ELLISVILLE – This year’s Spring Recital Series will fill the air with a variety of music for four weeks in March and April on the Jones College campus. The musical “feast,” featuring musicians from the region and music from around the world and composed centuries ago, can be heard on Fridays in the Foote Chapel on the campus of Jones College in Ellisville. The annual Spring Recital Series begins on Friday, March 22, at 12:30 p.m. until 1 p.m., and will continue each Friday through April 19, except for Good Friday/Easter weekend. All concerts are free and open to the public. For more information call the JC Fine Arts Department at 601-477-4203 or online at https://www.facebook.com/JCJCFineArts/
On Friday, March 22, at 12:30 p.m. in theFoote Chapel, the Series opens with, “Songs of Love, Light, and Spring,” featuring soprano, Susan Ruggiero-Mezzadri and Brian Murphy as her piano accompanist. This delightful recital features music by George Frideric Handel, Gioachino Rossini, and Florence Price and will include well-loved soprano arias as well as lesser-known music about spring by Heitor Villa-Lobos. The program will also include a premier of a new work by American composer Luigi Zaninelli called, “Spring Song.”
Susan Ruggiero, Associate Professor of music at William Carey University, has performed as a principal artist with New Orleans Opera, Mississippi Opera, Kentucky Opera, Natchez Opera, Opera South, Wildwood Opera, Blue Lake Opera, and Opéra Louisiane. She is the recipient of numerous honors including Shreveport Opera’s Singer of the Year Competition (First Place), the Mozart Award in the National Orpheus Vocal Competition, two-time District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a Tanglewood Fellowship. Her accompanist, Brian Murphy is active as a soloist, collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and pedagogue. He has performed as a soloist and as a collaborative pianist, presenting masterclasses across the United States, Mexico, Chile, Germany, and Italy. Murphy is on faculty at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he teaches applied piano, piano-related classes and music history, as well as collaborates with singers, instrumentalists, choral ensembles, and Carey
Opera. In recognition of his teaching, Brian has been awarded four Top Music Teacher awards by Steinway and Sons.
The Friday, April 5, at 12:30 p.m. recital in the Foote Chapel, features theImpromptu Piano Trio with Borislava Iltcheva on violin, Alexander Russakovsky on cello and Theresa Sanchez playing piano. This trio has been performing together for a number of years and is featured on the Mississippi Arts Commission Touring Artist Roster. Their program this year includes beautiful trios by Mozart and the Spanish composer, Joaquin Turina.
Borislava Iltcheva started playing the violin at age of five, earning a bachelor’s degree from the Bulgarian National Academy, and master’s and doctorate degrees in violin performance from Louisiana State University. Her principal violin teachers include Alexander Iltchev, Evgenia Maria Popova, Kevork Mardirossian and Mauricio Fuks. Borislava holds prizes from several National and International Competitions and has an active schedule as a soloist and chamber musician. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Violin at USM.
A graduate of Yale University and the University of Santa Barbara, Alexander Russakovsky has appeared in numerous solo and chamber music performances in Russia, Israel, Europe and the United States. A founding member of the Jerusalem Academy String Quartet, he also performed in the Chamber Music Series of the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Barge Music in New York City, and the Western Slope Music Festival in Colorado. In the fall of 2001, Dr. Russakovsky joined the music faculty of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
Pianist Theresa Sanchez pursues a varied performing career as a soloist and collaborative musician. She has performed as a soloist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (including the Southern Nights CD) and The Wind Ensemble. She has been a faculty member at Jones College since 1995 and is a past president of the Mississippi Music Teachers Association. She currently serves as Classical and Chamber Music Coordinator for the Hattiesburg Concert Association and FestivalSouth and is listed on the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Touring Artist Roster. She has been named an MTNA Fellow in 2024 by the Music Teachers National Association.
A “youthful” and “brassy” program is next on the list of musical performances with the Southern Arts Brass Quintet’s program, on Friday, April 12, at 12:30 p.m. in the Foote Chapel. Their program will include music from Baroque composer Samuel Scheidt, as well as 20th century music and even a transcription of the popular, “You Make Me Feel So Young.” The quintet is comprised of trumpet players, T.J. Tesh and Rob Smith, Robert Detjen on horn with Ben McIlwain on trombone and Richard Perry playing tuba. The Southern Arts Brass Quintet is a faculty brass quintet in residence at the University of Southern Mississippi. Founded in 1972, the quintet has performed throughout Mississippi and the Southern United States. Members of the quintet are full-time artist faculty at USM.
Dr. T.J. Tesh is a Grammy-nominated trumpeter, Yamaha and Pickett Brass Performing Artist, and serves as Associate Professor of Trumpet at The University of Southern Mississippi. He relocated to Mississippi after an exciting career as a freelance trumpeter and music educator in the Los Angeles area. Dr. Tesh has enjoyed an eclectic performance career, having performed with music legends like Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, and many others.
Rob Smith is a doctoral student at the University of Southern Mississippi School of Music. As a performer, Smith has appeared in various performance settings spanning several styles and genres from orchestral and chamber music to jazz, pop, and contemporary music. He has performed with such groups as the Meridian Symphony Orchestra, the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Reno Jazz Orchestra, and many more.
Rob Detjen is the Assistant Professor of Music for Horn at the University of Southern Mississippi. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and earned his DMA from the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Detjen is an active educator and performer and is currently serving as fourth horn of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and second horn of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra and Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra.
An avid supporter of modern music, Dr. Ben McIlwain has commissioned and premiered over fifty works for trombone. A Performing Artist for S.E. Shires Trombones and Professor of Music at Southern Miss, he released his debut solo album, Indefatigable, with colleagues Ellen Elder and Jackie McIlwain in 2022. This album was named a Global Music Awards winner for Outstanding Achievement (Instrumentalist) in 2022.
Richard Perry is Associate Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he directs the tuba-euphonium ensemble and performs with the Southern Arts Brass Quintet. He was previously on the faculties of the University of Montevallo and Birmingham-Southern College. Dr. Perry’s primary interests are the tuba-euphonium ensemble, and the use of the tuba in jazz. He was one of the founding members of the Modern Jazz Tuba Project, a professional jazz tuba ensemble that released two critically acclaimed recordings (Live at the Bottom Line and Favorite Things).
A combination of French and Russian musical cuisine will be served up for the final event in the Spring Recital Series on Friday, April 19, at 12:30 p.m., in the Foote Chapel. The program, “Virtuosic Chamber Music: French and Russian Classics” will be performed by Kenneth Graves on clarinet, with Taylor Shorey on bassoon and accompanied by Tyler Kemp on piano. This musical delight includes two wonderful examples of chamber music works from the 19th and 20th Century, respectively, that showcases the virtuosity and beauty of these instruments. The program is a collaboration of several local professional musicians and teachers living in the Jackson area.
Kenneth Graves is the Principal Clarinet of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and Meridian Symphony Orchestra. Kenneth graduated from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati where he studied with Richie Hawley. He also completed a Master of Music degree at the University of Southern California and additional post-graduate studies at the Colburn School where he studied with Yehuda Gilad. As a concerto soloist, he has performed with orchestras across the South including performances with the Alabama, Pensacola, and Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestras, and he has held fellowships at the Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra, and the National Orchestral Institute.
Taylor Shorey is the Principal Bassoonist of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and the Mississippi Symphony Wind Quintet. Prior to his time in Mississippi, Taylor performed regularly as a freelance musician from coast to coast, appearing with Orchestras throughout the Midwest, North Florida, Washington DC, Honolulu and Los Angeles metro areas. In his studies, Taylor attended Florida State University, The Colburn Conservatory, and the Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music studying with Jeff Keesecker, Richard Beene, Martin Garcia and Christopher Sales respectively. During his time at the Colburn School Taylor attended the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge Colorado, where he performed as a featured soloist with the orchestra.
Tyler Kemp is a pianist, collaborator, and music director based in Jackson. Known for artistry and creativity in a wide range of musical styles and genres, he is at home in classical, musical theatre, jazz, pop, and worship music. Kemp maintains an active performance calendar, works on the music faculty at Mississippi College, and he serves as worship director at Bellwether Church. He earned degrees in Piano Performance (B.M. and M.M.) from Mississippi College.