Author: Mark Laycock

Six student soloists will perform in concert with the WSU Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13 in Miller Concert Hall. The annual Concerto-Aria Concert will be led by Mark Laycock, director of orchestras.

The featured performers, selected by competitive audition, are among the finest upper division and graduate majors in the School of Music. The program will also include the world premiere of Labyrinth, a short work for chamber orchestra by retiring faculty composer Dean Roush.

Soloists Josephine Barstad, soprano; Aria Beert, violin; Luis Gomez, clarinet; Karla Lugo, cello; Grace Stringfellow, oboe; and Anne Yap I-Shyuen, piano, will perform works by Richard Strauss, Henryk Wieniawski, Edward Elgar, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Wolfgang Mozart and Oscar Navarro.

• Minnesota soprano Barstad is lauded for her “glorious and expressive” voice. Her authentic artistry has most recently been displayed in the title role of “Suor Angelica,” where she was described as “having a voice made for verismo.” Upcoming in the 2024 season she will perform La Contessa in “Le nozze di Figaro” and hold her Graduate Recital at Wichita State.
• Aria Beert, originally from Rockford, Illinois, has won numerous awards for her violin playing, including the Mendelssohn Performing Arts Scholarship competition, the Rockford Symphony Youth Orchestra, the American Federation of Musicians Scholarship Award, Rockford Area Music Industry Scholarship Award and Budding Artist Musician from the Kiwanis Club of Rockford.
• Luis Enrique Gomez is a graduate student at WSU completing his master’s in clarinet performance in the clarinet studio of Professor Rachelle Goter. He can currently be seen directing the WSU Shocker Sound Machine at various sporting events, as a student conductor of the WSU Symphonic Band under the direction of Dr. Timothy Shade, and playing clarinet and bass clarinet in the WSU Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra and Clarinet Quartet, as well as the Wichita Wind Symphony.
• Karla Lugo was born in Pachuca Hidalgo, Mexico, where she learned to play the cello at age 12 in the humanitarian project Sinfónica Azteca. She has won awards for second place in the National Cello Competition of La Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterrey and the scholarship Creadores Escénicos 2022 of the Support System for Cultural Creation and Projects in Mexico.
• Grace Stringfellow is an orchestral, chamber and solo performer based in Wichita. She joined the Boise Philharmonic as second oboe in September 2021 and the Wichita Symphony as second oboe in September 2022 and has been principal oboe of the Dad Village Symphony Orchestra (a virtual symphony) since March of 2020. In 2020, she won the Undergraduate Concerto Competition at the University of Colorado Boulder.
• Anne Yap I-Shyuen, a native of Malaysia, is a first-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Music in piano performance at WSU under the tutelage of Dr. Warren Kim. She earned her Bachelor of Music in piano performance and pedagogy in May 2023, having been guided by Dr. Julie Bees. Throughout this period, Anne garnered notable accolades, including the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award 2023 and the Thurlow Lieurance Outstanding 2023 Senior and 2022 Junior Awards.

Tickets are available at the Fine Arts Box Office or by calling 316-978-3233.

Mark Foley, professor of double bass, appears in concert with the WSU Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30 in Miller Concert Hall. Foley will perform his own concerto composed for the occasion. The concert, led by Mark Laycock, will also include music by Vaughan Williams.

The Little Wichita Concerto, for double bass and chamber orchestra, draws upon a wide variety of styles and influences, including jazz, rock and roll, and classical music. Foley also serves as principal bass of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and performs each summer as a member of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra in Boulder.

A mainstay of the Wichita jazz scene, Foley is a first-call bassist for club dates and sessions with local and national players. He is the founder and musical director of the Knob Festival of New Music, an annual series of concerts presenting performances of wildly diverse new works by local, national and international artists.

The concert also includes Vaughan Williams’s “A London Symphony.” Premiered in 1914, the symphony features rich melodic invention, powerful climaxes and extraordinary structural cohesion across its four movements. It was the piece the composer conducted most frequently in his appearances with orchestras around the world.

Tickets are available through the Fine Arts Box Office at 316-978-3233.

Hilary Jones, assistant professor of flute, and Dean Roush, professor of music theory and composition, will be featured in the first concert of the season by the WSU Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21 in Miller Concert Hall. The program will be led by Mark Laycock.

Jones, principal flute of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, will perform “Carmen Fantasy” by Francois Borne. Beginning her first full year on the WSU faculty, Jones maintains an active career performing and teaching throughout the US.

Roush’s composition “Ars Poetica” dates from 2011 and is based upon a poem by Tom Andrews, a cousin of the composer. Retiring at the end of this academic year, Roush is area coordinator of musicology and composition.

The concert also includes Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. Composed in 1937, ostensibly as an apology to Soviet authorities for his controversial opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District,” the work remains an unrepentant and bold testimony of an artist’s courage in the face of oppression and censure.

As an orchestral musician, Jones also holds the position of second flute with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony and regularly performs with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Riverside Symphony’s Lincoln Center series, New England Symphonic Ensemble’s residency at Carnegie Hall, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra, Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra and she is a substitute musician for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and New Haven Symphony. She was twice a fellow at the National Orchestral Institute and was also awarded a fellowship with the Talis Festival in Switzerland.

Roush earned his BFA from Ohio University, his MM from Bowling Green State University and his DMA from Ohio State University. Roush is a former National Science Foundation research associate in computer music and a former instructor of theory and composition at Bowling Green State University. He has several published research articles, compositions and arrangements. His works for solo harp have been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Israel and are recorded on the Orion label. A compact disc of his “The Dove Descending” for flute and organ has been released on the Summit Records label.

Tickets are available online at the Fine Arts Box Office or by calling 316- 978-3233.

Musical selections by Anton Bruckner and John Williams highlight the annual Oratorio Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 30 in Miller Concert Hall. The program, featuring Concert Chorale, WSU Choir, Shocker Choir and the WSU Symphony Orchestra, will be led by Mark Laycock.

Composed in 1884, Bruckner’s “Te Deum” is a song of praise featuring an ancient Latin text. Bruckner labored for three years on the piece, eventually completing his sixth and seventh symphonies before finishing the choral work. In the dozen remaining years of Bruckner’s lifetime, the piece received nearly 30 performances.

The program will also include four selections by renowned film composer John Williams: “Flight to Neverland” from Hook, “Call of the Champions” from the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, “Hymn to the Fallen” from Saving Private Ryan and “Duel of the Fates” from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Six student soloists appear in concert with the WSU Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14 in Miller Concert Hall. The program will be led by Mark Laycock, director of orchestras, and Clem Pearson, graduate student conductor. Tickets are available from the Fine Arts Box Office at 316-978-3233 or from the Fine Arts Box Office.

The annual Concerto-Aria concert features soloists selected by a competitive audition. Ottorino Respighi’s Fountains of Rome, a colorful tone poem depicting beloved Italian landmarks, will conclude the program.

• Nicholas Welicky, hornist, from Goddard, will play the finale of Richard Strauss’s horn concerto no. 1. Nick has performed with the Wichita Symphony, Wichita Regional Ballet, Wichita Youth Symphony and the Kansas All-State Orchestra. He received WSU’s 2022 Presser Scholar Award.
• Singing “Depuis le jour” from Charpentier’s opera “Louise,” Ashley Ruckman is originally from Overland Park. She is the 2022 soprano winner of the Rondelli Vocal Competition and most recently performed the role of Hester in Laitman’s “The Scarlet Letter” at WSU.
• Performing the final movement of Dvorak’s cello concerto, Mengielly Diaz Cortes is a cellist from Apizaco, Tlaxcala, Mexico. She began playing in 2014 and two years later, she entered the Preparatory Cycle of the Music School of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
• Husband and wife duo Brandon and Sarah Rodriguez play “Tarantelle” by Camille Saint-Saëns. Sarah Rodriguez is a flutist from Brandon, Florida. In 2015, Sarah had the honor of leading the Bicentennial Rosary Processional for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. In spring 2021, Rodriguez completed her bachelor’s degree in flute performance at the University of Southern Mississippi. Brandon Rodriguez is a clarinetist from Chalmette, Louisiana, specializing in jazz and classical performance. Brandon is currently pursuing his master’s degree in clarinet performance with Rachelle Goter at WSU.
• Elyssa Astegiano, clarinetist, presents Donato Lovreglio’s “Fantasia da Concerto su ‘La Traviata,’” based on melodies from Verdi’s opera. Elyssa is from Arkansas City, and has performed with the South Kansas Symphony, Friends Symphony Orchestra and Delano Chamber Players.

The WSU Symphony Orchestra will present “Ellis Island: The Dream of America” in concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in Miller Concert Hall. It is a multimedia presentation with music by Peter Boyer, narration drawn from immigrant testimonies collected in the Ellis Island Oral History Project, and historic photographs from the early twentieth century.

Dr. Cristina Castaldi and Dr. Michael Sylvester, professors of voice, will provide narration. Dr. Mark Laycock, director of orchestras, will conduct.

Boyer’s major work, “Ellis Island: The Dream of America” has become one of the most performed American orchestral works of the past 15 years, with over 250 performances by more than 100 orchestras since its 2002 premiere. Boyer’s recording of “Ellis Island” on the Naxos American Classics label was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Grammy-nominated Peter Boyer is one of the most frequently performed American orchestral composers of his generation.

Tickets ($12 for general admission with discounts available) may be purchased through the Fine Arts Box Office (978-3233 or wichita.edu/fineartsboxoffice). Students with Shocker ID get in at no additional cost.

For more information, contact Laycock at 978-6202 or mark.laycock@wichita.edu.

Faculty artist David Hunsicker, professor of trumpet, will appear as a soloist with the Wichita State University Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, at Miller Concert Hall. The concert will be led by Mark Laycock, WSU professor of Music.

During the event, Hunsicker will perform Giuseppe Tartini’s Concerto in D Major. Originally composed for solo violin, the Baroque concerto was arranged for a trumpet solo by David Hickman; it became a favorite showpiece of the French virtuoso Maurice Andre.

The program also includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5., one of the most recognizable classical compositions. The Fifth Symphony was highly innovative in its instrumentation, form, intensity and motivic concentration.

Kevin Day’s “Manhattan Nights” will open the program. Born in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1996, Day has enjoyed a meteoric rise owing to a visceral, wholly accessible compositional style.

Tickets for the event are $12 for general admission, with discounts available, and may be purchased through the Fine Arts Box Office at 316-978-3233.

For more information, contact Dr. Mark Laycock at 316-978-6202 or mark.laycock@wichita.edu.

Six student soloists will combine with Wichita State’s Symphony Orchestra for the annual Concerto-Aria Concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22 at Miller Concert Hall. The program includes music by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Kabalevsky, Donizetti, Gounod, Eric Ewazen, and Frank Martin. Director of orchestras Mark Laycock will lead the performance.

Chosen by competitive auditions, the soloists include I-Cheng Che, marimba; Kathryn Ensey, flute; Anne Yap I-Shyuen, piano; Ethan Manlove, tenor; Madison Roths, soprano; and Tyler Tuncy, horn. Graduate student conductor Clem Pearson and guest conductor Dr. Nathaniel Parker from Kennesaw State University will also appear.

WSU students with ID will be admitted free. Tickets are $12 with discounts available. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the WSU Fine Arts Box Office at 316-978-3233 or visit the Fine Arts Box Office website.

The Wichita State University Symphony Orchestra invites the campus community to sing portions of George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19 at Wiedemann Hall. The concert will be led by Dr. Mark Laycock, College of Fine Arts director of Orchestra and Strings.

An annual tradition in many communities, the “Messiah” sing-along will focus on the Christmas portion of Handel’s beloved oratorio. Concert-goers are encouraged to sit in their vocal section—soprano, alto, tenor or bass—and join in singing choruses such as  “And the Glory of the Lord,” “For unto Us a Child Is Born,” “Glory to God” and “Hallelujah.”

The concert will also feature Dr. Dean Roush, College of Fine Arts director of Musicology-Composition, accompanying the songs on the Marcussen organ. Seven student-soloists, all majoring in voice, will perform arias and recitatives.

Audience members are encouraged to bring copies of vocal scores; however, music for the choruses will be provided. Attendees also have the option of enjoying the concert as observers. Masks are required.

Tickets are $12 for general admission with discounts available and may be purchased at Fine Arts Box Office by contacting 316-978-3233 or by visiting the WSU College of Fine Arts Box Office website. For more, contact 316- 978-6202 or mark.laycock@wichita.edu.

Faculty artist Michael Sylvester, a renowned tenor who has sung leading roles in the major opera houses worldwide, will appear as soloist with the Wichita State Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, at the Miller Concert Hall. The program, featuring music by Brahms, Richard Strauss, and Gilbert and Sullivan, will be conducted by Dr. Mark Laycock, College of Fine Arts director of Orchestra and Strings.

Widely considered one of the finest lyric spinto tenors of his generation, Sylvester will sing five selections: “Traum durch die Dämmerung” and “Zueignung,” two Lieder by Richard Strauss; “Besame Mucho” by Consuelo Velázquez; “On the Street Where You Live” from the Lerner and Loewe musical “My Fair Lady;” and “When I Was a Lad” from the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera “H.M.S. Pinafore.”

The program also features Johannes Brahms’s Symphony “No. 1 in C Minor.” The composer, struggling in the shadow of Beethoven, tried in vain for over a decade to craft his first symphonic effort. The dramatic result displays Brahms’s preferences for dense, soulful lyricism and rhythmic complexity. As in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the centerpiece of the final movement is a bright, songlike melody

WSU students will valid university ID will not be charged for admission. Tickets for the event are $12, with discounts available. For more information, contact 316-978-3233 or the WSU Fine Arts Box Office.