Sept. 9, 2016

Contact Mary Ellen Haupert at 608-796-3770 or mehaupert@viterbo.edu

VITERBO UNIVERSITY ONE-OF-A-KIND CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES OPENS WITH HERITAGE: A MOSAIC OF MUSICAL ARTISTRY SEPT. 17

LA CROSSE, Wis. – The 2016-17 Viterbo University One-of-a-Kind Chamber Music Series will open Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center Recital Hall with Heritage: A Mosaic of Musical Artistry, featuring performances by current and former faculty members of the Viterbo music department.

Performers include Jerry Benser, Mark Tollefsen, Diane Foust, Nancy Allen, Ann Elise Schoenecker, Timothy Schorr, and Mary Ellen Haupert, who will celebrate careers and lives in music through story and song. Each performer has chosen pieces that have meaning to them and will share the stories of that music and its significance.

Jerry Benser, performing with Mark Tollefsen, chose to include Libby Larsen’s Lord, Make Me an Instrument (Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi), a work that was commissioned by Benser and his wife, Caroline, in the early years of Benser’s tenure at Viterbo University. Larsen was present at the premiere on the Feast Day of St. Francis in October 1997. Benser will also perform a piece written by former student and friend, Matt Boehler ’98, entitled Beginning My Studies, which was presented to Benser as a birthday present in 2014.

Diane Foust, performing with Nancy Allen, and Ann Schoenecker, performing with Mary Ellen Haupert, chose works that were significant in defining their career paths. Haupert and Timothy Schorr will perform Rachmaninoff’s Six Morceaux, Op. 11 for piano-four hands, which Schorr performed with his high school piano teacher at Carnegie Hall and later programmed on his first collaborative four hand concert with Haupert in 2004.

The second concert of the series will take place Sunday, Nov. 13 at 3 p.m. with Czech It Out: The Music of Janáček and Dvořák featuring the Artaria String Quartet with Mary Ellen Haupert. The concert will celebrate 30 years of Artaria String Quartet. Wisconsin Public Radio is the media sponsor for the One-of-a-Kind Chamber Music performances.

Tickets are $17 for general admission seating. Season tickets are also available through Sept. 16 for the four-concert series. Season ticket packages are $58 for the four concerts, a $78 value. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the Viterbo box office at 608-796-3100 or visit www.viterbo.edu/tickets.

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