains piano music written by Boston composer Dr. Rosey Lee, on the faculty of Berklee College of Music. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University, a Master's degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Northwestern University, a graduate diploma from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass., and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Hartt School of Music. Her principle teachers were Raymond Hanson, Eda Mazo-Shlyam, Deborah Sobol, and Thomas Stumpf.

Dr. Marika Kyriakos is in her second year teaching voice and directing opera at the Arkansas State University Music Department. Though originally from Columbia, Mo., Dr. Kyriakos came to ASU from Texas, where she taught at Tarleton State University of the Texas A and M System for nine years. Her favorite projects involve studying, teaching, and performing abroad. Recent summer ventures have included leading roles with the Rome Opera Festival in Italy as well as studies and performances in Nice and Paris, France. Dr. Kyriakos collaborated in the development of a summer program with the Lorenzo de Medici school, for which she taught and performed this past June in Tuscania, Italy. Last summer she visited Greece to lay the groundwork for a study-abroad program in Athens.

Dr. Dale Clark, adjunct bassoon instructor at Arkansas State University, is principal bassoon of the Delta Symphony Orchestra, a member of the North Arkansas Symphony, and he has appeared as guest principal bassoon with the Memphis Symphony and Arkansas Symphony Orchestras. He has appeared as guest artist and master class teacher at the Cork School of Music in Cork, Ireland, and Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., among many others. In 2003 he was principal bassoon of the Sewanee Festival Orchestra and bassoon instructor at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. He is a former member of the Memphis Woodwind Quintet.

Dr. Robin Dauer is professor of Horn at Arkansas State University. He received the Bachelor of Arts from Miami University and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. He is currently a member of the ASU Brass Quintet and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Dauer’s recordings include “Horn Americana,” works for horn and piano by American composers; “Souvenir,” French pieces for horn and piano, both available from Mark Recordings; and the recently released “Alan Hovhaness: Music for Horn, Voice, and Strings” on Centaur Records.  At Arkansas State, he conducts the horn ensemble, student chamber ensembles, and teaches music appreciation.

Prof. Matthew Carey has been a member of the voice faculty at ASU since 1997. He has been the music director and conductor for the ASU Theater Department's Musical and has co-hosted the College of Fine Arts radio program "Spotlight on the Arts" on public radio NPR affiliate KASU 91.9 FM. Careu has sung with opera companies throughout the United States as well as Germany, and his leading roles include Guglielmo, Valentin, Figaro in “Barbiere di Seviglia,” Alfonso in “La Favorita” and the Heerufer in “Lohengrin” Lescaut in “Manon,” Marcello in “La Bohème,” Ford in “Falstaff,” Silvio in “I Pagliacci”   and Don Giovanni.  He has performed with the symphony orchestras of Hamburg, Kotka (Finland), Santa Barbara, the NDR Orchester of Bremen, the Delta Symphony Orchestra and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted Vocal Master Classes throughout the state of Arkansas and along with his colleague, Dr. Marika Kyriakos, he conducts a weekly Studio Class open to all voice students. He is a regular adjudicator at State and Regional NATS competitions and his students frequently reach the finals.

Sean Pollock serves as director of music and worship at First United Methodist Church, Jonesboro, where he coordinates a large and diverse music program. An accomplished coach/accompanist, he has collaborated with such performers as internationally acclaimed tenor Stuart Neill, and operatic soprano Kristine Biller Mattson. He holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from the University of Memphis and has studied piano with such teachers as J.D. Kelly, Carrie Lewis, and Joan Gilbert. He is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Choral Conducting at Arkansas State University with Dr. Dale Miller.
 

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