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Concerto Concert is climax to School of Music seasonApril 5, 2006 KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University's School of Music presents its 47th Annual Concerto Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 9, in Miller Auditorium. Admission is free. The concert is the symbolic climax to the 2005-06 season for the School of Music and features the University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bruce Uchimura, and three outstanding student soloists. This year's concerto competition winners are pianist Naoko Imafuku, a graduate student from Kumamoto, Japan; cellist Ellen Nettleton, a graduate student from Wyoming, Ohio; and saxophonist Henning Schroder, a graduate student from Schortens, Germany. The Concerto Concert will begin with the "Jubilee Overture" by Carl Maria von Weber. Composed in 1818 for the 50th year of the reign of Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, it features the famous "God Save the Queen" theme. The final work on the concert will be Camille Saint-Saens' famous Third Symphony, subtitled "The Organ" Symphony because of its prominent use of the instrument. This is one of the composer's most innovative and original works and is a brilliant orchestral showpiece. Dr. Karl Schrock, organist, will be the featured performer. Naoko Imafuku will perform the first movement from "Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor" by Johannes Brahms. A student of WMU Professor Lori Sims, Imafuku received her bachelor's degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, graduating with honors. Her previous teachers include Daniel Shapiro, Thomas Lymenstull, Mie Yoshioka, and Natsuki Yoshioka. In addition to winning WMU's concerto competition, Imafuku has received awards from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy. She is the Phyllis Rappeport Opera Accompanying Scholarship recipient and holds a graduate assistantship in the WMU School of Music. She is the daughter of Masayoshi and Masumi Imafuku of Kumamoto, Japan. Ellen Nettleton has selected the first movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's "Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major" for the April 9 concert. Nettleton began playing cello at age 10 under the instruction of Alberta Schneider at Wyoming (Ohio) Middle School. Private teachers include Elizabeth Mendoza, Laura McLellan, the late Dr. Steven Shumway, and Pansy Chang. In 2003, she won the concerto competition at Miami University as a junior, and in 2004, she won the undergraduate artist's competition at Miami. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from Miami and is finishing her master's degree in performance with WMU Professor Bruce Uchimura. Nettleton is assistant principal cello in the West Shore Symphony Orchestra and a graduate assistant for Uchimura. She aspires to teach her own studio at a university. She is the daughter of Peter and Julie Nettleton of Wyoming, Ohio. Henning Schroder will perform Alexander Glazunov's "Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra in E-Flat Major." A student of WMU Professor Trent Kynaston, Schroder has also studied saxophone with Hermann Cordes and Johannes Ernst, and has participated in master classes presented by the Rascher Saxophone Quartet, Arno Bornkamp, Claude Delangle, Jean-Yves Fourmeau, and Jean-Marie Londeix. Concerts throughout Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia as a soloist, chamber musician, and in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra include appearances at such events as the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and the 1997 World Saxophone Congress in Valencia. Schroder also took part in world premieres and world premiere recordings of pieces by Jean Francaix, Christian Lauba, and Rolf Rudin. At the XIII World Saxophone Congress in Minneapolis in 2003, Schroder and his duo partner, pianist Yu-Lien The, premiered the "Slawische Rhapsodie" by Viktor Ullmann in the version for saxophone and piano. From 2003 to 2005 Schroder taught saxophone, clarinet, chamber music, and musicology at Universitas Pelita Harapan in Jakarta, Indonesia. He is currently pursuing both his artist diploma, from the Universitat der Kunste Berlin, and master's degree, from Western Michigan University. He is the son of Werner and Ingeborg Schroder of Schortens, Germany. Media contact: Kevin West, (269) 387-4678, kevin.west@wmich.edu WMU News |
