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Senior Li Kuang Chosen as Finalist in the Frank Smith Trombone Competition

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Senior trombone major Li Kuang is chosen as one of three finalists in the Frank Smith Trombone Competition, sponsored by the International Trombone Association.  Li was chosen from a pool of thirty-nine applicants who submitted a recording of Ewazen’s Sonata for Trombone. He will perform and compete in the final round at the International Trombone Festival in Nashville this June.

(Submitted by William Mathis)

Pianist Robert Levin takes the stage in BGSU Festival Series Feb 5.

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Versatile pianist Robert Levin will be the next performer in Bowling Green State University’s Festival Series. Levin will be in concert at 8 p.m. Feb. 5 in Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.

The program will feature works by Mozart, spanning his Bach- and Handel-influenced period. Although Mozart is generally thought of as a composer of the Viennese classical style, his father, who provided him with his beginning musical education, passed down his vast knowledge of the baroque tradition.

“Prelude and Fugue in C major” K.394, blends Mozart’s 1782 language with Baroque turns of phrase, while “Adagio variée” in F major” is often described as a somewhat “odd” composition because of its elaborate ornamentation. “Suite K. 399” is sometimes subtitled “In the style of Handel” because of Mozart’s ability to unite baroque flourishes with classical chordal vocabulary.

Levin is one of America’s leading keyboard players in the early instruments movement, but maintains a large repertory in all major periods and genres of piano music. He is equally at home at the harpsichord, the fortepiano, and the standard pianoforte, and as a recitalist, concerto performer and accompanist.

He has recorded the complete Bach concertos as well as the “English Suites” and “The Well-Tempered Clavier.” Other recordings include a Beethoven concerto cycle, and a Mozart concerto cycle with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music.

While at BGSU, Levin will also present a master class for participants in the David D. Dubois Piano Festival and Competition that takes place Feb. 4 and 5, and a lecture-presentation titled “Embellishment, Improvisation and Cadenzas in Mozart.”

Hosted by the College of Musical Arts, the Dubois piano competition provides a number of scholarship opportunities for high school students to attend BGSU and encourages undergraduate piano students to develop innovative programming ideas for outreach projects in addition to allowing current students to participate in music festivals around the world.

For ticket information, call the box office weekdays from noon-6 p.m. at 1-800-589-2224 or 419-372-8171, or e-mail musictickets@bgsu.edu

(Submitted by Susan Knapp)