Monday, August 28, 2006

Wilmington, N.C. - Two exceptional performances celebrate the newly refurbished, renovated Sarah Graham Kenan Memorial Auditorium at University of North Carolina Wilmington. William Henry Curry, Resident Conductor of the North Carolina Symphony, brings the nationally renowned symphony to campus at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 21. The program will include classical favorites, selections from the music of Wagner, Grieg, Tchaikovsky and more. The event opens the North Carolina Symphony's six-concert subscription series at Kenan Auditorium. Tickets for classical favorites with William Henry Curry and the North Carolina Symphony orchestra are available at the Kenan Auditorium box office and by phone at 910.962.3500.

The campus will swing with sophisticated rhythm in Mood Indigo: Tribute to Duke Ellington at 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22. This performance features jazz vocalists Susan Reeves and Prince Taylor with the Cape Fear Jazz Orchestra under the direction of UNCW Department of Music Chair Frank Bongiorno and the UNCW Concert Choir, directed by Joe Hickman, professor of music. The program, written and narrated by biographer and Department of Creative Writing Chair Phil Furia, combines Ellington's story and music with a pictorial history of the famous composer, pianist and jazz band leader created by Laurie Patterson, Ed.D.

Charting Ellington's extraordinary musical development from the early jazz band days to the mature and powerful liturgical works composed in his latter years, this performance, created and produced through the joint efforts of the Cape Fear Jazz Society, WHQR-91.3 FM, and UNCW's Departments of Creative Writing, Music and Office of Cultural Arts, promises to be extraordinary.

For tickets and more information, contact the Kenan Auditorium Box Office at 910.962.3500 or visit www.uncw.edu/arts.

Media Contact: Courtney Reilly, UNCW Office of Cultural Arts, (p) 910.962.7416/(e) reillyce@uncw.edu

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