Sept. 21, 2006 - The Department of Music at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro will present the first concert in the 2006-07 Faculty Recital Series featuring Lauren Schack Clark, Dale Clark, Robin Dauer, Sherri Fincher, Richard Jorgensen, Ed Owen, and Dan Ross on Thursday, Sept. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Riceland Hall of the Fowler Center.

The concert will include Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano by Willard Elliot, Four Pieces from Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Prokofiev, Toccata by Edmund Haines, Canzon Quarta by Giovanni Gabrieli and Quartet No. 5 by Wilhelm Ramsöe.

Lauren Schack Clark, assistant professor of piano and keyboard activities supervisor at ASU, performs frequently as a soloist and collaborative artist. She was selected to perform at the 2005 TCU-Cliburn Institute Teachers Session in Fort Worth.

She has played with principle players of the Boston Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Scottish National Symphony, Slovenian Radio Symphony, Cincinnati Orchestra, Arkansas Symphony, and Memphis Symphony. She has also performed with faculty members of the Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Cincinnati College Conservatory, Oberlin College, the University of Memphis, and ASU. She concertized in Paris in 1997 in conjunction with the Institute for Advanced Vocal Study, and again at the 2001 French Piano Institute. With her husband, bassoonist Dr. Dale Clark, she has played at the Cork School of Music, Ireland, Florida State University, the University of Washington –Seattle, the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Nebraska, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Boston Conservatory.

Her students have won first prizes in competitions such as the Tennessee Music teachers Association Auditions and the Beethoven Club Competition. She is President of the Delta Music Teachers Association, chair of the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association Chamber Music and Young Artist Competitions, and has served as Secretary of The Massachusetts Music Teachers Association and the Greater Memphis Music Teachers Association.

She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University, a master’s in piano performance and pedagogy from Northwestern University, a graduate diploma from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Hartt School of Music.

Dale Clark is adjunct professor of bassoon at ASU. Formerly a Boston Lyric Opera bassoonist he has recently performed with Orquesta Sinfonica in Monterrey, Mexico and a guest artist in 2004 at Berklee College of Music in Boston and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His articles have been published in the Double Reed and his compositions, lectures and performances have been presented at conferences of the International Double Reed Society.

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Master of Music from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University. Dr. Clark is a former faculty member of Boston Conservatory, Atlantic Union College and the University of Memphis.

Robin Dauer the is associate professor of horn at ASU. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University and his Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Dauer has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the American Wind Symphony, the U.S. Continental Army Band and the Smoky Mountain British Brass Band.

He is currently a member of the ASU Brass Quintet and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Dauer’s recordings include Horn Americana and Souvenir. He conducts the horn ensemble, student chamber ensembles, and teaches music appreciation at ASU.

Sherri Fincher, assistant to the director of bands at ASU, received her Bachelor of Science in Education degree in 1998 from ASU and spent four years teaching in the public school system in southeast Missouri before returning to ASU to complete her Master of Music degree in 2004. Fincher will finish a specialist degree in Aug. of 2006 and is currently working toward a Doctorate in Music Performance degree from the University of Mississippi.

Fincher is principal trumpet of the Delta Symphony Orchestra in Jonesboro and has played second trumpet with the Pine Bluff Symphony since 1996. She also plays frequently with the Arkansas Symphony in Little Rock as a substitute and extra.

Richard Jorgensen is professor of music at ASU where he teaches trumpet. He joined the music department in 1975 and is a founding member of the ASU Brass Quintet. As a charter member of the International Trumpet Guild (ITG), he has performed at several international conferences.

In 1999, he was asked to Chair the Mock Orchestra Competition held at the ITG Conference at the University of Richmond. He also performed at the International Brass Congress at Indiana University in 1998. In 1999 he was selected to adjudicate the National Trumpet Competition held at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Jorgensen has been principal trumpet of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra since 1976. With that group he performs more than 50 concerts each year in Little Rock and other cities around the state. He is also first trumpet with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet and solo trumpet with the Arkansas Bach Chorus. In the summer, Jorgensen is the concert manager for the Interlochen Arts Festival in MI.

Ed Owen is assistant professor of music at ASU where he serves as coordinator of graduate studies, teaches applied tuba and euphonium and conducts the ASU Tuba and Euphonium Ensemble and Brass Choir.

He currently performs as principal tuba of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Brass Quintet, the Delta Symphony Orchestra and the ASU Brass Quintet. A native Arkansan, he received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education degree from Arkansas Tech University, the Master of Music in Tuba Performance and Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance and Literature degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Prior to his appointment at ASU, Dr. Owen served on the faculties of the University of Southern Mississippi, Ouachita Baptist University and Indiana State University. He has conducted tuba and euphonium ensemble concerts at the International Tuba & Euphonium Conferences in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada and Greensboro, North Carolina. An active clinician, Owen is in demand for master classes and clinics on brass performance and techniques. He has studied tuba with Andy Anders and Mark Moore.

Dr. Daniel Ross received a Bachelor of Music Education degree at ASU and a Doctorate of Arts degree from the University of Mississippi. Dr. Ross is well known throughout the double-reed world for his important research, design and construction of reed gouging machines. He performs regularly as soloist with the Forum Sinfonia of Krakow, Poland in the United States, Poland and throughout central Europe. He has performed and presented classes at numerous International Double Reed Society conventions and also teaches and presents master classes at major music schools throughout the United States.

The audience is invited to visit the Bradbury Gallery during intermission. The current exhibition is entitled Made In New Orleans: A Survey of Contemporary Art from the Crescent City and is curated by Jacqueline Bishop. It opened on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and explores contemporary art made in New Orleans before the devastation.

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information contact the Department of Music at 870-972-2094.