ELLISVILLE – Jones College’s School of Art, Music, and Performance recently hosted the Hattiesburg Music Teachers League’s “Composer Festival” with about 300 students and guests in the audience for performances participating over the two-day event. On Friday, about 30 teachers attended guest composer and speaker, Kevin Olson’s sessions on topics such as, “Creativity Explosion” and “Teaching and Retaining the Gen Z Student.” The rest of the festival featured piano students from across the state performing compositions by a contemporary composer whom they also had the opportunity to meet in person.
Piano students from the studios of Laura Broughton, Joanna Burnside, Anne Kathryn DeViney, Marilyn Huff, Victoria Johnson, Elizabeth Moak, and Theresa Sanchez participated in the 40th annual Composer Festival. This was the first time Jones College hosted the event. Additionally, Jones College Visual Art instructors, Mark Brown and Melanie Eubanks judged a poster contest featuring the artwork of 18 students. Winning First Place was John Bridges from Hattiesburg with Second Place going to Hattiesburg’s Georgia Belknap and Claire Lin of Hattiesburg took Third Place. Receiving Honorable Mention were John Howell, Aiyana Li and Kahlan Nguyen, all of Hattiesburg.
